Assignment – Reflection – Mind mapping

by Wellington Silva

1. Challenge

There are many actions that we want to do but we are insecure, however if we use the

correct methods we can facilitate the way we carry out our projects. I have a research project that needed to be done, but I was unsure. However, I realized that I could overcome this challenge by using some sort of tool because I knew what I needed to do, but I needed to keep everything organized in the sequence of steps and relationships between ideas. The project was a research on social entrepreneurship and its relation to social innovation. The purpose was to make an article that could  bring  the  relationships  between  the  dimensions  and  concepts  involved  in  the  social entrepreneurship and social innovation from the studies made in the two themes. So what was needed had already been done that was the study of the two themes, but what was missing was to make the relationship between the two. Hence the need for a tool to assist in this process and to achieve better success in this challenge.

2. Selection

From the characteristics of the presented challenge, the best way I found to unite the

concepts of social entrepreneurship and social innovation was to use the mind mapping tool. As said in the course video: "Mind Mapping is looking for patterns and insights in a large amount of data collected during your exploration of what the current reality is" and in this sense the large amount of readings I performed needed this kind of exploration and Analysis trying in a more synthetic and visual way to identify the common points for the approaches of the chosen themes. In this sense, the selection of the tool was adequate for this phase of the solution of the problem for the creation of the article because it shapes what is needed for this moment.

3. Application

After selecting the tool, checking its potential for the exploration phase and its need to create

the article, it was possible to see its effective action for the moment. However, the way the tool was applied required the use of technological resources, since it was necessary to install a computer program that could help in the construction of the mind map of the article. I searched the internet for an application and found Mindmap Maker that is installed in Google Chrome and from there I was inserting the concepts of social entrepreneurship and social innovation and searching for their connections. First, in the center was placed the social entrepreneurship and from there I was separating the connections that were related to entrepreneurship in general and social action also in general, seeking out and separating in us distinct what would be more distant from the central term And closer to other terms.

4. Insight

The contribution that the application of the tool brought as insight into finishing the

development  of  the  connections  of  the  terms  for  the  article  was  the  direct  relation  that entrepreneurship causes in relation to social innovation, but that helped me to organize the ideas of a more hierarchical way verifying what Which was more important and was close to the concept, as well as what was further away from the concept and could not have a prominence in the article. Another important point is also that the concepts that were closer in the mapping brought a sense of what thematic field could be developed. In this way, the dispersion in the readings made for the two terms was reduced with time and with the completion of the mind map.

5. Approach

The way the work was developed had an approach based on the concepts and their relations

given the objective that was to construct an article for this purpose. However, this approach may be different and in other works can be modified. For example, instead of a relationship between concepts, the tool may have the same purpose, but instead of relating the concepts, a network of connections may also be made looking for the relationships between authors. Thus, this other approach may also serve to verify which connections from the point of view of the authors' schools or lines of thought.

Finally, to the end that was applied the tool perfectly served the purpose and brought more

dynamics  to  the  process  of  linking  ideas  to  the  research  project.  Therefore,  because  of  its effectiveness, it will also be used at other times when there is a similar problem. The experience was very successful and motivating.

