Create concept maps using SlateBox.

SlateBox is another online solution to your student brainstorming and research projects.  This is extremely easy to use and in moments you can have a complete concept map that can be embedded and downloaded as an image.  Even though the program is great, there are a few glitches.  For some reason when I try to export the image, some of the embedded images refused to show up.  Also I couldn't get the embed code to work properly.  If you have any luck with it, let me know.  Inside the program though it works flawlessly.  I should also note that I couldn't get it to work with Google Chrome, but that may be because of the newest update in Chrome.  It works great though with Internet explorer.

Tutorial

1.  Once you go to www.slatebox.com just click the "Try now" button.

2.  Click the "New Slate" highlighted link to get going.

3.  Give your slate a name and description, then click the "create" button.

4.  Hover over your first "Node" and you will see three icons appear.  The gear shaped icon is your "Node's" setting button.  The right arrow will duplicate the node.  The bottom arrow will create a new attached child node.

5.  Double click on the "node" to open up the window that allows you to edit your node name, size and color.

6.   Lets start by clicking on the Gear icon.  You will now get a series of options.  You should play with them all to familiarize yourself with them.  You can see that you can change the font color and shape of your "nodes." You can add links, embed images in your nodes and draw lines from one node to another within the settings box.

7.  Once you are done you can go to the top of the screen, where you can create a new one, try embedding your image, export it as an image (you will need to manually add the .png string.), and change the properties such as the name and description of your concept map.