FLOWCHART

Homepage: http://www.flowchart.com/

Tool Category/ies: Critical Thinking   Problem Solving   Presentation   Productivity  

License Type: Free

 

Overall Rating

 

4/5

Description

 

Flowchart.com is an online multi-user, real-time collaboration flow charts service. All collaborating parties can chat and design flow charts at the same time. You can also record and playback your flowchart creation process. Final flowcharts can be exported as PNG picture or a PDF. It is a web-based program and works in all the browsers.

Flowchart Interface

Adding clip arts in Flowchart

 

 

1 of 3

Reviews

 

Rating: 4/5

Reviewed by: Ameet Nagpal on 05/02/2013


Description
Flowchart.com is a powerful online flow charts service that works on all major web browsers. It allows multiple users to collaborate online in real-time to create flowcharts and mindmaps. Thousands of built-in cliparts are also available to add visual aid to the design of flowcharts. Collaborate sessions can also be recorded for later viewing and final products can be exported as PDFs or PNG picture files. It is a free tool and does not require any download.

Resources required to use Flowchart
To use flowchart.com, you need a computer, an e-mail address to set up your account, and an internet connection.  You also have to be somewhat savvy with the use of your computer because the tool is not as intuitive as many of the other tools that we have discussed during this semester, as you can see.

How to use Flowchart in a teaching environment
I found a great flowchart that educators can use for copyright and licensing on scribd.com.  I found it by googling educational resource with flowchart and it was one of the first links as seen here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/55013860/IPR-Flowchart-for-Copyright-Clearance-for-educators

Advantages of using Flowchart
I feel that the advantages of this tool are that it is a good flowchart creator and the fact that you can use it to communicate with others and turn it into a classroom, as I discussed above.

Disadvantages of using Flowchart
Overall, I would not recommend flowchart.com because it is difficult to use, it is a bit clunky when you begin typing into the charts and boxes, and I do not feel that it is any better than any of the other Web 2.0 Tools that are being blogged about this week.  In order to develop an account, you need to be e-mailed a link to get to the account creation page which is highly unusual.  The product itself just seems like is not aesthetically pleasing and too difficult to use given that there are so many simpler tools out there.

 

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