For one of my educational apps, I wanted my students to try something different than Google Slides to present one of their projects. When I was recommended Padlet by a coworker, I knew I wanted to use it! I had heard of it before but never had the chance to try it out until about a month ago. (I even used it for my summary of learning!)
Here is the breakdown for this post on Padlet:
General overview
Legal page
How I used it during my major project/ educational value and usage
My final thoughts
General Overview
Padlet is a website and an app that allows users to create a virtual bulletin board. Users have access to edit, collaborate, and share information and ideas in a creative way.
Padlet was first designed in 2008 by two friends, but was available to users in 2012 by having been funded through a startup site. Padlet used to be free but switched to a pricing model with different types of memberships (one being free with 3 padlets, $70 a year for 20, and $96 a year for unlimited.
Padlet became quite popular with remote learning. It was an easy way for students to collaborate virtually. It is now one of the top 150 most used websites in the world.
Legal
Padlet’s legal page is simple to use, with links to terms and services, privacy, content policy, and trademark guidelines. Here are few key points that interested me.
Privacy
Padlet explains that users are pretty much free to put what they want on their Padlets, but they need to be careful about putting personal information on their board. All that Padlet asks from their users is their name and email address. However, their bio, photo, and name are visible to the public.
Since Padlet is known for sharing and collaborating, you may have your Padlet be visible to all on the site. However, there are many settings so that you can change who sees your boards. They can be public, private, password protected, or only available to users with a paid membership.
I could not find anything in this section about users under the age of 13. However, in 2021, Padlet did up their game and began adopting stronger content moderation after sexually explicit content was accessible to young children. There was also some talk about Padlets being hacked during an anti-racism lesson.
Content Policy
Padlet celebrates creativity. We want you to express yourself freely and use Padlet to reflect who you are, and what you love, think, witness, and believe”.
https://legal.padlet.com/content
They want to make it clear that they are here for you to have self-expression, but they do not condone things such as:
- Bigotry
- Harm to Minors
- Promotion of Self-Harm
- Gore
- Impersonation
Padlet ends this category by explaining that you will receive an email if they believe you are breaking any of these agreements. Your account may be suspended or your IP address may be blocked.
How I used Padlet during my major project/ educational value and usage
Educational Usage
I had the idea to have my students research a francophone artist and share information, pictures, videos, and lyrics. I made an account and tried it out myself before having my students make their own. However, my students were able to jump in pretty easily after I showed them the basics. They had a lot of fun having some room for creativity! Some students had difficulties choosing the best format for their Padlet, moving their information, and finding ways to edit, but most of them were able to get by with very few discussions with me. After, they presented and shared their Padlets with each other. I really like the variety it gave for presentations.
I have only used Padlet once in my classroom, but I know I will be using it again. Not just for presentations, but also for classroom collaboration. It would be fun to add content to the same Padlet and see the different ideas and discussions that happen! If I would have known about this website during remote learning, I think it would have been beneficial. Students could have partnered up and made Padlets together, I could have shared important information, and we could have collaborated as a class, even when we were separate.
One part of Padlet that would worry me is how my student can stay safe and private. Of course, you can have your students change the privacy setting. But it is pretty easy to add inappropriate content. Especially if students are working together, they love to add ” funny” information while they are working because they think it’s funny. They also like to go on each other’s Padlets and write or add content without permission ( if they have access to classmates’ boards).
Summary of Learning
I loved the creativity and self-expression behind Padlet so much that I decided to use it for my summary of learning! This is when I dove into adding links, recording audio, and trying out different types of Padlets. At first, it was a lot to put together, but I do like how it turned out in the end. The format I chose ( shelf) allowed me to separate my topics so it was easy for my viewers to navigate my Padlet.
Final Thoughts
I really enjoyed using Padlet and I’m happy that I gave it a chance. I would have liked to have time to try and use it as a classroom collaboration, but that will have to wait! I found it easy to create, navigate, and edit. I also found their legal page to be understandable and to the point. I highly recommend you try Padlet to allow for some creativity and something new for your students to use!
Megan Henrion's Blog 
Even though you weren’t able to use it in your classroom collaboration piece, you nailed it in your Summary of Learning. It was so well done, and unique. I loved it. Such a cool way to use Padlet. Thanks for sharing!
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