Good morning,
Today we’re talking Padlet. Padlet is an awesome bit of edtech that acts much like a Swiss army knife. It can be used to solicit anonymous feedback, aid in community-building, brainstorm and use non-linear space to connect disparate ideas, present lessons, assess through reflective prompts, and allow for multimodal responses—all while having fun!
Padlet is a freemium tool, but we currently have a license at Columbia College. While we have fewer teacher licenses, student licenses are unlimited, and they function much the same for one-off padlets. This also means that you can allow students to sign up for accounts for projects. If you want to use it for a class, please let me know, and I’m happy to schedule a training session for you.
Sign up for an account with this link: [removed]. I suggest using your Columbia College e-mail, as if you’d like to move to a teacher license, it will be easier to connect with your Canvas account.
One very recent feature of Padlet is that they now offer premade templates for all sorts of things, many of which align with reflective ideas. For example, here is a study guide template that you could share with students or have them walk through themselves:
Here’s one where you can insert images to show before and after, letting students compare and contrast through a historical lens:
For most templates, you can generate sample posts, making it easy for students to visualize expectations.
When you select the template, all you need to do is provide any customization, make sure the settings are in place to be shared and editable, and then go from there. For example, you could have a class-wide reflection or ask students to sign up for an account, make a copy of the padlet, and then share back with you.
I’ve used Padlet in lots of different ways. During the Fall Faculty Workshop, I used it to both solicit feedback and then share it out as a presentation:
In presentation mode, each post is a “slide,” and you can either go through them manually or set it on auto. This could also be a great way to do a group slideshow of images, GIFs, or the like!
In a course I am teaching, I used Padlet to ask students to pronounce their names and share “boring facts.” (No screenshot there, as part of Padlet’s beauty is that it can be used to build in-class community.)
We have a padlet up on the library website to allow online students to take part in programming that would otherwise be limited to physical space:
A feature that is fun and uses the hot topic du jour, generative A.I., is that you can have padlet generate an image based on a prompt you provide. For example, you can have students use Padlet’s A.I. to generate images from class readings using descriptions from the text:
I encourage you to consider this tool as you’re thinking of your spring classes. As always, please reach out if you’d like a demo and to explore how Padlet could be used in your classes!
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