Pinball from BBC Scotland has six different tools for generating and organising ideas. It’s a bit tricky to see how they work at first – the introductory video certainly...

Asking learners to re-tell, explain or summarise is an effective way of consolidating learning. It’s good to combine with tools that focus less on the technology and more on the message. One such is GoAnimate Very easy to use – if you can type, you can animate. Pupils can record...

Asking learners to re-tell, explain or summarise is an effective way of consolidating learning. It’s good to combine with tools that focus less on the technology and more on the message. One such is Make Beliefs Comix  Very easy to use – it’s free to use and doesn’t...

Popplet describes itself as “a platform for your ideas.” It has a very simple interface that pupils will soon get to grips with for capturing and organising ideas. These pupils need to be over thirteen though as stated in the terms of use. That’s the downside as it’s...

Exploratree is a free web resource for pupils to access a library of ready-made interactive thinking guides. It’s possible to share these and work on them in groups too. Probably more suited to secondary age pupils. The Exploratree web resource was beendeveloped by Futurelab as part of...

An online graphical dictionary – visual and interactive. Great for exploring words, meanings and what connects the words. A word of warning, it’s a full dictionary that contains ‘adult’ words…

Here’s one simple technique for coming up with ideas. I’ve tried this myself and it works. Only three simple steps to follow: Step 1 – Important Words Try and think of the most important words related to your project … usually 2 to 4 words. Step 2 – Word Association Next, for...

Bubbl.us is an online tool for simple mind mapping and outline planning. It doesn’t follow the principles outlined by Tony Buzan’s or offer the functionality of software for download. But it’s a simple and useful way to start ideas and for pupils to share these. It’s a...

AnswerGarden is a “minimalistic feedback tool”. It can easily be used for online brainstorming or as a way of getting quick feedback. It couldn’t be easier to use. First, create an AnswerGarden by entering a topic on the Create New AnswerGarden-page. You’ll then be...

Here’s a great list of techniques to help develop and challenge thinking. As an example (and this is just a few from the list) you can find techniques such as: Absence Thinking: Think about what is not there. Art streaming: Keep creating until you get through the blocks. Assumption...