Wallwisher is a website where you can make an online bulletin board where anyone can post virtual sticky notes. It can make a great discussion, brainstorming, survey, question, or assessment tool. The teacher can start a new wall and one or many people can post sticky notes to the wall.
Educators are using Wallwisher in different ways. For example, Steve Kirkpatrick's elementary students in Salford, U.K. posted to their Dinosaur Question Wall. Questions like "Which Baby dinosaurs were the biggest after they have just hatched?" and "Were there any swimming dinosaurs?" will serve as research topics. Similarly, Kathleen McGready's students posted what they know about dinosaurs to their What did you learn about dinosaurs? wall. Twelfth grade biology students in Andrew Douchy's class brainstormed what they already knew about evolution before beginning to study the topic in class. Jim Hansen has a wall called From the Desktop of Mr. Hansenwhere he posts announcements. Jim's wall is embedded as a web widget in his New Searles 234class blog. James Hollis asked SMART Board using educators on Twitter and Ning to post their thoughts on the wall he started called Why Do Teachers Love SMART Boards.
You can set up a wall in just a few short steps. While you don't have to first create an account, I suggest doing so. This way, as the wall creator, you can edit and delete anything posted to the wall.
After clicking Done, you'll be taken to your new wall. Note the URL in your browser's address bar. This is the URL you give out for viewing and posting. To add a sticky note, a user double clicks the page and then starts typing. Notes are limited to 160 characters, and there's a field for a link to a webpage, audio file, or video (multimedia must be uploaded elsewhere on the Internet and have a URL).
A whole class can post to Wallwisher at the same time, though their notes might overlap. Students can move the sticky notes around their screens as much as they like, but their arrangements are not permanent. As the wall creator, the teacher (when logged in) does have the power to permanently move, edit, and delete sticky notes.
Each you wall you create has its own unique URL and the wall can be just used once or revisited over time. You can create as many walls as you like, perhaps one for each period, group, lesson, or subject. If you want to know more about Wallwisher, read the site's Frequently Asked Questions.
Post It image from Flickr user alex.ragone.