{"id":203,"date":"2018-09-25T12:11:22","date_gmt":"2018-09-25T17:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/msideedtech\/?p=203"},"modified":"2018-09-25T12:11:23","modified_gmt":"2018-09-25T17:11:23","slug":"active-learning-tool-padlet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/msideedtech\/2018\/09\/25\/active-learning-tool-padlet\/","title":{"rendered":"Active Learning Tool – Padlet"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Susie Lubbers sent out the interest survey before the start of classes one of the items that faculty appeared to have the most interest about was how to incorporate active learning strategies into their courses. \u00a0On October 15th Susie and I will be facilitating a faculty development workshop on this very topic, but I also wanted to write a few specific blog posts highlighting some tools that you might find helpful to incorporate more active learning.<\/p>\n

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First, what is active learning? I\u2019ll give you my own definition: Active learning is any learning activity where students are directly involved in some or all of the process of learning something new. \u00a0Students might be involved in the creation of the content, explaining meaning, organizing content, creating connections between ideas and concepts, or creating a meaningful product that demonstrates understanding. \u00a0Active learning in my view can happen in any form of classroom: Face-to-face, online, flipped, traditional lecture, student-centered, etc. As long as your students are doing and demonstrating something more than simply listening\/reading to content and recording that information down, there is active learning happening.<\/p>\n

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The first active learning tool that I want to highlight this year is something called Padlet<\/a>. \u00a0Some of you have have heard of this or even use it in your courses. \u00a0Padlet is at its core a form of shared and collaborative virtual bulletin board. \u00a0Here is an example of what Padlet looks like:<\/p>\n

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Several of us have asked students to do tasks on a whiteboard such as writing ideas for everyone to view, putting ideas into categories, reorganizing information, or even sometimes providing a backchannel mechanism for posting questions. \u00a0Padlet allows for this do be done. Padlet is free for students and teachers to use, and if a student is simply using (i.e. not creating) Padlet, the student does not even need to create an account and is able to use this tool as a \u2018guest.\u2019 \u00a0For teachers, the free \u2018basic\u2019 version allows you to have three padlets created at any one time. And unless you plan to keep a particular padlet long-term this probably is a fine choice of plan. The individual pro plan is $8.25 a month and along with the ability to create unlimited padlets, there are other features such as folders, no ads, and larger memory capability.<\/p>\n

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Padlet can be used on computers or mobile devices and there are a variety of ways to share the Padlet that your class might be working on. \u00a0On computers, you can simply send a link or you can embed the actual Padlet window into a course Moodle or Website. If your students are using mobile devices, they will need to install the Padlet App, but then they are able to access your padlet through a link, QR code, of even through a \u2018broadcasting\u2019 feature that the presenter can use if sharing using a mobile device.<\/p>\n

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Padlet can basically facilitate times when you would like the larger groups to share and manipulate ideas. \u00a0Here are a few suggested uses for Padlet (ideas from this website<\/a>):<\/p>\n