Distance learning doesn’t mean ditching your favorite “old-school” teaching methods! Though the whiteboard has been widely used in classrooms for over three decades, it is now making its appearance online as a virtual application, and the demands of distance learning have definitely given it an upgrade! Using a whiteboard application not only allows you to harness a whiteboard’s visually engaging and impermanent nature but now you can collaborate on it with all your students, in real-time, simultaneously! Digital whiteboards also deliver one better than our physical classroom counterparts; some applications allow you to save your boards for later reference. And the markers never go dry!

There are a few online whiteboards and each has a different strength.  Whiteboard.fi has lots of symbols and grids to choose from (including chemistry and music), while Jamboards save directly to your Google Drive, and Whiteboard.fi boards allow you to set it up just like a classroom.

Whiteboard.chat
This Whiteboard.chat tip sheet describes this service which allows you to create collaborative whiteboards to use with your students. Unlike other whiteboard programs, whiteboard.chat is lightweight, requires no signup or email, and the tools (there are a lot of them) are a lot more intuitive for students unfamiliar with learning online.

Jamboard.Google.com
Here’s a simple tip sheet on Jamboard.  Also, Matt from Ditch That Textbook made these great videos on Jamboard.  I especially like Video 3 on How to Make Templates in Jamboard.

Video 1: What Makes Jamboard Special
Video 2: Top 3 Favorite Ways to Use Jamboard
Video 3: How to Make Templates in Jamboard
Video 4: Doing More with Jamboard

Whiteboard.fi
Check out this tip sheet on Whiteboard.fi, another Whiteboard application available to you!

If you have any questions or need support using one of these tools, please contact the NMC Technology Help Desk at 231-995-3020 or start a chat session at nmc.edu/help.