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

to my channel and hit the notification bell to make sure you don't miss any of my weekly

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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