Use Stormboard to Brainstorm Ideas for Writing

A word cloud on stormboard

As teachers we all know how essential it is for students to brainstorm and generate ideas before they attempt to write any piece of writing. All we try to do, in a writing class, is to guide students to use mind-mapping or spider webs to plan their ideas! But have we ever thought we could engage our students in an online collaborative platform where they can freely construct and share their open thoughts and ideas through innovative 'sticky notes' ? Yes, Stormboard has made it possible for us! Let's find out how it can enrich our experience of teaching writing!

Stormboard and its outstanding features

Stormboard is a cost-effective virtual whiteboard that allows students and teachers to collaborate both in class and at home. Students can generate and share ideas either individually, pairs or groups and come up with conclusive points. What is the most attractive feature of this tool is the chance to post sticky notes or 'stickies'.  Stickies can be color-coded and dragged anywhere on the board. Besides posting ideas, students can add links, YouTube videos or even images. Undoubtedly, these exclusive features promote autonomy and creativity among students and facilitate the learning process in many different ways. 

Teachers may wish to scaffold their learners first by initiating a storm or display any instance of brainstorming process and then allow them to collaboratively construct their own ideas.  Theoretically, features of Stormboard essentially reflect on the Vygotskian concept of social constructivism which states that learning becomes successful through social interaction and active collaboration. 

Sample Task on Brainstorming for Writing

I have designed a sample activity on brainstorming for argumentative essays. The purpose of this activity is to initiate a debate like discussion in class under teacher's guidance. After being introduced to the title of the essay, the students will group themselves and generate ideas through negotiated interaction between their peers. The teacher can scaffold students' thinking and help them build ideas together. They will decide if they will share ideas about pros or cons of the topic (for example, Children's use of gadgets). Representatives of each group can post their ideas on sticky notes, use colour codes to highlight them.

After all groups have posted their ideas based on constructive discussions, the whole class can come up with any three main ideas that they would develop in their essay. The teacher can make students think further by allowing them to work on how they could develop those selected ideas. Perhaps, the students can work on it from home. The teacher can assess students based on their online participation and the amount of contribution to the prescribed task.

Stormboard in Bangladeshi Context

If I talk specifically about my teaching context, I would highly recommend teachers use this versatile tool for their writing courses to provide a different learning experience to their students. As a teacher, I observed, my students often find brainstorming tasks difficult and demotivating to do individually. But giving them chance to do the same task in groups with Stormboard can be stimulating.

Almost every institution in Bangladesh greatly emphasises on writing courses but in a sort of traditional way. Students rarely get chances to construct or negotiate ideas in groups or through projects, for example. This online platform can be highly useful in such classes to trigger motivation and learner-autonomy among EFL students. Teachers can even plan to digitize any problem solving tasks, in-class discussions, or ice-breaking tasks. Brainstorming activates cognitive thinking among students and teachers can promote that even more through Stormboard.

This attractive tool is no difficult to operate. The interface is bright and simple therefore, it certainly depends on teachers on how they can make the best use of it. But it is important to keep in mind that, students should be provided with some guidelines before they get involved with this tool.

Drawbacks

Using Stormboard for every topic can be time-consuming for teachers, especially if there is any pressure of completing syllabus on time. It is a fun tool to use in class and therefore, it is certain that students will love to invest their time on it. But as teachers, we also should be mindful of time and stick to the overall purpose of any course.

Stormboard is not free but it offers six months of free subscription for educators. But there are some conditions that are to be met by teachers to avail that option for example, having  valid institutional email address. Condition like this can make it a complex process to handle.

Some students who come from rural parts of Bangladesh have less exposure to technology or digital tools. As a result, if any teacher plans to use this tool for brainstorming ideas, those learners may find it difficult to express themselves online. Therefore, teachers who are willing to incorporate Stormboard in their teaching, should think of  planning tasks by considering its affordances from every angle.

Overall, it goes without saying that, Stormboard is a suitable 21st century collaborative tool which caters to the common principles of student-centered learning. It can be a very useful for present day ELT practitioners.

Courtesy: Word cloud was created through Jason Davies website