Over the past 8-months, we have received some very interesting success stories that involved the use of Technology-Enhanced Learning and Teaching tools before, during and after class at London Metropolitan University. This blog post will focus on the use of Padlet and will attempt to showcase and celebrate some of the projects that our academics were able to develop over the past academic year.

After the immediate release of Padlet’s new features, our team created a Padlet and embedded a video guide asking academics to contribute to the canvas by using the new recording function. This video not only assisted participants navigate through the technical part of recording and uploading their own Reflective Vidcast, but also invited them to reflect on the underpinning pedagogies of the tools by answering 5 nominal questions:

1. Name one (1) thing you and your students really liked in Padlet
2. Name one (1) thing you and your students learned in the process
3. Name one (1) thing that went wrong
4. Was the training sufficient and empowering enough?
5. Will you use the tool in the future?

Naomi Roberts was one of the “early adopters” of this new tool, and soon after she completed the basic training on the technical aspects of setting up, deploying and monitoring her Padlet interactive canvases, she engaged with our Learning Technologists on possible future use and underpinning pedagogies of this simple; and yet powerful tool that adds so much value in Learning and Teaching. Naomi, with great success, designed and implemented a TELT intervention in the following taught modules SE6035/4003/5003. Please click on the image below to access her reflection video and get a better idea of the immense added value that she was able to bring into her classrooms by investing on an hourly training with our learning technologists team.

Amongst other things, Naomi highlighted the rather intuitive interface that enabled her to delve right into using Padlet with the only technical difficulty being in embedding a “live Padlet window” directly in her Weblearn module content areas. However, and perhaps the most important element in her feedback was that Padlet provided the tool to evidence student engagement in the reading material, when naomi deployed “flipped classroom” activities that involved her students having to do some work before they attended her classes.

Another very interesting point in her reflection video was that Naomi was able to bypass the issue of some students not having their own device in class by deploying group work activities that used one device. In more simple words, Naomi was able to truly introduce and enhance engagement, gamification, collaboration, group work, polyphony and cross-fertilization by allowing one device per group – and thus pushing her students to collaborate verbally, in written text and in by making posters and then present their findings to the rest of the classroom by using a Padlet canvas to embed a photo of their poster, a sample text, a word document or a simple sentence/argument.

Berhane Dory, was responsible for overseeing all efforts concerning the use of Padlet in both face-to-face and distance learning modules within her team and was also the first one to actually use Padlet in her classroom. In her reflection video Berhane, cited the importance of using simple solutions that add immediate value in our teaching contexts. During her first attempt to deploy a padlet activity in class, she was seconded by a leaning technologist that provided onsite support, making sure that all activities went well and that the student experience was positive. Berhane was so impressed by the use of new technologies that decided to invest time and effort and ”drill down” in other technology-enhanced learning and teaching tools, such us video quizzes, the use of badges, interactive tests, audience response tools, webinar polling, blogs, discussion boards and journals. The four new Distance Learning modules SE6003/5004/5058/5060DL that Berhane and her team are currently “polishing up” have incorporated the latest TELT solutions with students welcoming and embracing the renewed course syllabus, structure and overall method of delivery.

Last but not least, the top triad of best use testimonials must include James Steventon’s project Google Vs Student. Foundation students at The Cass have been using artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to test and help develop their own creativity. In this ingenious project, students were challenged by their tutor James Steventon to demonstrate they are more creative than AI. As such, students played the adversarial part in an iterative sequence where they subverted Google’s Image Search algorithm to create new, unexpected images. Each step of the process was uploaded to a collaborative online Padlet. The project culminated in the use of further AI algorithms where students created their own digital poster images. These were then graded by another algorithm to instigate discussions about aesthetics and creativity.

James, amongst others said in his reflection video: “This was a project about how technology can encourage creativity so using Padlet was entirely appropriate and helped take it to a new level.” He then continued on to say that “It also helped me focus my teaching on students who needed my help more immediately than others, as well as reaching students in several different parts of the university all at once.” To watch each complete video reflection just click on the each corresponding image and then when you’re done, click on the “back arrow” situated on the upper, left hand corner of your screen.