Example Reflection – Mind Mapping 

 1 . Challenge 

 To give you an idea of my current situation I would like to start with this : I am currently   writing my master thesis and I am expecting to finish my studies in december . My studies   ( Political Economics and International Relations ) have nothing to do with the topics I am   really interested in . For the past year I worked as a coach beside my master studies to help   and support other students . I realized that my work really helped these people but   something felt wrong to me .    So there I was on the verge of graduating , not exactly knowing what I really want to do . As a   consequence I sat down and tried to apply the knowledge I gained from this course to solve   my problem of not knowing what I want to do after graduating . 

 2 . Selection 

 As I was thinking about my problem and which of the different tools might be best to solve it ,   I figured that the mind mapping tool might be best – because of two reasons : ( 1 ) I used this   tool in the past many times in a very basic way and it worked really well , ( 2 ) I really thought   that Michelle Raja quote of David Kelley ( the founder of IDEO ) was very intriguing : „ When I   want to do something analytical , I make a list . When I am trying to do something creative , I   make a mind map “ . It fits perfectly because I think that my problem needs to be tackled in a   creative way , because it involves so many different components .    But how does the mind mapping tool actually work : The mind mapping tool of design   thinking differs from the „ normal “ tool of mind mapping you normally use on your own . In   design thinking , mind mapping is used to work with data that we collected before with the   goal in mind to get insights and uncover connections and patterns . This process includes the   consultation of other people to help you figure out all of these connections . 

 3 . Application 

 So the application was a bit difficult because I did n’t have a team to work with and I guess   this is a thing that could be counted a negative . As a first step I decided that I wanted to ask   some close friends and familiy members to help me . I talked with them individually and   asked them questions about what they think are my strengths and weaknesses , what they   think would suit me , what areas I need to improve and other questions in this kind of   fashion . There was a big advantage , because all of these people know me really well , so input   from them was very specific and also offered a wide variety of different thoughts that I   needed analyze .    In the second step I took my white board and blank sheets of paper to write those new   insides   down and added my own thoughts and ideas to them . So as I was sitting in front of   all of my data I started analyzing all of the different ideas and after a while I started seeing a   common theme / connection between all those different data points . So I visualized all the   connections and patterns on my white board and all the sheets of paper with different colors   and pinned idex cards on them .    In a third step , I wrote my findings down and summarized the different potential career   paths on seperate sheets of paper .    In the fourth step I spoke again with some close friends and family to present them my   findings and ideas and asked them again for their feedback and opinions on my ideas . In the   end I figured that two potential paths seemed right for me . 

 I think the tool was applied effectively , although I have to say that I modified it to be able to   use it . I think that it is a great strength of this tool , being able to modify it , but not changing   the overall concept oder idea of it . 

 4 . Insight 

 I touched the point of insight in the previous segment , but I think I have to get a bit more   precise . I believe that because of the different steps , the analysis , the conversations , the   writing and sorting process I got a much clearer understanding of the things that matter most   to me and where I my strenghts really are . It helped me gaining a lot of insight and showed   me that it is important to expand your field of view and think about things you never thought   before . 

 5 . Approach 

 The next time I need to solve a similar problem , I would use the the same tool again ,   although I would try to get a team and some people I do n’t know , to get an even more   diverse pool of input and ideas . I believe that the tool of mind mapping is very good because   it gives you the possibility of working in an creative but also analytical way . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Example Reflection – Mind Mapping 

 1 . Challenge 

 To give you an idea of my current situation I would like to start with this : I am currently   writing my master thesis and I am expecting to finish my studies in december . My studies   ( Political Economics and International Relations ) have nothing to do with the topics I am   really interested in . For the past year I worked as a coach beside my master studies to help   and support other students . I realized that my work really helped these people but   something felt wrong to me .    So there I was on the verge of graduating , not exactly knowing what I really want to do . As a   consequence I sat down and tried to apply the knowledge I gained from this course to solve   my problem of not knowing what I want to do after graduating . 

 2 . Selection 

 As I was thinking about my problem and which of the different tools might be best to solve it ,   I figured that the mind mapping tool might be best – because of two reasons : ( 1 ) I used this   tool in the past many times in a very basic way and it worked really well , ( 2 ) I really thought   that Michelle Raja quote of David Kelley ( the founder of IDEO ) was very intriguing : „ When I   want to do something analytical , I make a list . When I am trying to do something creative , I   make a mind map “ . It fits perfectly because I think that my problem needs to be tackled in a   creative way , because it involves so many different components .    But how does the mind mapping tool actually work : The mind mapping tool of design   thinking differs from the „ normal “ tool of mind mapping you normally use on your own . In   design thinking , mind mapping is used to work with data that we collected before with the   goal in mind to get insights and uncover connections and patterns . This process includes the   consultation of other people to help you figure out all of these connections . 

 3 . Application 

 So the application was a bit difficult because I did n’t have a team to work with and I guess   this is a thing that could be counted a negative . As a first step I decided that I wanted to ask   some close friends and familiy members to help me . I talked with them individually and   asked them questions about what they think are my strengths and weaknesses , what they   think would suit me , what areas I need to improve and other questions in this kind of   fashion . There was a big advantage , because all of these people know me really well , so input   from them was very specific and also offered a wide variety of different thoughts that I   needed analyze .    In the second step I took my white board and blank sheets of paper to write those new   insides   down and added my own thoughts and ideas to them . So as I was sitting in front of   all of my data I started analyzing all of the different ideas and after a while I started seeing a   common theme / connection between all those different data points . So I visualized all the   connections and patterns on my white board and all the sheets of paper with different colors   and pinned idex cards on them .    In a third step , I wrote my findings down and summarized the different potential career   paths on seperate sheets of paper .    In the fourth step I spoke again with some close friends and family to present them my   findings and ideas and asked them again for their feedback and opinions on my ideas . In the   end I figured that two potential paths seemed right for me . 

 I think the tool was applied effectively , although I have to say that I modified it to be able to   use it . I think that it is a great strength of this tool , being able to modify it , but not changing   the overall concept oder idea of it . 

 4 . Insight 

 I touched the point of insight in the previous segment , but I think I have to get a bit more   precise . I believe that because of the different steps , the analysis , the conversations , the   writing and sorting process I got a much clearer understanding of the things that matter most   to me and where I my strenghts really are . It helped me gaining a lot of insight and showed   me that it is important to expand your field of view and think about things you never thought   before . 

 5 . Approach 

 The next time I need to solve a similar problem , I would use the the same tool again ,   although I would try to get a team and some people I do n’t know , to get an even more   diverse pool of input and ideas . I believe that the tool of mind mapping is very good because   it gives you the possibility of working in an creative but also analytical way .
### Output: 