Mural recently did away with the freemium account and members will now have to pay or lose access to any of their collaborative sticky note web boards. If you are an enthusiastic teacher who loves to engage your learners in collaborative reflection, discussion or note-taking you will enjoy the following list of free sticky board web tools and apps. With these tools, your language learners can post sticky notes which summarize their opinions, what they just read, answer questions, share resources and facts surrounding a topic, or reflect on their readings or a video. Try pairing or grouping students to brainstorm about a chosen topic and include their research on any of these tools. Sticky note apps and tools are ideal for digital research, for college students, backchanneling, or for teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classes. For more lesson ideas, check out our webinar recording, Teaching Digital Research and Note-taking .
To learn more about integrating technology to support English language learners, attend our free Friday webinars.
- Padlet (Web/iOS/Android)– Students can add sticky notes with links, video, pdfs, or audio. Choose backgrounds or upload your own, password protect, and get an automatic QR code for your wall. Only the teacher has to register for a free account.
- LinoIt (Web/iOS/Android)– Students can choose between different colored sticky notes and add video, pdfs, and links. Only the teacher has to register for a free account.
- GroupZap– Simple whiteboard for students to add collaborative notes with information and add different colored sticky notes. No registration required.
- TuzzIt– Add various colored sticky notes, stickers, and add video, links, text, and maps.
- Spaaze– Display videos from Youtube or Vimeo, add various colored sticky notes with text and links, link images, and upload files to a virtual corkboard.
- Diigo (Web/iOS/Android/Extension)- This is a bookmarking tool, but students can annotate sites with sticky notes, highlight, and screen capture. Tag and categorize the page to find the information quickly at a future date. Teachers can set up class groups.
- Nuggets (Chrome extension)- This is not collaborative like the above tools, instead students create notes of their learning in?200 characters or less on a sticky note. They can add by typing or highlighting text. Add hashtags to search and organize the notes. This extension pops up with the notes to help students study vocabulary, facts, and more.
Check out the Teaching with Technology Certification course we offer online.
Live TESOL webinars are presented every Friday at 4 PM EST or New York time with Shelly Terrell. TESOL Lectures are open to the public, so feel free to invite a friend. To enter a TESOL Webinar, click here https://americantesol.adobeconnect.com/terrell/. Next, click Enter as a Guest, type your name, and click Enter Room.
