Tech-Tac-Toe #3 ~ Popplet

Success AGAIN! Popplet is a Web 2.0 tool that we explored in our tech class a few weeks ago. When I first explored the tool, I immediately thought it would be a great fit for my kindergarten kiddos with lots of exciting ways to use it racing through my head. Unfortunately, time slips away and I had yet to actually explore making a Popplet on my own, let alone with my kiddos. My Tech-Tac-Toe assignment seemed like the perfect opportunity to explore making a Popplet. Popplet is a wonderful technology tool that can be used to organize information visually and create graphic organizers or timelines. This tool can also combine different sources of media into the graphic organizers, such as text, images and YouTube videos. I decided to try my hand at making a Popplet, but I first had to create an account. I signed up for the free account, but unfortunately that only allows me to make 5 Popplets. If this tool is as promising as it looks, I would like to make many more than five. I then learned that our district has a Popplet account and the app is on our iPads. Yea! After watching a short YouTube tutorial, I was ready to go. It seemed simple enough. When thinking about creating my first Popplet and learning how to use it, I wanted to create something that I could foresee creating with my students. We do many science related themes throughout the year, starting off with a bears unit at the beginning of the year. At the beginning of the unit, my students and I create a list of things we THINK we know about bears. As the unit progresses and we read information books about bears, we either confirm the information we thought we knew or add new learning to our chart. This is where I thought a Popplet would come in handy. So, I created one to show some of things my students learn throughout our unit about bears.
 I very quickly learned just how easy this tool is to use. After typing in a title for the Popplet and choosing a background color, I was able to very easily add more popples (bubbles around the web) but just clicking on the small grey dots around each popple. This allows the various popples to be connected and visually illustrating their relationship. After typing in the text I wanted in each popple, I was then able to add a photo to illustrate the idea. I used screenshots images I found from Google searches. The popples were very easy to maneuver and place wherever I wanted. I also loved that idea that as new popples were added to the web, my name was attached to them. So, if my students were each adding their own popple to a web, their name would then be attached so we could easily see who contributed what to our learning. Using Popplet appears to be a wonderful way to create graphic organizers such as webs with my students. I can also envision using it with my students to create story maps or graphic organizers that show the main idea and details of information text. The next thing I will need to explore is how to use the app that is on our iPads and how many students can contribute to one Popplet. I would love for my students to be able to contribute their own ideas using their kindergarten spelling to create one shared Popplet. We will likely start with using just text first, and perhaps had images later, with support. I can’t wait to get started with my kiddos!