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5 Fantastic Ways to Use Wallwisher in the Classroom

Written by Elizabeth 26 August 2010 18 Comments

With everyone going back to school slowly but surely, I’ve been playing with and researching some fun tools to use in the classroom. I’ve known about Wallwisher since FETC 2010 but really didn’t give it much more than a glance or two until now. I have to say, I’m kind of lovin’ it!

So, what is Wallwisher?

Well, Wallwisher is “an online notice board maker.” Kind of a bleak description so to spice it up a little, Wallwisher is an online collaboration tool to share ideas, resources, and thoughts on a particular topic. Ahhh yes, much better…and pretty cool, huh?

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Getting started with Wallwisher is so easy it’s ridiculous:

Sign up for free.
Build a new wall.
Write your topic question/statement/activity.
Specify your Wallwisher URL.
Share link with others.
Collaborate!

Easy, right?

I think so! Now, for the fun part …

5 fantastic ways to use Wallwisher in the classroom:

  1. Writing activities – Wallwisher has a 160 character limit for each comment/post that you leave on the wall. Which is, in a way, a good thing! It allows for short story/collaborative projects, essay plans, note-taking, memos, poems, etc… the writing possibilities are endless!
  2. Brainstorming activities – This is a great ice breaker for the beginning of class! And better yet, it’s a great way to post a homework assignment/food for thought for that evening and then discuss it the next day.
  3. Vocabulary/Grammar Activities – You could easily use Wallwisher for practicing tenses, definitions, vocabulary matching (you can even use audio or video!), or even find a theme and have the students fill the sticky notes with their ideas for the vocabulary theme!
  4. Speaking activities – I was never one to love speaking in front of people so Wallwisher is a great way to create short speaking activities to help students feel more comfortable in front of a group of people. These activities could be to talk about a photo or video for X minutes, create a story based upon X number of photos, or even put debate topics on a sticky note for the student to create.
  5. Notifications – That is the original thought, right? You could use Wallwisher for orientation information, classroom rules, student profiles, daily/weekly plan, or even fun messages to other students who might be out sick or on trips with their families.

These are just a FEW ways you could use Wallwisher in the classroom. But I want to hear from you! Please share your own ideas and thoughts below about Wallwisher … or hey, guess what? You can even add your ideas to my “Ideas on how to use Wallwisher in YOUR classroom” wall!

18 Comments »

  • ale1507 said:

    Hi, I have just learnt about Wallwisher and I think I will use to invite my students to write down opinions about what has been done as classroom activity, a sort of feedback. I have prepared a wall about Romeo and Juliet :)
    Alessandra

    Elizabeth Reply:
    August 26th, 2010 at 9:08 am

    That’s fantastic, Alessandra!! How fun! Let us know how it works out! I would love to hear all about it! :)

    26 August 2010 at 9:02 am
  • Amanda Dykes said:

    I found out by accident last year that my students who had autism or other learning disabilites were amzong on wall wisher. They were able to post short “blurbs” about ideas we were discussing in class. They did not get overwhelmed with writing a paragraph or more. They just saw it as a place to write short pieces of knowledge. In the end they gave me the same about of information as students who completed other assignements.

    Elizabeth Reply:
    August 26th, 2010 at 1:49 pm

    That is fantastic, Amanda! Thank you for sharing :)

    26 August 2010 at 11:21 am
  • abby brody said:

    We used it in our family as a way to build a “Get Well” wall for ill friends and family. Why not build one as a first grade “Thank You!” wall to classroom visitors, with each student writing/posting their own note?

    Abby

    Elizabeth Reply:
    August 27th, 2010 at 9:36 am

    Ohhhh I love that idea, Abby!! How do the students like Wallwisher? Are they open to it?

    26 August 2010 at 2:34 pm
  • Shamblesguru said:

    I have a Wallwisher area on the Shambles website which has a few more resources.

    http://www.shambles.net/pages/learning/ict/wallwisher/

    Hope helpful

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    27 August 2010 at 11:20 am
  • Robert said:

    How and who monitors this to ensure people that are posting to it are posting appropriate content?

    Tom Reply:
    August 27th, 2010 at 5:35 pm

    Hello Robert:

    There are five different bloggers on the @simplek12 blogging team, and we’re all constantly monitoring comments… throughout the day, including weekends.

    Have you seen something troublesome?

    Tom

    27 August 2010 at 3:41 pm
  • Brigid Stevens said:

    Wallwisher is fantastic to use. I use it in many different ways. I use it in literacy as a writing brainstorming tool, as a spelling tool for prefixes and suffixes – a kind of competition of who can post the answers quickly (boys love it) At the beginning of an Inquiry topic as a brainstorming tool, also to write as many questions as possible on a topic, for fine tuning the questions….the uses are many and always fun.

    28 August 2010 at 6:22 pm
  • Colleen Young said:

    Wallwisher is an excellent resource. Have you seen Tom Barrett’s ‘Interesting Ways To Use Wallwisher In The Classroom? The link (and other links which may be of interest) are here:

    http://staffweb2tools.wordpress.com/walls/

    29 August 2010 at 8:46 am
  • Allison said:

    I colleague showed this to us. We are embedding it into our class websites for students to leave notes on the Wall for each curriculum unit we cover during the year. It is a place for questions, comments, or adding links for websites or videos.

    29 August 2010 at 9:49 am
  • Wallwisher | Tech Tools said:

    [...] find additional Wallwisher ideas for classroom use at I Love EdTech and Nik’s Learning Technology [...]

    17 September 2010 at 9:55 am
  • Kelli said:

    After students create video projects, upload the videos to Wallwisher as a collection.

    29 October 2010 at 11:17 am
  • Claudia said:

    I just found out about Wall Wisher and LOVE it! In 2 minutes, I set up a wall for my first grade students called Action Verbs. I then put a link in a folder on my class website. I also invited my principal to leave a sticky note on our wall (my kids will LOVE that). I am asking my students to leave 5 action verbs on their sticky notes. Then, in the coming week, we will write sentences and use THEIR verbs in our activities. I think I will do a Thanksgiving Wall for “Things for which we are thankful.” This is going to be AWESOME!!!

    6 November 2010 at 8:39 pm
  • Katherine said:

    I have used this for students in different grades who are collaborating on a project to leave notes for research. I like how they can link to the site that they got the information from. I have also started using a similar tool called linoit.com. It is great as well.

    18 January 2011 at 2:50 pm
  • Dinorah said:

    Wallwisher is amazing! How can students collaborate using their cell phones? Sorry to be thick, but after I get the wall up and project it on screen for them, what do students actually do to post?

    Thanks so much!

    19 January 2011 at 2:06 am
  • Wall Wisher « ETID said:

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    17 October 2011 at 12:11 pm