playing around with Padlet

My students researched historical figures and then wrote an essay about their person.  I would have liked my students to use this tool instead of the paper and pencil they used to take notes.  The students could take their notes here and have an easy way of organizing their thoughts afterward.  Once the notes are finished, they can move the notes around to organize their information before writing their essays.  Most of the sites my students used showed them how to cite the resource.  The title of each note could be the correct citation so they could show where they found each piece of information.  At the end, they would be able to copy and paste their citations onto their works cited page.

After exploring more, I found that notes can include links to other pages.  This works out perfectly for my idea.  Students can still use the citation as the title, but can also create a link to the site used.  This way provides an easy way for students to return to the site if more information is needed.

My example is notes taken about Deborah Sampson.  I included information from 2 different sources.  My sites didn't have the correct citation at the bottom of the site, so I would still have to create the citation myself.  I was able to link my sources to the notes.  I set my wall to be viewable to people that have the link.  I also didn't want anyone to edit my work, so I set it to be viewed by others.  My example can be viewed here: http://wallwisher.com/wall/gbtzvq6xcq

I could show my example to my students before they begin their research so they know my expectations.  Since the site allows people to create walls without creating accounts, I wouldn't have to worry about my students needing to create accounts.  After further exploration, I noticed that you can't edit walls after 24 hours if you are not signed in.  I don't think my students would be able to complete this task within 24 hours, so I actually would need to make sure they have accounts.  If I don't want to create individual accounts for all students, I could create one for every student to use.  I think you can create an unlimited amount of walls for each account.  I couldn't find anywhere that said it was limited and I was able to create at least 20 in my account.  The only problem with creating multiple walls for students under one account is students would have to make sure they are only editing their own wall.  When creating a new wall, you are given a wall name that is random letters and numbers.  Students can change that name to their own to make sure they are editing the correct one.  I think I would have to try it with students to really know how it would work.

This could be used for this project next year.  I will keep this tool in mind for further projects this year.  I would love to see how 5th graders would do using it.  It seems simple, but I will never know until I actually try it with students.