Collaborative Writing Two ideas: Padlet and Google Drive

Padlet What is Padlet? A large wall onto which anyone can stick “post-it” notes giving a short sharp idea or phrase. How can it be used in MFL? - Set a homework for students to post vocabulary they already know on a new topic (which can be used as a starter at the beginning of the next lesson) - ideas for a brainstorm - adjectives to describe a character - to give feedback on an activity - groupwork: set up two different Padlet walls, one for each side of a debate for example, and students within that group can contribute ideas for their side - Set up a Department ideas page which colleagues can contribute to.

Padlet How does it work? You can create a Padlet wall within seconds, but unless you have a (free) account with Padlet, the web address will be a long string of letters. If you set up an account, you can rename the web link to something more memorable. Examples As used in the MFL Spark: Please do leave feedback on the second link and test it out.

Google Drive What is it? An online storage area containing 15GB of space where you can save documents, photos etc. How do I sign up? You need a Google account How can it be used in MFL? In Google Docs, you can create a document, decide who you share that document with and decide what level of control each user has with that document. You can set users to just View the document, be able to Comment on the document or be able to fully Edit the document. This allows a great level of collaboration. You can set up a document for a group of students who can all edit it and contribute to the end product and objective. It can be great for peer assessment too. One user can write a piece of work and another user can be set up to just be able to comment on it. Or it can be a way for teachers to mark student work. My student can share a written document with me and I can edit it in a different colour. The student can see the history of my edits. I can also leave specific comments.

Google Drive Further advantages - I can see the history of who wrote what and when (this proved useful when I caught a student using it inappropriately) - It integrates with other apps such as Explain Everything - Google Drive is an app on Apple and Android, so you can access the documents any time anywhere. Disadvantages - It takes some time to set up (e.g. all the students need a Google account) - Google Docs don’t always integrate with Microsoft Office (though you can upload all of your Microsoft documents into Google). To export documents, it is often necessary to export them as a pdf first.