Brainstorming

What is brainstorming?

This technique is recommend to be used when the student does know a general subject in which he or she wants to pursue. (Sunny Empire State College).

According to this University, this technique is designed to bring subconscious ideas into consciousness by rapidly record all ideas related to a general subject.

How to do it?

The Writing Process educational website suggest the following steps when applying this writing technique.

First of all, it is important to make a list of every idea of what the student considers about the subject. There is no need to write complete sentences, just word and phrases. It is important to mention that the grammar and even spelling will be not relevant for this technique.

The author also suggests to not judge or skip any idea, later on the student will decide which one are useful and which ones are not.

The final suggestion, is to apply this technique by setting time sessions until the student feels she or he has enough information regarding the matter of research.

TOOLS

IDEABORDZ

IdeaBoardz is a web-based tool that allows you to set up a virtual board and invite collaborators. Create sections for the different areas you want to collect ideas for. Then have everyone add “stickies” with their ideas.

The vote function allows participants to give a thumbs up to the stickies they support. This can help with deciding which ideas to pursue or prioritizing next steps. Sort stickies by the highest number of votes, view different sections or filter ideas using the keyword search. At the end, export the board to easily store the ideas for later.

Coggle

If you love neural networks, you’ll love Coggle. The tool helps you capture the nuances of a concept in intricate visual networks. Browse a gallery of public diagrams to see what others have done for inspiration and invite members to collaborate on your diagram with you. Add images, customize the colors of branches, easily “transplant” branches to a different branch, and draw links between unconnected branches.