Dotstorming....Padlet on Steirods

If you have not used Padlet - www.padlet.com, learn how to use it.  Docstorming is Padlet on roids.  First things first.  Padlet has alot of awesome features for collaborating with students, teachers, and other adults...but it is really just a message board.  If you want to have students not only work together, but also have student input and collaboration.

Before I give you the website, understand that dotstorming.com is not connected with Google, so you will need to create an account and choose a password that works for you.

So, go to www.dotstorming.com

Create your account, and then make a board.

Title, Description, and the all important how many votes.

To test it out, I decided to do a primary source activity in connection to the American Revoution.  So, we were talking about Valley Forge, so Valley Forge became our example.  The students had to vote on three paintings talking about the winter in Valley Forge.  There were three pictures, but they had two votes.  

• Once you vote, you can't vote again. (you set the amount of possible votes when you create it.)

To be able to vote, they have to join the board.  This can be done a couple of ways.  The way that I did it was to embed the link in my schoology materials.  Then the student will need to put their "name" in the baord before they could vote.  As you can see from the above image, one picture got the most votes.  

• The tools allow you to sort by votes and participants can also chat about their decisions in the "chat forum". 
•  I let the kids play with the chat, but would limit or not allow the students to use this if you want.

Free and easy to use, Dostorming is an awesome tool to have students and teachers create, brainstorm, discuss, and vote.

Please try it!

If you have anything you want to share, just fill out the form below.