Community reviews for lino - Sticky and Photo Sharing

Notes get posted on top of one other, and depending on the length of the note, the font size is different in each box. Trying to navigate through other student's responses amounts to what appears to be only a cute idea, but not a functional way to hold a discussion or brainstorm. I understand the concept of the program; post-it notes are well loved in the educational community. Translating this idea into technology in theory elevates the physical classroom post-it notes to a higher level of technological integration. In practice, this of course does not work, unless the developers create better functionality for the placement of notes, limiting spaces and regulating text size (perhaps with a scroll bar incorporated). If, as a teacher, my students put physical post-it notes on top of each other in a class exercise, the frustration I'd feel peeling each individual post-it note off of the others is the same frustration I feel with this program.

The app basically felt like a diet, or Great Value version of Padlet. The interface is not user-friendly and does not play well with all computer formats (especially not touchscreen laptops). I could not figure out how to respond to other posts and am unsure if that is even a capability of the application. I would not recommend it as the sole application for discussions, as it does not encourage any form of engagement. When thinking of SAMR, it is merely a substitution for class discussion and not a particularly efficient one.

I was very pleased with this experience with students. Each student was able to share his/her connection in a format that they selected (image, quote, video, text). I really liked that the class was all operating in a group and it was easy for me to access the lino boards to grade. The only thing that I wish was possible was to comment on each sticky or to extend discussion on the sticky notes. I don't know if this is within the capacity of the app, because a sticky note should only be so big!

Great in theory, but there are other apps that perhaps do a better job.

Padlet and Lino are two of my favorite sticky note apps to foster collaboration and create a snapshot of learning in the classroom. They are both web 2.0 tools that do NOT require an account or login, which makes them very student-friendly. Lino allows you to upload a background image that notes can be stuck to like a venn dagram or an image to label, and you can color code notes. Both are accessible through any web-enabled device, laptop, ipad, ipod, notebook or Chromebook, and of course, they are FREE.

LinoIt is a great tool for brainstorming, and crowd-sourcing ideas for global projects. I use this tool on my desktop and laptop computer, but find it hard to recommend using it on mobile devices. My biggest complaint is that the iOS app is heavily ad-supported, and an expensive subscription is required to remove them. This is a great tool for teachers, and is suitable for Grades 2-12 students; however I would recommend using a teacher account, and sharing public LinoIt boards with their class- rather than letting students create their own accounts. This helps avoid the need to 'invite' collaborators (and the 13+ restriction) If you are looking for a (free), excellent iOS alternative to LinoIt, I highly recommend Padlet (formerly WallWisher).