Category Archives: Technology

The function of a School IT Manager

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Harwell Thrasher’s Hierarchy of Business IT Needs sounds plausible: it makes sense that some IT activities are necessary foundations for others. Thrasher models his idea on Maslow’s hierarchy of psychological needs, a hypothesis that people strive for higher-level needs unless hindered by unmet lower-level needs.

Credit: www.makingitclear.com

This model is fairly easy to relate to school IT operations, and leads to insights about the function of an IT Manager. Some examples: Continue reading →

XMind v Inspiration

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Today I trialled XMind 3.1 side-by-side with Inspiration 9.

XMind Free advantages

  1. The free version is not time-bombed. (Contrast with the Inspiration trial version which is limited to 30 days.)
  2. Drill down. This is fantastic!
  3. Tag objects with multiple images – flags, emoticons, or imported images.
  4. It is possible to exactly position objects and connectors (unlike Inspiration)
  5. Fishbone and Spreadsheet views are interesting and useful
  6. Better Import and Export formats. For example, the HTML export includes the full text, not just an image of the map.
XMind

XMind

Inspiration 9 advantages

  1. Cuter, less intimdating appearance. (XMind uses palettes of properties which are convenient but unfamiliar to children.)
  2. Text can be edited in the Outline view.
  3. I found it slightly easier to link and reposition objects in Inspiration than Xmind.
  4. Each object can be represented as a picture. There is a reasonably small collection of standard pictures available on screen.
  5. Inspiration’s export to Word quickly produces a respectable looking document.
  6. Presentation mode is like a lite PowerPoint.
Inspiration

Inspiration

Webspiration

Webspiration is a browser-based, hosted version of Inspiration. Data is stored ‘in the cloud’ (ie. by the server) and easily shared with other users. Sadly, it is currently too slow for satisfactory use. (Doubling the CPU speed, RAM and broadband speed makes no difference; the bottleneck is presumably at the server.)

Kidspiration

Kidspiration is a simplified version of Inspiration with a lower emphasis on text. For primary school users, it is the best of all options.

Visio

I have been in a school where the it was cheaper to add Microsoft Visio to the school’s site license than Inspiration. It is much easier to handle rearrangement of objects and links in Visio. Visio is obviously preferable for complex models, diagrams where dimensions are important, or knowledge that is not hierarchical. (In the mind-map programs above, data is organised as a tree.) However, Visio cannot compete with dedicated mindmap software for managing text.

References

  1. Softonic 2010. Comparison of XMind with other programs. http://xmind.en.softonic.com/compare/inspiration,lupo-pensuite
  2. XMind 2010. Better Mind mapping. http://www.xmind.net/
  3. Inspiration 9 Software, 2010. Inspiration 9. http://www.inspiration.com/Inspiration