Brainstormer
Brainstormer is a great tool for group brainstorming. Teachers and students contribute ideas to a shared board, build on each other’s thoughts, and vote for their favorite ideas. Plus, it’s completely free and no accounts are required.
Set Up a Brainstorm
- Go to Brainstormer.online and click “Setup Brainstorm.”
- Type in the topic or problem you want to solve.
- Share the link with students.
Start Your Brainstorm
Once students have joined your brainstorm:
- Set a time limit.
- Click “Start Your Brainstorm.”
- Give students time to enter ideas.
Vote for Ideas
Teachers can extend the brainstorming session by resetting the timer, or end it early by clicking “Go to Voting.” Once the session has ended, give the students time to vote for their favorite ideas. When everyone is finished, click “Finish voting for everyone” to see the results. “Click on Save to PDF” to see a summarized view of the votes.
Tips for Better Brainstorming
Scroll to the bottom of the page before clicking Start Your Brainstorm to see some great ideas for encouraging meaningful ideation. You may wish to share these ideas when introducing the activity with students. This would also be a good time to show students how they can build upon any idea that is already on the board by clicking on it then clicking “Build on Idea.” Their contribution will be attached to the original idea.
Looking For Other Brainstorming Tools?
Check out Dotstorming – a collaborative brainstorming and digital sticky-dot voting site.
How Will You Use Brainstormer in Your Classroom?
Share your thoughts in the comments below or on Twitter.
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Hi Nick
Thank you for your post about Brainstormer. I am the creator of the tool. I have removed “beer” and “manager” from the list of potential placeholder names. I see it can look wrong when brainstorming with kids. The names are just generated randomly from a list of adjectives and nouns. I wanted it to feel fun and light to brainstorm, so I tried to come up with some funny placeholder names that would make people smile.
If you have ideas for improvements, then just let me know 🙂
Thanks for reaching out! I’ve updated the post to reflect your changes. I appreciate your responsiveness and I’m glad we can share this with students everywhere.