I recently used MindMeister in my classroom with my ninth grade English students, and I really liked it! I have included a link to a recent website I created that touches on a lesson in which I used this app: https://sites.google.com/a/hcpss.me/technolog

The depths of the app are well beyond the skills of an average 5th grader, but it's intuitive enough that students were able to map out thoughts, then elaborate on and restructure their ideas in a much more systematic way. Note-taking is often daunting to students and Mindmeister made students feel that its okay to have scattered thoughts and that its more important to get ideas "out of your head" so you can really see them graphically. In the free version there are limited bells and whistles, but there is more than enough to engage the students. I want to try this with multiple classes so that they can use the thumbs up or down feature as well as the comment or response features.

I think this product has a lot of potential. There are a lot of features to uncover, so it may take a little time for students to get comfortable using it. However, the ends would certainly justify the means. The fact that documents can be shared serves as a an important tool to promote collaboration and social learning of concepts.

I like this product. It is very easy to use and best of all - it is free. I've tried to use other websites to create a concept map and they were confusing and difficult to use. With MIndMeister, you have the opportunity to export your mind concept map in various ways.