Whether you call them sticky notes, stickies or Post-It notes, if you work in education then you probably have used these for a variety of purposes.  Post-It notes are a quick and flexible way to share ideas or thinking.  Just do a quick search on “lesson plans and Post-It notes” and you’ll be directed to hundreds of blogs with ideas to use the notes across content and grade levels.

But what happens, if you want to create an extended activity using Post-In Notes over several days?  Or maybe the span of several weeks? It’s sometimes impractical to keep notes in one area for a long duration of time.  From my own experience, notes often lose their “stick” and fall off their surface.  In the past, I’ve taken pictures to try to preserve the visual arrangement of notes, only to take them all down, and to then re-create that same arrangement at a later date.  This was a huge pain!

Well, a new feature which is available on the Padlet iOS app will now allow you to instantly transfer your paper into digital notes on a Padlet wall.   Catscan, which is being Beta tested on  by Padlet is currently available on the on the iOS version of its mobile app.  (Sorry Android users, Catscan is only available on iOS which means you’ll need an iPad or iPhone.)

Selecting this button will allow you to scan your Post-In notes with your camera and instantly transfer them into digital posts on a Padlet well.  Scanning your notes onto a Padlet allows users to further arrange or add more notes on a digital canvas.   Through sharing a link to the Padlet, you can also grant the same ability to others.

Here’s how to use Catscan in Padlet:

1. Download the Padlet mobile app on an iPad or iPhone and create an account.  Padlet is free but there are several different premium plans for extended use.  If you are just signing up for Padlet, you’ll be given a maximum of 3 free walls.
2. Next select the “Make” button
3. Select “Catscan” You’ll notice the Catscan button at the top right hand side of the screen.
4. Select the source for your scan.  You can either choose a picture of notes that you have saved in your library or you can use the camera to take a new picture.
5. If you select “camera,” point directly at your notes.  You will notice a red opaque border around each note that the camera will scan.  When you are finished, select “Capture”
6. From there, your wall will be created in a few moments.   This will then allow you continue to modify notes either on your iOS device or from any computer with access to your Padlet.  

A few notes about Catscan:

It is still in Beta, so you might notice a few issues with your scan but overall it works pretty well.

If you need to resize your Post-It notes, you can do it on your iOS device using a reverse pinch gesture.  I haven’t been able to resize notes in the desktop version.