The ed Newsstand

There are a lot of whiteboard resources out there for teachers working with students in-person and through distance learning. The three choices presented in this week's video have some features in common with previous whiteboards I’ve presented in other newsletters but also are very different and unique features not offered in other whiteboards.  

Ziteboard is similar to apps like Miro and Explain Everything. It is a simple whiteboard with an unlimited canvas.  

Canvas.apps.chrome is a little know resource in Google. The app is different from Google Drawing and while it may seem like a simple tool I can see a lot of uses for the canvas. It works best in the Chrome browser and on a Chromebook.   

Classroomscreen has a whiteboard widget built into the web-based tool but it is really more of a classroom management tool than it is a classroom whiteboard.  

Any of these resources would be a great addition to your classroom but have different benefits and drawbacks, which is why it’s important for you to vet them yourselves to choose the best fit for you and your students.

There are a lot of whiteboard resources out there for teachers working with students in-person and through distance learning. The three choices presented in this week's newsletter have some features in common but also are very different from one another.

Whiteboard.chat is a great resource that allows students to each have their own whiteboard, gives teachers the opportunity to join the student's board, and allows teachers to present their board to all students.

Miro works better for students in upper grades or for people working in the business industry because the collaboration is built on one platform shared amongst many users and requires a login to participate. It has great features like built-in chat, elaborate templates, and the ability to leave comments throughout the whiteboard.

Whiteboard.fi is similar to Whiteboard.chat but feels a little behind some of the tools available. Whiteboard.fi is under the Kahoot umbrella and has a free and paid option so I believe there is a lot of room for the platform to grow in the future.

Any of these resources would be a great addition to your classroom but have different benefits and drawbacks, which is why it’s important for you to vet them yourselves to choose the best fit for you and your students.

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Canva is one of the most powerful graphic design platforms on the internet. You can use the platform to design everything from social media posts to documents to marketing templates. Now, with the ability to sign up for Canva for education, your students can get a free Canva account under your teacher account. Within the account, you can create multiple educational templates that students can collaborate on either with each other or with the class as a whole. You can also easily import students from Google Classroom and assign Canva documents to Google Classroom from within Canva. There are also a lot of whiteboard templates you can use within Canva or download and use on other platforms.

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Website Resources: 

Explain Everything is a wonderful resource for using a whiteboard in your classroom with your students. The free version allows for a collaborative workspace that allows you an endless supply of room. You can add audio, record a video of yourself navigating the space and share it with your students, or start the whiteboard with a PDF or image. This week's newsletter provides you with a lot of resources to get started, it'll show you what Explain Everything looks like on an iPad, and it will give you a brief tutorial of the tools with the app. It's a great resource and wonderful whiteboard companion to your classroom.  

Explain Everything Website

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Major updates to SMART Learning Suite Online has made SMART Notebook an even more powerful tool when working with students synchronously and asynchronously. Using the whiteboard features online is just a fraction of what this software can do. Turn slides into handouts or create digital corkboard activities while annotating your current lessons. All of those tools and more are part of your SMART Notebook license. This podcast will demonstrate how you can incorporate those features into your classroom lessons.

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At the end of January, Nearpod introduced two new features to their computer platform. Nearpod introduced a whiteboard feature and an annotation feature teachers can use while presenting their Nearpod lesson. This podcast will tell you what the new features look like on a computer, on an iPad, and from a student's perspective on both platforms.

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This week we look at Google Jamboard. Slightly different than Google Slides, Jamboard allows for a more collaborative feel between teachers and students. This week’s podcast will give you an overview of Jamboard on a computer/Chromebook and on an iPad. There are also a lot of resources to drum up inspiration and templates to download and use for anyone from a beginner to an expert. There are resources from Google Teacher Center, Class Tech Tips - 5 Quick Jamboard Activities, Ditch that Textbook - 20+ Tips, Brian Sepe - Book Club Template and People Who Teach podcast, Tech Fairies - 10 Jamboard Ideas,  Infused Classroom - 10 Jamboard Activities, Kevin Stratvert - Get to Know Jamboard, and Wakelet Jamboard Resources.

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If you're looking for new ways to use edtech tools in your classroom as a whiteboard then look no further than Apple's presentation tool Keynote. This podcast will demonstrate how you can share the Keynote with your students, ways you can use Keynote as a whiteboard tool, what Keynote looks like on a Mac, in any browser, and on an iPad. Special thanks to Chris Wood for the idea and for his free Apple Book

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This week's episode brings you various design resources for your classroom presentations. A lot of the websites were presented on TikTok by classroom teachers and have to do with unique fonts you can add to your presentations, documents, or use anywhere on the internet. There is also a website that provides you with six free resources a week. Those resources can be anything from new fonts, to a Procreate brush, or a unique Canva background. Check out the websites and find which one you'd like to bookmark to spice up your digital assignments.

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This week's episode looks at resources I've found on social media from other educators. These are websites similar to other resources you might already know or use in your classroom but with a little twist. You will find links to the websites below and a link to my newsletter. You can also find a list of the chapters in the podcast if you would like to jump directly to specific information about the websites listed.  

Chapters