Some years ago in Greece we used to work individually most of the times and the only pair or group work I remember as a student is when the teacher requested her/his students to create pairs or groups and discuss about a particular topic for a few minutes. Students used to talk to each other for a while and then because they were bored and the teacher could not check them all at the same time they continued in Greek saying about irrelevant issues. Of course, I am sure that nowadays English language teachers do more than this and try to promote collaboration in their classrooms. I believe that Padlet is a very good tool which can bring fun to our lesson and maybe help some of our students realise that they actually learn more by building upon each other's ideas than competing with each other.
How does Padlet work?
Padlet is a very user-friendly tool, it is free but we will need to make an account.
- So, first we go onto the Padlet homepage and we click on "Login or signup" button where we can fill in our email address and a password.
- Then, we have two ways to build a new wall. We can either click on the yellow "Build a wall" button or click on the"+" button at the top right corner. Next to the "+" button there are 3 more buttons which can allow us to view our account and change our password, view all the walls we have created and finally log out (Image 1).
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| Image 1 |
- That was it! Our wall is now ready but before sharing it with our students there are a few things that we need to do. We have two ways to modify our wall either by clicking on the yellow "modify wall" button or clicking on the icon on the right side of the page (Image 2).
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| Image 2 |
- Once we clicked on "Modify wall" we will see that more option buttons appear on the right part of our screen which can help us costumise our wall. We can type a tittle, give a brief description to our wall and add a relevant portrait choosing from the ones offered by Padlet or uploading a photo from our computer (Image 3).
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| Image 3 |
- Then, we can add a wallpaper which is a background for our wall. Again we can choose among the ones offered by Padlet or upload one from our computer or even find one on the Internet. Remember to choose a wallpaper which is nice and simple so that students can read easily the content they are going to add to the screen (Image 4).
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| Image 4 |
- Afterwards, we can decide on our wall's layout namely on how our students posts are going to look like. There are two options either users can post anywhere "Freeform" or post below each other's post "Stream" (Image 5).
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| Image 5 |
- One really important feature of Padlet is its privacy settings. We can have a wall that other people can view but cannot add content to it. We can have a wall that other people can view and add comment to it and finally we can have a wall that our students can view and add comment to it but the content will be added once the teacher agrees "Moderate posts". Finally, we have the choice to add a password to our wall which will be required by anyone who wants to have access to it or we can make it completely private by choosing the first option "Private" and adding the emails of the students we want to have access to our wall. I suggest either to choose the "Private" or the "Password" option and tick on "Moderate posts". (Image 6)
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| Image 6 |
- What is more we can pick a new address for our wall and change the address already given to it by Padlet. We can choose a simple word which our students will be able to remember and write down (Image 7).
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| Image 8 |
- Finally, we can make our first sticky note by double clicking on the wall. If we want, we can write our name and give a title and then start writing content up to 160 characters. It is possible also to add a link to a webpage or add a video, an image either from the Internet by copying and pasting the URL or by uploading from our computer. Keep in mind that a sticky note can be edited or deleted only by its creator or by the owner of the wall. Students can also change the size and the shape of the post even its location depending on the layout we have chosen (Image 9).
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| Image 9 |
- One last thing I want to mention is that we can share the wall via email or Facebook, Twitter etc, we can embed it on a website by coping the URL code and we can export our wall as PDF, Excel file etc or print it (Image 10).
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| Image 10 |
For more details you can check Russell Stannard's teacher training video about Padlet, formerly known as Wallwisher.
How can we use Padlet in the classroom?
There are many possibilities for using Padlet in the classroom but I am mostly interested in activities which can foster collaboration, enable group work and establish a friendly, collaborative relation among my students.
Writing
There are many possibilities for using Padlet in the classroom but I am mostly interested in activities which can foster collaboration, enable group work and establish a friendly, collaborative relation among my students.
Writing
- Starting the Lesson, Brainstorming, Group Discussion: We can put an image or write something on the wall and ask our students to work in groups or in pairs and comment on the topic. Students can brainstorm, use their background knowledge and their imagination. We can introduce almost every topic included in our coursebooks (science, environment, technology etc), for example healthy and unhealthy food and our students can simply write down food items or add videos and images or even better I would suggest to let them choose sides and support either healthy food or unhealthy food and work in pairs in order to find arguments and relevant videos. This can make our students really active, they will collaborate and negotiate with each other in order to create the sticky notes. In addition, the wall updates in a real time so students will feel the need to work and present something to their teacher and their classmates, so they might be quite motivated and they will probably not waste their time on irrelevant discussions.
- Giving a different end to our lesson, checking for understanding: We can follow the above rationale and at the end of our lesson we can request our students to express their thoughts and feelings about what they have learnt. We do this most of the times in our classroom by asking questions and trying to elicit answers from our students. However, it is often the case that many of our students do not pay attention to their classmates answers. Furthermore, shy students will avoid to speak and share their thoughts. We can use Padlet to make them create a note, expressing their opinion about cyber robots for example and at the same time commenting on one of their classmates sticky note. Thereby, our students will have a motive to read and reflect on their classmates ideas (Image 11).
- Creating a story: We can put a phrase or a word on the wall and divide our students into groups and ask them to collaborate in order to create a story beginning with it. It is important to guide them through the whole procedure because collaboration does not simply happen. We should establish the rules for example each and every student will have to write a sentence and continue the story according to what their teammates have written. Moreover, we can ask them to choose roles, there will be a student responsible for the time, a checker, an organizer etc. Our students will have to sign a contract, promising that they will perform their roles. Thus, every student will be responsible for something and all of them will have to listen carefully to each other and collaborate for the shake of their story.
- Peer reviews: I would like to point out that Padlet is a very good tool for an alternative type of assessment. For example, when all groups have created their stories (example mentioned above) we can ask our students to suggest their classmates ways to improve their story (other linguistic choices, better structure etc)
- Suggestions for further reading: Our students can create a note referring to their favourite book, they can include a brief review about the book, a photo or a video. Furthermore, we can ask our students to create a second post, selecting their three favourite book reviews on the wall. Students will have the chance to be exposed to different kinds of books and may develop an interest for some of these.
Vocabulary
- We can post a word and divide our students in pairs or groups and ask them to come up with as many synonyms as they can or create as many sentences as they can in 5 minutes. Another idea is to ask them to find pictures on the Internet which reveal the meaning of the word.
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| Image 11 |
Some Limitations to think about
First of all, we need to take into account the number of our students. If the students are many, it might be difficult for them and for us to work on one wall. The space may not be enough and students will not have the chance to reflect on what their classmates have written. In addition, too many sticky notes can make our wall look chaotic and us feel stressed. Finally, our students can upload only one photo or one video and the text can be up to 160 characters.
I would say yes to Padlet because it is a very good tool for collaboration. Our students do not need to create any account. They can have access to our wall simply by typing the wall's URL in the search box. However, we can make our wall password protected and choose to moderate all posts so that we can avoid other people from posting on it. Furthermore, our students can make personalised posts by adding pictures and videos. Finally, Padlet is very easy and free to use and no time is needed at all!
So, let's go ahead and use Padlet in our classrooms and give our students a chance to do funny yet formative collaborative activities!
Printscreens from Padlet
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