In 8th grade Topics in Media and Technology this rotation, I wanted to show a video called I forgot my iPhone (which, by the way, is great). I wanted to encourage students to think critically about the messages in the video. First, I projected the video and asked for verbal responses. Then, I projected a split screen, and students made notes via Padlet about what specific activities the video said were good based on actions and images they saw:
After watching the video, students read George Couros's critique of the video. They discussed the blog post in small groups, and then posted their group's position statement about cell phones based on his blog post. Using the padlet, we then had a class discussion about cell phones use.
Some of the functions of padlet that are useful: you can create a free account, students do not have to create accounts to post, the owner of the padlet page can set permissions so students don't accidentally delete each other's posts, the owner can set a password so that the padlet isn't public, and the wall updates in real time, so you can see who's posting when. Very useful for directing a class discussion and maintaining a record of students' thoughts.
A word of warning: my first class figured out how to put cat photos in a wall. They did it after an amazing discussion, but if you don't like chaos, you'll want to set ground rules for posting.
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