Padlet for class discussions!

As a subject, Film Studies naturally utilises a lot of discussion.  In order to be able to continue with our current unit of study from a distance, I wanted to be able to simulate a class discussion; however, not quite brave enough or confident enough for conference calling yet, I needed to find another way.  I didn’t want to clutter up our Teams Channel with this discussion, as it is shared by a colleague and I, both of us currently teaching different films.  This is why I turned to Padlet.  I created a discussion wall on Padlet and shared this and the focus scene of the film with the students via the Teams channel.  I gave the students specific instructions as to what to do: 

Collaborative analysis task: Access the link to the closing scene on the class Teams.

1. Watch the scene at least twice – making personal notes: Focus your thinking:  Does the film reach a resolution / new equilibrium?  How does the spectator feel about this?  What is our emotional engagement?

2. Add at least 3 pieces of film form to the Padlet wall (link on the Teams channel)

3. Respond to any comments on your post left by myself or a classmate.

Here is an example post and interactions. 

Around 70% of the class engaged at the timetabled time for the lesson, which enabled me to interact ‘live’ with them. The other members of the class posted later in the day. I have also responded to their posts.

I set another two activities for the lesson, one of which was a summative assessment task which students submitted via an assignment created on Teams. It was clear that the learners had utilised the lesson content to feed in to their summative task completion.

Padlet is really straight forward to set up and really easy to use. Perfect for simulating class discussion.