• Padlets Latest Features – My Top 6 Favourites

    Many of us are integrating Padlet into our teaching, learning, and team collaboration. Signing up for a free account grants you access to three Padlet boards initially. Once you’ve used these, if you are a staff member, we can add you to our institutional license, providing you with endless boards!

    Don’t forget you can embed your Padlet boards within Blackboard or simply share a link. Lots of our colleagues are using it across the University in a variety of ways including promoting student engagement with ice breakers, feedback and posting questions as well as group collaboration on topics or simply a way to share a collection of resources. If you are using Padlet it would be great if you could add a post to our ideas board to share with your colleagues 😀

    Examples of Using Padlet from across EHU https://edgehill.padlet.org/leahwilson4/examples-of-using-padlet-from-across-ehu-v7gnssqpik3rj84k

    Padlet has recently introduced some exciting new features that are worth exploring. Below, I’ve highlighted my top six favourites for you to consider.

    Magic Padlet: Generate Padlets with AI

    The Magic Padlet feature within Padlet uses artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically generate Padlet boards based on user criteria input.

    It’s easy to use. Simply select Make a Padlet from the dashboard, then select the green button in the top right corner of your screen.  You will be prompted to choose from eight formats.

    Choose from a range of formats including Lesson Plan, Classroom activities list, Timeline of events, Reading List, Map of historical events, Assessment pools, Rubric, custom board

    I had a play with this and selected ‘Timeline of events’ which shows a clear order of events.   In the prompts I entered Timeline of British Monarchy, and this is what it generated!

    Timeline of the British Monarchy generated by Padlets AI

    For more information on the different formats read the Padlet Gazelle article:  Magic Padlet: Generate Padlets with AI

    I would also recommend reading Padlets help page on AI including ‘Limitations to consider’ before using this feature.

    Freeze Padlet

    You can now freeze Padlets to lock in the content forever.  This prohibits any changes to its content, no one will be able to add, edit or delete posts.  To freeze a Padlet, simply click the three-dot button in the action bar and select Freeze Padlet. You might want to consider freezing a Padlet at the end of a module or programme to stop further interactions occuring in a space that may no longer be monitored.

    Only admins of a Padlet are allowed to freeze or unfreeze. I have found this function useful when using Padlet to share a link to feedback with a group.

    If you decide to unfreeze the Padlet it will function as it did before.

    Select Freeze padlet from the action bar menu.

    Template Gallery

    If you need a bit of inspiration when creating your Padlet board the new Gallery contains over 250 templates for you to use.   Instead of starting from scratch each template offers a specific possibility with detailed instructions on how to build your board. 

    You can use the search function to find the template that will work for you, and everything is customisable!

    Search from a range of templates in the gallery

    AI Image Generation – for those “I can’t draw!” moments

    Have you ever gone down a rabbit hole trying to find the perfect image for your teaching materials?  With Padlet’s new feature ‘I can’t draw’ you can enter a text-based prompt and an image will be generated within seconds.

    Click on your Padlet to add a new post and select I can’t draw. In the below example I typed ‘A cartoon style drawing of a smart owl‘. Pretty good results, I think!

    Breakout links

    A breakout link allows a group of users to collaborate in a single section of the Padlet without being able to see the other sections.

    To use this feature your Padlet must contain sections, simply click the three-dot button in the action bar and select Share and then Breakout links.

    You can then selectively copy a specific section and share it with users, granting them access to add posts. They will only see the section you’ve shared, while the posts they add will appear on the main Padlet board for you as the creator to view.

    Scheduled Posts

    It’s now possible to schedule Padlet posts, this means that rather than a post appearing immediately you can choose a specific date and time for the post to appear, this could be useful if you wanted to use Padlet within a session and wanted answers to appear part way through the lesson.

    Set a future publish date for your posts to appear on the Padlet wall.,

    Further support

    If you would like help with any of the above features or just want to get started with Padlet email [email protected] to book on a session.

    Leah Wilson – Digital Learning Technology Officer

  • Digital Internship with a Difference

    Over the last three years we have been on an exciting journey of employing student Interns to work alongside academics and colleagues from across the University to evaluate and update course areas within Blackboard Ultra. 

    We have always placed a strong emphasis on training and development as improving student graduate attributes is at the heart of the Internship. Across the three years we have worked with 80 students and over 70 academics receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback.   

    Summary of 2023 interns overall experience in just a few words.

    We are pleased to confirm that we will have 6 Interns joining us again from 10th June for a period of 10 weeks.  

    If you have an interest in technology, want to improve your employability skills and learn about new digital tools then we want to hear from you.  This is your opportunity to get paid to learn new digital skills and enhance your graduate attributes. 

    This year, the Internship will be run a little differently from the previous years.  We will be advertising for three specific job roles which students can apply for and we plan to recruit 2 students to each one.  

    Below is a brief description of the roles but more details will follow soon!  

    Digital Accessibility  
    • Produce student/learner case studies for staff to further understand the importance of providing accessible content for all students.  
    • Audit programme and module areas to identify and make accessibility improvements and recommendations.  
    • Support departments to make accessibility fixes on learning content using Blackboard Ally.  
    • Provide training materials and development resources for academic staff.  
    Digital Content Development  
    • Coordinate, run and evaluate student focus groups based on survey results.  
    • Produce course consistency through folder and banner images within VLE (Blackboard Ultra).  
    • Provide support for updating and creating video content for modules.  
    • Create learning resources and assets for academics to use in the VLE (Blackboard Ultra)  
    Digital Skills 
    • Create training materials and development resources (guides, videos etc.) for staff and students.  
    • Pilot delivery of digital skills training sessions on offer for students.  
    • Help create a plan for a digital skills framework that helps students/learners improve their digital skills. 
    • Build digital skills framework in SharePoint.  

    Last year our Interns enjoyed on campus days, and we have listened to feedback and decided that this year’s Internship will be hybrid meaning you will be on campus part of the time as well as having the opportunity to work remotely. 

    If this sounds like something you would be interested in please register your interest by completing the form and you will be sent a notification when applications go live in April. 


  • Dialling Down The Volume: Change to Blackboard Notifications

    On 1 March 2024, we will make a change in Blackboard whereby notifications for new content being added to a course will be disabled as a default for student users, with the option for students to be able to opt-in if they wish to continue receiving notifications for content.

    This screenshot shows the personal preferences screen for email notifications in Blackboard. The 'new content added' notification setting is highlighted in red.
    (more…)

Categories