I had a little side convo with a class member in which the question about how Padlet and Miro might be used in the business world was raised. And I thought others might wonder the same thing, so let me blog about that!
Miro
Padlet
IMHO, this is the more non-business environment of the two tools, mostly owing to look and feel, but that could also be my impression based on having seen more use cases in K-12 and higher ed. Also, I think they market more to education settings.
BUT: I've seen it used in business settings for resource sharing, interactions during training (capturing ideas/group brainstorms), project management, etc.
The ISLT faculty use it all the time -- it's flexible enough to support a running agenda for our faculty meetings and allows us to link in necessary documents.
After using Padlet extensively for a summer semester, I have to agree that Padlet is mostly geared towards K-12 and education. I have also been in workshops that used Padlet because educators are familiar with it. I really liked the official Padlet task types provided, but I know that there are other custom templates available made by teachers.
ReplyDeleteMiro seems to be marketing to businesses, but there are definitely educators using it, too. I can imagine the application of instructional models and agile development so that this can be done remotely, synchronously, and is very engaging.
One critique of Miro, is that it seems that after a honeymoon period, this would become business as usual. Just because people "aren't talking", doesn't mean that they are effectively contributing. It becomes easier to multitask and do other things in these kinds of meetings if they're held remotely. It's hard to ensure accountability if you throw too many people onto a Miro board. I'm curious how this tool could be used in synchronous face-to-face meetings. You might get much better ideas in smaller, face-to-face sessions.
I think any tool becomes business as usual after a while -- nothing magical about them, just a matter of whether the tech affordances meet the users' needs. As for Padlet and K-12/higher education, I think that's where it's been marketed most extensively, but I don't think there's anything about the tool that makes it inherently education-focused (that said, recent updates have tried to take advantage of AI and connect to discussion, plus to take over the market share vacated by Flip when it died). Most of my use of Padlet has been out of the classroom, for project planning, task organization, group brainstorming, etc. It's easier to use than Miro, so if you have a group that is temporary or fleeting, it is a better tool. If you really need the grids and more of the movement flexibility, then Miro looks better. I've seen Miro used during face-to-face meetings (because almost everyone shows up with their laptop anyway, so people can contribute directly and the board can simultaneously be projected if desired).
DeleteBut I'll bottom-line it this way: The important thing isn't the dominant market, it's whether the tool does what you need it to do.