Have you heard of this new platform but you do not know how to use Padlet for teaching? I love Padlet for teaching and I will tell you exactly why! Padlet is a platform for teachers to post things on that students can easily find and use. It’s a digital wall that you can ‘hang’ stuff on. Give students the link to the Padlet and they will find everything they need in one organized place once you have set it up for them.
Post links
Padlet for teaching is great because on your Padlet wall you can post links to videos, pictures, URLs, documents, or whatever else you can think of that will benefit your teaching. I'll give you a quick Padlet tutorial: Once you have your ‘wall’ set up (choose its name and a cool background) you must first click the + sign. An empty post will pop up and ask for a title and a description. In the description I always write down the instructions for students. At the bottom there are 4 icons: one is for uploading documents, one for uploading a link to something, one for uploading pictures, video, audio, and the last one is for taking and uploading a picture live.
By clicking the three dots icon you find the same options, plus a few more, like recording a voice message, taking a video, drawing something on the screen, adding a location via Maps, and linking to another Padlet. There are so many options to choose from, and not all of them will be relevant for each lesson, but it does get me inspired to put those options in next time! It’s just so handy to just be able to direct students to one page where they can find all of the links I need them to use that lesson.
Students post
Another feature of Padlet for teaching is that the + sign can be used to just post messages. I’ve used Padlet for this purpose so many times I can’t even count them anymore. What I do is I post a question for them as a first post – usually I’ll change the color to something that stands out like blue or green – and my students have to respond by clicking the + sign and typing up their reaction in the description. I have them add their name as a title. You can see their responses in real time and they can see each other’s as well! I’ve even used the feature with which they can respond to each other’s posts, but that’s not always a good idea. :-)
Now here are some Padlet examples I used for my teaching: I used the student posting feature for
- practicing making sentences with grammar points,
- for responses to discussion questions,
- for posting pictures related to vocabulary they had learnt,
and there are many other things I want to try. Seeing their responses in real time makes it easy to praise of correct them! It’s like you’re in the classroom hearing them talk but on Padlet!
Also check out this Padlet tutorial for a visual explanation of Padlet options!
I hope I have inspired you to start using Padlet for teaching! It's such a cool tool for distance learning, and your students will enjoy using it!
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