As I prepared to write an overview of online brainstorming and mind mapping tools, I turned to Google Scholar to read some research on group brainstorming methodologies. It was there that I found an article written by Clive Boddy that gave name to the methodology that I have used for years without knowing what it was called.
The nominal group technique is a method of group brainstorming in which participants first spend some time working in silence before coming together to brainstorm and generate more ideas with the group. During the quiet time, the participants try to generate and write down as many ideas as they can that are related to the message they have been given.
I have always used this technique in my classes for two reasons. First, to prevent extroverted and exceptionally talkative students from having undue influence on the session. Second, after the session, I was able to talk to students about their individual ideas even if they weren’t sharing them aloud during group time.
It turns out that, according to Boddy’s research, my method of giving students time to write down their ideas silently has more benefits than I thought. Silence helps activate the right side of the brain. Also, people develop more creative ideas in silence than when they are constantly stimulated by verbalization and noise.
The idea of providing quiet time to prevent outgoing students from dominating the brainstorming session has an added benefit, according to Boddy’s research. That benefit is the anonymity of developing ideas in silence.
After the time for individual and silent brainstorming has passed, it is time to begin the group brainstorming session. The process of sharing ideas from individuals’ brainstorming lists can generate more ideas for students to record. Some of those ideas can be generated from the development of connections between two or more shared ideas.
Tools for organizing NGT brainstorming sessions online
Even if you host your NGT brainstorming sessions in person, you’ll want to create a record of the ideas shared by students. Here are some tools you can use to get students to share their ideas with the group and create a record of those ideas.
Post-it mobile applications
He Post-it mobile apps for Android and iOS allows you to take a photo of physical sticky notes and then label them on a digital canvas. This is a great tool for those who want to use the traditional paper-based method of having students write notes on paper and then posting them on a bulletin board for the whole class to review.
rowed
rowed it’s a tool I’ve been using for over a decade. It allows you to create a digital bulletin board or cork board to which your students can add digital sticky notes. Your notes can include text, images, video, and audio files. If you enable the options for it, you can let your students indicate which notes are their favorite by using little stars and thumbs up icons. Look at this video for an overview of how to host brainstorming sessions in Padlet.
canvas
The whiteboard templates in canvas they are intended to be used collaboratively. They can be used for a variety of purposes, including hosting brainstorming sessions, designing flowcharts, and creating KWL charts. To help you and your collaborators stay focused on the task at hand, Canva added a timer option to the whiteboard templates. The timer is located in the lower left corner of the templates. You can set the timer to whatever interval works for your group. Watch the video below to learn how to use Canva’s whiteboard templates.
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