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Padlet has a few fans at Kalamazoo College

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As the Fall Quarter began, I found that Week One was getting everything set up, and Week Two was fixing everything that was broken! Both of these necessary tasks will certainly continue indefinitely, but I’ve been working on adding collaboration and new ideas to my workload as I get deeper into some of the most compelling work I do here at Kalamazoo College.

During casual conversations with faculty, I’ve had a strong positive response to a particular tool I’ve been talking about.  Have you seen Padlet? If you’re familiar with Google Docs, Slack, Dropbox, etc., this is another tool in that family tree of applications. These applications serve as centralized, online locations for people to post information and work together in a commonly shared space. What I like about Padlet, and maybe its point of emphasis, is its loose, multimedia, visual orientation. The goal of Padlet is to let multiple users post text, audio, files, videos, etc., in a common digital whiteboard space relying on nothing more complicated than a web browser. It’s very user-friendly and efficient in what it can do.

Here is a 2-minute tutorial from their YouTube page.

Another advantage is that students/users don’t have register an account or download any special software. You only have to provide them with the web address to use the Padlet whiteboard.  The set up is virtually nil.  I showed this to one instructor and she was using it the next day in class.  The Padlet creator has lots of flexibility with access, from requiring a password just to view the page to expanding its availability to anyone. You can set posts up to be moderated as well, then resize and move content to add organization and emphasis. There is an App that makes interaction with the page easier, but it isn’t essential.  Nor is the $$ version; the freebie appears to work rather well.

What are the drawbacks? The visual display itself is unrefined. If you want an easy, dynamic collaborative workspace, Padlet works great. If you want a professional looking screen organization to share as a finished “product,” that’s not a strong suit.

To me, an ideal application would be individuals or groups working on a project who want to share comments, files, readings, and media. If everyone is watching a common display and working in real-time, the instructor can act as a moderator, board admin, and highlight salient content posted to the Padlet. I envision a busy, conversation-filled classroom problem solving and engaging in multiple streams of communication. The Padlet whiteboard is both an organizer of that dialogue and a tool to prompt thoughts in different directions.  In another scenario, students could use Padlet as an asynchronous work space to document material relevant to class or make decisions about class activities and projects.

Alexandra Briggs has some ideas on using Padlet in Higher Education which I am linking in part because it is itself a Padlet.
http://padlet.com/briggsa/ghhkm19jtte6

Of course, if you’re interested in using Padlet at K, I’d be happy to collaborate with you and help you get oriented to the tech.  There are already instructors who have tried it here so you’re far from alone!

A Warm Welcome + a tip

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I almost regret that it has taken me until my fourth week here at Kalamazoo College to start this blog because I’ve already had plenty of great experiences as I begin my position as Educational Technology Specialist. I’ve been overwhelmed by how welcoming and outgoing the campus population is. I’ve met and shaken hands with faculty, dining hall workers, administrators, grounds crews, librarians, and individuals of every role we play here on campus. Across the board, people have gone out of their way to welcome me and ask me about how my introduction to K has gone. To all of you, especially those who remember my name when I’m struggling with yours, thank you!

When someone meets me, they often ask about my background and what brought me here. I’m always proud to tell them that I grew up in SW Michigan and have been a full-time Kalamazoo resident for the past four years. The opportunity to continue my professional career at Kalamazoo College, with its history and reputation, in a city I admire is exciting. The local artistry, cuisine, values, personalities, and locations that make Kzoo so unforgettable blend seamlessly into the culture of the College. We strive to nurture active citizens who will live thoughtfully while engaging in intercultural understanding, an expansion of social justice, and a regard for community. It’s a very “Kalamazoo” sentiment.

I sincerely intend to use this page as one outlet for sharing tips and best practices around educational technology at Kalamazoo College. So often, I’ll come into contact with a new website, useful software, or technique in Moodle that I want to publicize to our faculty. No one, not even the most eager, understanding faculty member, wants a weekly barrage of emails from the educational technologist so I’ll spread the word about some of my discoveries in this blog. This can supplement the person-to-person collaboration that will be a major focus of my position.

As promised:
Moodle Tip
Multiple-choice and true-false questions are very popular in automated Moodle quizzes. However, building questions into an online quiz can be tedious. There are a number of techniques to speed up this process but my favorite is the “Aiken” method. In short, Aiken lets you create a simple question list with a text program for loading into Moodle.

An Aiken question format looks like this:

Does creating a quiz in Moodle have to be difficult?
A. No!
B. Yes
C. The struggle is real
D. All of the above
ANSWER: A

Simply type up a single document with multiple questions in this style, save in the proper encoding, and upload the file to Moodle.
Clear, full instructions from UMass are here:
https://www.it.umass.edu/support/moodle/import-quiz-questions-moodle-using-aiken-format

You can store your uploaded questions to your Question Bank to use on any future quizzes. The questions can be edited once inside Moodle for more complexity and versatility, but the time consuming part is done!