FutureLab, the UK company looking to transform the way people learn, has come with a ready made thinking framework called ExploraTree. The purpose of ExploraTree is to give students a resource for guiding their thoughts, for brainstorming, and for organizing ideas.
It’s meant to aid in forming and giving shape to concepts and working through issues especially for projects or research. The ExploraTree guides can be used as they are or they can be tailored to specific classes’ needs with images shapes and texts. Guides can be completed outline or printed out. Browsing the site you’ll find a wide variety of conceptual maps for different concepts, e.g. reverse planning, thinking actively in a social context, making meanings, facts or opinions and compare and contrast, among many others. All guides are free and more are in the works as the site moves out of its beta period.
ExploraTree.org.uk In Their Own Words
“Exploratree is a free web resource where you can download, use and make your own interactive thinking guides. Thinking guides can support independent and group research projects with frameworks for thinking, planning and enquiry. We’ve provided a set of ready-made guides which you can print out or use online. All of the guides are completely customizable or you can start from scratch and make your own! You can share them and work on them in groups too.”
Why ExploraTree.org.uk It Might Be A Killer
This seems like an extremely practical and helpful resource for fostering independent thought amongst students. It gets to a crucial point—namely how students learn to think—and develops that using a wide variety of frames. Definitely not the spoon-feeding method of learning, but rather, a challenging and flexible resource to cultivate young minds.
Some Questions About ExploraTree.org.uk
It would be useful if there were examples of how the guides could be incorporated into teachers’ lesson plans. How are they going to get the word out? 
