Padlet

General Description
Padlet is a blank digital wall, like a digital slide, in which anyone can post images, videos, comments, and URLs. Members of a group or a class interact by posting on the Padlet wall. Comments are uploaded in real time so students can see one another's contributions immediately. Once finished, the wall can be saved and inserted onto a webpage or saved for future use. Padlet is based on a web browser so there is no need for an app, unless it is used on iPads.

How to Use It
1. Go to [] and create an account. Once you already have an account, your will simply use your username and password to login.

Here is my opening page.



2. Click on "New Padlet" to begin. Your new Padlet screen is blank and has many options. The buttons are on the right hand side. Here is a screenshot of those buttons and what they do.



3. You can choose one of their backgrounds or upload your own.



To add comments, videos, URLs, and just about anything, double click anywhere on the screen and insert. Here is what your Padlet looks like before your type in a comment. There are a lot of choices including uploading an image or document, adding links, clicking on google to do a quick search, taking a photo or video from your computer/phone/tablet camera and directly inserting it, recording your voice, using drawing tools, adding a map, or adding a link to another Padlet.



Here is how to make comments and what mine looks like with comments.



4. To Share your Padlet, Padlet will create a web address for you. You can also get creative and make the web address describe your Padlet. At the end of this tutorial is a detailed explanation on how to share your Padlet.



When you are ready to Share your Padlet, go to the upper right hand corner and click Share. See the red arrow below.



There are several sharing options. The Sharing menu is divided into two tabs: **People & Privacy** and **Share/Export/Embed.**



In the **People & Privacy** Tab, is where you make your Padlet ** Private ** ,**Password Protected,** a **Secret,** or **Public**. I usually Password Protect mine and then share the password with my classes once I have introduced the Padlet. Here is where you decide to moderate responses, make your Padlet view only or make it interactive.

The View only option is a good idea if you are using the Padlet to provide information. In this way, it is a lot like a **[|Thinglink]**. In my example I have a 1946 film of footage showing the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagaseki. Even if students can only view, they can get a lot of information by viewing videos and images.

In the ** Sharing/Export/Embed ** tab you decide how you will share your Padlet; you can create a link to **share** and a QR code is autogenerated. Students can then access the Padlet using their SMART phone, iPad, or tablet. You can also **export** your Padlet as an image, pdf, csv file, an excel spreadsheet, or print it out. And the last option is to **embed** the Padlet into a blog or a website, email the link, and share it on Facebook.



Here is a example of a Padlet completed for a high school World History Class.

[|World War II Padlet]



Here is a Padlet created for a Fourth Grade Language Arts Class.



**Ideas for Integration** 1. Use it as a back channel for class discussions. A back channel is a web source where students can share ideas with each other during the lesson. Middle and high schools are the main users of back channels, but I have seen elementary classes use this tool successfully. For more information on Back Channels go to this Edutopia article [|The Backchannel: giving every Student a Voice in the Blended Mobile Classroom] 2. Use it for brainstorming ideas 3. Use it for Exit Tickets. For more information and samples of Exit tickets, see Reading Rockets: Exit Slips 4. A book review page 5. Analyzing images. Google Cultural Arts Institute is a great resource for this. 6. Sorts. Have students sort words by spelling pattern or parts of speech. 7. If you use the Responsive Classroom, you can use Padlet for post ideas for their Morning Meeting or Classroom Meeting. Once the Morning or Classroom Meeting is finished, students can continue the discussion and then discuss as a class at a later time. This is a great idea because there is never enough time for everyone to share their ideas. 8. Padlet allows you to select how comments are arranged on the canvas. You can make them orderly from left to right. This is a great way to make a flowchart. 9. Class voting. Insert your question or idea and have students vote yes or no. 10. Take number 9 and export it as a spreadsheet. ** How to Learn More ** Mark Anderson has an excellent blog post on Padlet. [|Mark Anderson ICTEvangelist]