Padlet is one of the first tools that got me really excited about how I could use technology
to enhance my teaching and in this video I'm going to show you 10 ideas for how you can
use it. I'll show you some tips for how you can use Padlet as an online collaborative workspace
and I'll also share some ideas about how you can use Padlet for project-based learning.
Padlet is a really powerful program for online learning and there's a lot of functionality
we can squeeze out of it so I'm excited to show you a lot of different ways that you
can use it. My name is Sam Kary and this is my YouTube channel for The New EdTech Classroom.
One question that comes up a lot about Padlet is how to use the free version. If you
have a lot of different classes, admittedly the strategies that I'm going to show in this
video will be more challenging if you're only using the free version, though one way to get
around that is to have students create their own account because then they'll also get
three boards that they can use as well. But if you plan to use it all the time as your
go to workspace you may want to consider buying the premium version. And lastly if you're
looking for more of an overview of how to use Padlet, I suggest that you check my other
video out and then watch this one to get some ideas about some different ways you could
use it with your students. The first strategy is to set up what I call a No Words Challenge for
students. To the start I'll go ahead and select the wall option for this board. So the basic
idea with the No Words Challenge is that students have to respond to a prompt but they have
to use media types other than text. And the idea here is to get them thinking in other
ways, but also to help them practice using some of the different multimedia tools that
are available in Padlet. So let's say that we taught a lesson about the different parts
of the cell. One possibility for a No Words post would be for students to find an image
of a cell and then post an image to the board. And another option would be for students to
use the drawing tool and then they can sketch out some of the different parts of a cell
that they had learned about. You can use this No Words challenge for a lot different types
of prompts and it's a fun way to mix up the way that you use this tool. The second tip is to
use Padlet to set up small group discussions. I'll show you why in just a moment, but it
would be ideal to split up your class into four different groups for this type of activity.
Obviously to create four Padlet boards at the same time, you're either going to need a premium
account, or what you could do is have students create the board, share it with their groupmates
and you, and that would be one way to get around that. So what I'm going to do here is set up
a post with a prompt that students would need to discuss. So I'll make a prompt here for students
to discuss whether or not cell phones should be allowed in schools. Then I'm going to use the search function to find
a relevant video so that students can watch it and base their discussion on that piece
of media. Once I have the board set up the way that I want it, I'm going to go up here
to the three dot menu, scroll down to 'Remake,' and that's essentially going to allow me to duplicate
the board. I'll select the box to copy over all the posts that are currently on this board
so that it creates an exact replica and I'll repeat this process three times so that I
end up with four separate boards. Then you'll need to assign students a particular group
and share the board with the students that are in that group. So let's say that this is a live lesson and I want to be
able to monitor what students are doing live. What I can do is use the Tab Resize Chrome extension
and that will allow me to create a grid of four different tabs so that I can monitor each
Padlet room at exactly the same time. So now and students start adding to their group's Padlet,
I'll be able to observe all the posts as they're coming in live. The third tip is to use Padlet
for mind mapping. To make a mind map you'll want to select the canvas tool. So let's say
that you just had that small group conversation about whether or not cell phones should be
allowed in schools. What you could do here is add a post with that question. Then with
the canvas tool you can drag the Padlet post around wherever you want it to go on the board.
And then students could add different posts with pieces of evidence. Once those posts have been
created, they can also be dragged around anywhere on the board, and then by clicking on the
drop-down menu, you can also connect posts together, so you can connect this piece of evidence
back with the original proposition. So if a student were to put up this post that students
should be allowed to use cellphones because they're already a part of everyday life and
then another student wanted to add a more specific point or a point that elaborated
on that piece of evidence, they could add another post and then connect that post as well. So this
mind mapping activity could be done as a whole group, as a small group, or potentially as just
an individual activity if a student has their own Padlet account, which they can create for
free. The 4th tip is to use Padlet to practice digital citizenship skills. So to do this I'm going to set up the shelf option.
So what I'm going to do here is set up a few different sources and I'm going to have my
students identify whether or not those sources are credible or not. This is a really important
activity to have students do whenever they're researching online and you could essentially
repeat it over and over with different topics that you're having students learn about. So
what I'll do here is use the insert link tool and then I'll bring in some different URLs of
websites in order to have my students evaluate whether or not those different sources are
reliable or not. And then as they're collecting their own sources for the topic that you're
researching, they can start to put those in the relevant column, either saying that they
think that they found a source that's reliable, or that they found one that's unreliable. An
activity like this will also just help you pull together a bunch of different sources
in one place that students could come back to and reference if they need some more information
for what they're researching. The fifth tip is a related strategy, and that's to use Padlet
to have students revise writing. So let's say that we are working on adding more variety in
our sentence types. Here we might teach students how to write a complex sentence. So what I
could do here is set this up as essentially a scaffolded that assignment where I'm going
to start by giving students phrases that they would need to build upon in order to complete
a complex sentence. Once students have the hang of the revision process, they can move on to
writing their own complex sentences on the columns that are further to the right. Then
I could also add a challenge element here, so that if some students were ready to move on,
they would be able to do that while still practicing the skill that we're working on. Tip number
six is that you could use Padlet to have students show their work for math problems. So just
like I did with the last few Padlets, I'll also set this one up as a shelf and I'm going to label
the first column "Problem #1." If you just wanted students to practice basic math
facts here that didn't require more advanced math language, you could obviously just type
that directly into the column or as a separate post underneath the column. But if you need actual
math language there's a way that we can use the Hypatia extension to bring that in. So what
I'm going to do here is go over to Google Forms and in order for this to work, you're
going to need to make sure that you have the Hypatia add-on for Google Forms. Once you've
gotten that add-on it's going to show up in the drop down menu. In Google Forms you can
open up the math editor and then you can use the math language tools to create the equation
that you need. Once you finish creating the equation, it's actually going to generate a URL link
that you can copy. So what I'll do here is copy the link to this math equation, then I'm going
to return to Padlet and I'll open up the link tool and paste that same URL in. And now you'll see that
that just brought that image in of the math equation you just created. Now after you posted
this equation, you could have students use the drawing tool and then they could draw
out all the steps to the problem. I do recognize that this is going to be a little bit challenging
because essentially I'm just drawing this with the mouse cursor, but I still think it
works pretty well. And if you wanted you could make sure to set up the settings so that you
have to approve the post before they come through, so that students aren't able to see
each other's responses before they post their answer. Idea number seven is that you could set
up a Padlet board to provide students with tech support. For this one I'll go ahead and
choose the wall board again, and then the purpose of this board will be for students to post
screen recordings of issues that they might be having with technology. You have some different
options for how students could bring those screen recordings in. One would be to use the internal screen recording
tool inside of Padlet. In order to use the screen recorder, students would need to have
the Padlet Chrome extension added to their browsers. Often times students are blocked
from being able to do this, so you might have to have your tech department push the Padlet
extension out to browsers if they're willing to do that. So if you're able to make
that work, all students will need to do is select the screen record option, and then just
like any other screen recorder, they can record a part of their screen and explain an issue
that they're having. So let's just say that a student were having some trouble logging into a Flipgrid
assignment. They might record that and explain the issues that they're having so that you're able
to help them out. An aspect of online learning that can be really challenging is the inability to provide students with
in the moment support, so this can be a way that you can get a better idea of exactly
what's happening on the student end, so that you can help them and make sure that they're
able to move forward with the different assignments that you're giving them. Number 8 is to have students
make digital maps in Padlet. You could do this as a collaborative activity, although it's probably best if you have students just
create their own account and then make their own maps. After you've selected the map board,
you'll see that there are some different map styles that you can choose from. And then once
you or your students have picked a style that you want, you can create new posts that are
going to be based on specific locations on the map. Students can either drop pins on the
map or they can search for a specific location that they're looking for. So let's just say
that we were doing a project where students were tracking important locations along the
Silk Road. They can search for some of those locations and then write a description about
why that place is important. Then students can continue to add new pins on their map, and
in addition to text, they could also bring another picture in as a way to supplement
what they're trying to show in the post. So here you'll see that there are three pins
created and you could click on each pin in order to see more detail about what's in that
post. We can also connect those pins to show the relationship between places. So hear you
could envision how a student could create an entire map with all the important locations
of the Silk Road and then string them all together to indicate the relationship between
those places. The ninth tip is to make a timeline project with Padlet. Just like the map tool,
this is probably going to work best if students have their own accounts. So what they would
do is choose the timeline tool and then they can click on the add button below to add different
events along the timeline. So one way you could do this would be a type of community building
activity where you had students make personal life timelines. So I could start by saying that
I was born in San Francisco in 1982 and also add an image as a visual cue. And then in
order to add new events, just click on the add button to the right of the timeline and you
can continue to enter different posts that would go on the timeline. The 10th tip is to use Padlet
to have students make audio recordings for podcast episodes. For this one, I'll just set up a regular wall and have students
all post their audio recordings in one place. So one idea is that you could have students conduct
an interview with a family member about their family history. They could record that conversation
by using the audio recorder tool and then after they finished that interview, they could
post the recording to Padlet so that all the other students in the class could listen
to it as well. So this would be a great way to introduce students to audio recording and
podcasting without going full bore and teaching students how to use audio recording software.
You can probably tell that I really like using this tool and I'd love to hear about some
other ways that teachers are creatively using Padlet if you want to share those in the comments
below. Thank you so much for watching my video to the end. If you found the tips that I shared
helpful, please share it with other teachers that you know, hit the like button, and subscribe
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updates. You can also check out some of the other tutorials I have on my channel by clicking
on one of those two videos above and if you're interested in downloading any of the resources
that I've created and show on my videos please visit my website at www.newedtechclassroom.com.
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