THE STORY OF THE NEW BROOM (or) HOW NOT TO USE PADLET

So, I once had an interesting Padlet experience. A person was brought in to act as the thrusting new broom at the school where I worked. The existing brooms just all felt a bit tired and jaded after their years of sweeping. And as part of their thrusting, the New Broom thought they might have a crack at setting up a Padlet to encourage teacher cooperation and the sharing of ideas. Nothing suggests dynamism more than a Padlet, right? So how did this experiment pan out?

The Padlet was set up nine months previously and in that time it attracted a grand total of – drum roll – 12 posts most of which either came from the Broom or me. It wasn’t what you’d call a thriving online space. Lost cat posters get more attention.

In contrast to this, I created a Padlet for one of my groups – an Upper-Intermediate class. After four weeks, there were a total of 206 posts. It WAS a thriving space. Students were actively posting voice recordings and pieces of writing and receiving meaningful feedback from myself. A student of the week section was set up that worked really well. And as a reward for these efforts, I was reassigned from this class so that a teacher on a full-time contract could have my hours.

This experience was a clear demonstration of how not to engage people online and a personal affirmation of my own more successful approach.

CALL TO ACTION

What’s the biggest factor for driving engagement in your experience? Is it top-down mandate or grassroots community? Curious to hear your thoughts below. (And get in touch if you want to know how to get 200+ Padlet posts…).