Easy-to-use webbing tool but check "Terms of Use" for students under 13
Community Review for Popplet
My Take
Unfortunately, the Terms of Service are nebulous for the under 13 crowd. The terms state: "The Site is not directed to children and children are not eligible to use our Services. Protecting the privacy of children is very important to us. We do not collect or maintain personal information from people we actually know are under 13 years old, and no part of the Site or Services is designed to attract people under 13 years old. By using our Site, You represent that You are at least 13 years old." However, the tool itself seems very geared for students in elementary or middle grades as it isn't sophisticated enough for high school students. The Popplet for Schools area of the site recommends that a teacher or parent create an account, but that is counter to their Terms of Service. In addition to the confusion about student use, it is limited in its language support, offering only Japanese, Korean, and Hebrew. Its simplicity is appealing, but the complexity in terms of use makes it hard to recommend for younger students and classrooms at the elementary level.
How I Use It
This web-based tool for concept maps is easy to use and a good solution for simple brainstorming and doing things like mind mapping. You can try it out without logging in, which will help students acclimate to the tool without using up the limited number of free "popplets" you can create (5). Options exist for collaboration, and images can be uploaded or videos can be linked from Vimeo or YouTube. Each popple is customizable in terms of color outline, size & text size/alignment, but that's about it. Besides printing options, Popplets can be emailed, exported as image files, embedded, or linked, which is nice. The comment feature is also helpful for giving feedback and collaborating.