Wallwisher (Padlet)

To all my Webskills participants,

Wallwisher  is changed to Padlet, a tool where we can share and information in one location. It serves like a notice board in a school.

Find it more!

Wallwisher is a Web 2.0 online collaborative tool for creating notices and information to share ideas, resources and thought on a particular topic. It is like building a wall with using various multimedia features like video, audio, text and web page links. We can also stick post and organize the wall as per the needs and requirement. It was initially designed to create wishing cards electronically, but due to so many possibilities that it has for using it in the classroom; it is now used for virtual classroom activities. One can also attach PDF documents, excel spreadsheets and power points in wallwisher.

It is free online tool and very easy to use it, does not need to create account, one can directly go to web site and start building a wall. The wall can be shared through emails, blogs and wiki and can invite friends to work on it is very collaborative in nature especially working with small groups and classmates.

The tool has its own gallery to select pictures and themes, one just need to type in topic and subtopic for discussion and has option to upload video, sound, bookmaking sites and links to other wed pages. The very prominent feature in the tool has a teacher control over the post that enables security of learners and provide friendly learning environment. It also has option for the privacy of publishing or viewing and commenting on the post. There is lots of fun and its great collaborative tool. There are so many possibilities for the classroom, and its usefulness to teachers is made even stronger based on the fact that posts can be locked so that they are only view-able once approved. At the same time, posts can be either anonymous or not, making it easy to have students’ input on issues that would normally be too difficult. Wallwisher makes it easy to post links, pictures, or audio. The only limit is that posts have to be under 160 characters, which isn't always a bad thing.

This particular tool will be best to use in classroom for brainstorming or ice breaker in the class, posting homework, assignments and discuss it next day. It is also good for writing activities but having the limit make the writing very precise, so good for summarizing, note taking, poems and memos. Using audio and video would definitely help pupil to learn grammar and vocabulary. Speaking activity can also be done by recording, students can post the debate topic and start the discussion and it is really great for posting notification, information, rules, profiles, and plans.

While reflecting on the Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy for the level of skills that Wallwisher would have impact on students or learners, this tool do fall on higher level of Bloom’s thinking skills. It involves right from Remembering, Understanding, and Analyzing to Creating stages of thinking process. As students respond to the prompt in wallwisher and the information they acquire from the post helps remember and understand the concept posted. When a student posts their topic or a statement, it must be in line with what has been posted earlier and giving rational for the concepts requires analyzing skills and finally when they decide to create their own wall, add appropriate information, links and videos and respond to the post will involve in creating skills of the student.

Let’s look at the some of the affordances it has on using it for classroom learning.

Features	Affordances
Privacy for publishing, viewing and commenting posts	Enables security for learners and provide safe environment to learn.
Ability for teacher to approve the post before posting it in the wall.	Provide authentic and appropriate materials only. Chance for correction and screening.
Flexibility to move or arrange the post on the wall but only the author has the authority to do so.	Makes the wall organized and gives sequences of the post. Helps in ordering the ideas and thoughts.
Multimedia features and uploading or sharing web links	Helps develop LSRW skills, makes student creative and affords collaborative learning.
Galleries and graphics like selecting themes.	Develops creative thinking. Student can customize their wall for appropriate content and there is fun learning.
Word limit	Only 160 character allowed in writing cuts chances for overcrowding the wall. It affords focused writing.
Wallwisher can be shared (collaborative)	Of course general affordance. It promotes high level of learning through collaboration.