Parlay Ideas (Online Roundtable)

Parlay is one of the coolest EdTech tools I've heard about in a long time, (Thanks Jason!). I was able to it with my Grade 6s and 7s yesterday and today, but know that it is suitable for older students, including DP and college age. It's basically a tool that supports student discussion and prompts peer feedback.

I used the 'online roundtable', (think of 'roundtable' as a lesson of activity). Here I put some stimulus (I had a video, text and some images), and then students each responds. I can quickly reply to their responses, but they can also comment on their classmates' work. It keeps the students anonymous, so they don't know who they are replying to, (but I can see their real names).

It gives me lots of data, including showing how many people have commented on other students' work, how many words the comments are on average, it also shows me a word cloud, reflecting their work and lets me see who has commented on who! The data is there to be shared with your students, and they even give you questions to help your class reflect on this! Here is some of the data it showed me from one of my classes today:

There's also a live feature, which focusses on verbal discussion, which I will blog about soon. I will be using this for some of the debatable inquiry questions! Don't be confused by the words 'online roundtable' and 'live roundtable'. They can both be done online and live... One has them all work individually on their screen, and one would have them contributing in a live group discussion (face to face, or through a video call).
Parlay also has a massive library (their universe) full of pre-made round-tables!

Parlay is free to use till the end of the year, and even after that you have a choice of free or paid version.
Find Parlay here.
Here's a quick walk through video I made too:

If you want to try either of my roundtables, here's the links:

• Why should IB students learn to code?
• Writing Design Specifications using ACCESS FM.​

As always, this is an unsponsored post! :)