Just a little more than twelve hours ago I received an exciting email from Padlet in which they announced the launch of their new Android app. Padlet has long worked well in the web browser  on Android phones and tablets, but this is the first time that there has been a dedicated Padlet Android app.

The new Padlet Android app does everything that makes me love Padlet. From the app I can create new Padlet walls, share walls with my students, customize the background, change the layout, and even moderate notes appearing on my Padlet wall. I can use the Padlet Android app to post notes containing pictures and videos that are saved on my phone and tablet. The sharing features of Padlet are extended on the Android platform as you can quickly share your walls through a variety of social apps including Twitter, WhatsApp, and Google+. Students can use the app’s QR code option to scan QR codes for my Padlet wall and instantly join my wall in the Padlet Android app.

My favorite ways to use Padlet with students:

Padlet as a simple blogging platform:
Padlet walls can be arranged in free-form, grid, or stream layouts. Creating a Padlet page
in the stream format could be a good way to create a simple,
collaborative blog for students. You could create the page, select
“stream” format, and make the page accessible for students to write
short posts on. Their posts could include images and videos. If you want
to, you can password protect your Padlet pages and moderate messages
before they appear on your Padlet page.

Padlet Mini as a bookmarking tool:
Padlet Mini is
a Chrome extension that you can use to bookmark websites. When you
click the Padlet Mini extension in your browser you will be presented
with the option to save to one of your existing walls or create a new
Padlet wall. Click here for a video on using Padlet Mini.

Padlet as a KWL chart:
Padlet
can be used to create a KWL chart that students can contribute to
anonymously (or not anonymously if you want them to sign-in). Create a
wall, make it public, and ask students to share what they know and what
they want to know about a topic. If you allow anonymous posting you
might get contributions from shy students who might not otherwise
speak-up in class. Of course, if you allow anonymous commenting you
should have a conversation with your students about what an appropriate
comment looks like. (You could also turn on moderation and approve all
notes before they appear). Padlet works well when projected on an
interactive whiteboard.

Padlet for group research and discussion:
A
few years ago I showed my special education students a short (18
minutes) video about cultural changes that took place in the US during
the 1920’s. After the video we discussed what they saw. Then I had
students search online for other examples of cultural change in the
1920’s. When they found examples they put them onto a Wallwisher
(Padlet’s previous name) wall that I projected onto a wall in my
classroom. The wall started with just text being added to the wall and
quickly progressed to YouTube videos being added to the wall. Once every
student had added a video to the wall we stopped, watched the videos,
and discussed them.

Padlet as a showcase of your students’ work:
If
your students are creating digital portfolios, creating slideshows, or
producing videos you could use Padlet to display all of your students’
best work on one page. Create the wall, call it something like “my best
work this year,” and have your students post links to their works.