An Online Bulletin Board for Classroom: Padlet

Padlet is a free and user friendly bulletin board. It can be used for collaborative language learning, the idea introduced by Vygotsky in 1987 in his concept of Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).

Get Started:

Teachers can easily open an account by clicking the 'sign up for free' option of https://padlet.com/. Once the account is open using email or facebook or google account, there will be a lot of easy to follow options for title, description, layout, wallpaper, tags, address, privacy. Once the teacher chooses the option, it will be ready to use and the teacher will be asked to create a Padlet or bulletin board. The following photo collage shows step by step way of creating a bulletin in Padlet.

Step by Step Way of Choosing Title, Description, Layout

Advantages:  

1. Teachers can easily give notice and share ideas in the classroom. They can also discuss with the students in the classroom or for brainstorming ideas as a pre-task activity.

2. Teachers can benefit from it as it helps to organize all images, audio, video clips and notes of a lecture or course in a single page. These documents can be attached and maximize whenever necessary.

3. It is a great platform for group work or project as different group members can easily add their points and comment on other group members' points. There is 'comment' option which they can easily use to give feedback and delete. The teachers can activate 'moderator's approval' option if they fear that the students will post something unwanted.  

4. As a lot of visual, audio and video input can be given, Padlet can serve the visual and auditory learners well.

5. In the low-resources classroom, where there is no computer or projector, Padlet can be used easily from mobile phones.

Implications for the Classroom:

1. This online bulletin board can be used for giving notice to the students, brainstorm ideas for a topic or lecture. For example, the teacher can introduce the topic of the next class and ask students to share their ideas and relevant images, audios and videos in it.

2. It is the best for group work as students can work from both classroom and home. They can share the ideas, images, audio and video links. https://padlet.com/kabbo1971/ELT03_02_2017 is a sample lesson plan that I have created as a group work. 

3. They can also use it for group presentations.by dividing different segments of a presentation, they can work and add the points. Collaboration and giving constructive feedback are very easy in Padlet.

Limitations:

1. The main disadvantage of using Padlet is that apart from organizing ideas, topics, group works, it does not offer any more options.

https://padlet.com/kabbo1971/Webinar_on_Padlet# is a link of a Padlet I created for a webinar on Padlet . You can create one for your class and enjoy its benefits.


Using in Bangladesh:

In Bangladesh, teachers can easily use Padlet for any group activity. When the students are asked to give the presentations or submit the assignments, they can easily share the slides and links in a Padlet group. Feedback from the teachers and students can be given in the comment section. Therefore, it will help the students to edit and learn.

Disclaimer:

The logo of Padlet is a registered trademark of www.padlet.com.

References:

Vygotsky, L. (1987). Zone of proximal development. Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes, 5291, 157-158.