Padlets are simple online noticeboards for displaying information – think of it as the equivalent of digital post-it notes, which can include links, video and audio. It is designed to be collaborative, but there are settings to decide how much viewers can contribute. That makes it a really versatile tool, as you can decide everything from how it looks to the control you have over access, posting, privacy settings and sharing. Available as an app and a web version, it can be accessed through a range of devices.

Check our our handy short guide for more on how to use Padlets

Work within the three Padlet limit by reusing existing boards. For example, you could use a board as a class noticeboard which is regularly refreshed. Rather than making a new board each week for posting homework etc you can simply export your padlet as a PDF for your records, delete all of the posts on the online version, then post new content to the same board the following week. You could use the same principle to facilitate class discussions or even gather homework. You can even change the board format and design if you want to use it for something different.

If you want to make a new Padlet board but don’t want to delete the posts from an older one you can temporarily archive it. Then, if you want to reinstate the older board you can simply archive another active Padlet before unarchiving it.

Don’t forget that you can add a colleague to a board as a collaborator. You can decide how much control they have but, if you make them an administrator, they can essentially use this board as though it were their own. This means that a teacher with a spare Padlet board can share it with a colleague who has run out.

If lots of staff members are going to be using Padlet, encourage them to sign up via the referral code from the account that you plan to use most frequently. This will result in additional free Padlets for both parties.

The 25MB upload limit might seem restrictive but, because Padlet does such a nice job of embedding externally hosted content, this often isn’t as much of a problem as it may seem. For example, if you link to a Youtube, Vimeo or even (public) Google Drive video you will see it appear on the board much as it would if you had uploaded the video file directly.

Thanks to Zoheb Jamal from Padlet who we hosted for a really useful webinar – Collaboration, creativity and assessment: In conversation with Padlet. Here’s the whole webinar to watch and pick up lots more tips.