Our study explores how preservice teachers perceive the process of creating mind maps manually compared to generating them with artificial intelligence (AI). Over two academic years, 34 preservice teachers enrolled in the course Software for the Modern Teacher were tasked with creating mind maps on the theme of software and education. Initially, they constructed their mind maps using Coggle, incorporating multimedia elements such as YouTube videos. Subsequently, they created mind maps on the same theme using AI tools available in Miro. After completing the tasks, the students documented their experiences and reflections on their personal course webpages. In our research we analyze these reflections to understand how students evaluated the usability of the tools, the differences they perceived between manually created and AI-generated maps, and their overall satisfaction with both approaches. The findings highlight key advantages and limitations identified by the students, including the perceived structure, coherence, and relevance of the AI-generated maps compared to their manually created counterparts.

Keywords: Mind maps, artificial intelligence, preservice teachers, educational software, modern education.