Maps are awesome devices for displaying visual relationships between elements. The potential uses of maps for this purpose are pretty much limitless. One useful map I've found it handy to employ on several occasions is what I call the historical relationship map. This type of map basically draws the user's attention to the influence one node had over another. If you are studying the US Civil War, for instance, a historical relationship map would be an ideal way to view the events that led to those initial shots fired at Fort Sumter. I see this as much more exciting and dynamic than a static outline or even a timeline. With a map, either hand-drawn or electronic, there is so much more rich detail you can add.
Let's take one of those initial events of the Civil War and just list it out like you might see it in a text book:
When Abraham Lincoln, a known opponent of slavery, was elected president, the South Carolina legislature perceived a threat. Calling a state convention, the delegates voted to remove the state of South Carolina from the union known as the United States of America. The secession of South Carolina was followed by the secession of six more states -- Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas -- and the threat of secession by four more -- Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. These eleven states eventually formed the Confederate States of America.
compiled by Joanne Freeman
OK...so this lays out some key drivers of the initial tension between the North and South. While factual, it certainly isn't memorable, at least compared to the power of a map. This is how I might look at this in a visual way.
For me, this simple image (put together in a few minutes in MindManager), conveys powerful meaning and makes these facts much more relevant to me. In addition, by using floating topics and connecting them with relationship arrows that denote the flow of time, I know I will be much more likely to remember the order of factors that precipitated this tragic conflict.
The concept behind historical relationship maps is simple. Lay out the various elements that are related and use arrows between the topics to denote the flow of the relationship. Usually, I create these maps when I want to highlight how the various nodes of the map influenced the concepts included in the other nodes. A really great pop culture example of this idea is the "flowchart" that Jack Black's character created in School of Rock. On the board, he constructed a visual representation of the "History of Rock" and included many of the different genres along with representative artists in that genre. Here's a screen shot of that chalk board from the movie:
Sweet, huh? What a great example of visual mapping in action! Just because I thought it would be fun and to highlight the ability of MindManager to build maps that can have some great visuals, I recreated this chalk board scene in a map. Check out the graphic or feel free to download it (see the bottom of this entry) and explore in detail within MindManager. In the next post, I'll talk about some of the key features used in creating this map.
I've found that historical relationship maps provide a very strong foundation for me when trying to remember how one event influenced another, so I encourage you to play with the idea and see what kind of cool stuff you can envision. Until next time...Rock On!
