Collaboration with Padlet and Google Plus

"Today’s students must be prepared to thrive in a constantly evolving technological landscape. Zip codes and borders no longer determine the learning opportunities, skills and careers that students can access. The ISTE Standards for Students are designed to empower student voice and ensure that learning is a student-driven process of exploration, creativity, and discovery no matter where they or their teachers are in the thoughtful integration of ed tech."

Source: ISTE Standards for Students

When considering where to start incorporating technology, I think first about the interpersonal skills of communication and collaboration. The skills connected to collaboration and communication provide a strong learning foundation for students to understand content and develop additional skills. 

• Creative Communicator Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.
• Global Collaborator Students use digital tools to broaden their perspectives and enrich their learning by collaborating with others and working effectively in teams locally and globally.

Face to face classroom collaboration and communication will always be important. Today these classroom activities can be enhanced with a variety of EdTech resources. My students collaborate regularly with Google Docs, Google Slides, and Google Keep. I also love Google + and Padlet for whole class collaboration and connections. This post will focus on Google + and Padlet. 

Google Plus Communities

Google + Communities are moderated secure digital environments for teachers and students to collaborate and communicate online. There are many ways to teachers and students can use Google + Communities as a collaboration and communication tool, including:

• Posting and responding to questions.
• Sharing links, videos, attachments, and images.
• Sharing student work.
• Creating categories to better organize sharing.
• Participating in online discussions.
• Flipping and Blending the learning experience.

Learn more about setting up and organizing Google + Communities with this Google + Community Tutorial.

Padlet

Padlet provides teachers and students with a customized digital board. I often think of Padlet as a virtual post-it note board. I think Padlet is best for a single topic or discussion stream, so I typically create new Padlets for new topics. There are many ways to teachers and students can use Padlet as a collaboration and communication tool, including:

• Posting and responding to questions.
• Sharing links, videos, attachments, and images.
• Sharing student work.
• Moving and grouping posts. 
• Participating in online discussions.

Learn more about getting started with Padlet using this tutorial. Padlet also has a great searchable Knowledge Base if you need help with any features. 

How would you use Padlet or Google + with your students? Share your ideas and questions using this Padlet or in the comments below.