Popplet Update

Room 3's Popplet - Purity in our World

My last post was about Popplet and here is my class's first attempt.

We really enjoyed bringing this work together. It was great that we were able to collaborate on it.
We discussed the concept in class with some visual demonstrations and verbal brainstorming and then the children went away to brainstorm their ideas on the Popplet I'd set up for them.
From their first effort, I was able to see who understood the concept and who had slightly warped understandings. We were able to discuss and edit as a class and then the children had a second independent/collaborative brainstorm. We finished with another a whole class review and edit. It was great to hear the kids debating and justifying their ideas and explaining their concepts to allow them to stay on the shared work. Love it.

Handy Hint 1; 

In the settings menu, under "labs" you will find "popplet permissions". There are two settings;

When your kids are working, make sure the top option (which is default) is chosen. This means the kids can only edit the boxes they created and they are less likely to delete or change each other's work. Unfortunately the Popplet creator (you the teacher) is subject to this too. 

So, when you want to edit as a class, change to the second option. Remember ALL collaborators can now edit anyone's boxes so it's wise to move the kids away from their computers/ipads before changing this setting. I use this permission setting when I have the Popplet on the projector and the class on the mat. 

Handy Hint 2:

When you name your student accounts, choose your names carefully as they can't be changed later. If you want to take advantage of the Popplet labels which show which user is editing each Popplet box, then you need to give your accounts identifying names. I called all my accounts Tas Bay because the accounts are generic and not assigned to particular students. This means my children have to name their boxes. How you manage that is dependent on how you manage your students' online accounts and email address access.

Overall Review: A Cool Tool

• I found Popplet to be functional and useful. 
• I liked the cross platform internet/iPad capabilities. 
• There were some issues around computers which didn't auto refresh (iPad possibly suffers this problem) but this is common to google docs and other collaborative tools.
• Some of the editing and personalization tools were a bit clunky and limited but I expect this tool will grow and improve as we use it. Future versions of the tool my address these complaints but they currently don't affect the usefulness of the tool as a whole.
• Most importantly, for me, It created great conversations as the children debated the ideas as they were put up. Even more great conversations happened as we reviewed the work as a class. 
• As a teacher, I was able to see who understood the concept and who needed more support and I was able to address that immediately.
• Ultimately, I can see lots of uses for this tool.