Saturday, September 10, 2022

Jamboard for Teaching and Learning

I am a massive fan of charcuterie, so nothing would make me happier than if Jamboard was literally a board with lots of yummy jams on it, along with meats and cheeses.

Even though that is unfortunately not the case, Jamboard is still a pretty awesome thing!

Jamboard is actually a tool from Google that is an online, interactive, collaborative whiteboard. It has loads of useful features including drawing tools, sticky notes, images, shapes, textboxes, backgrounds, and much more. Jamboard can be used for brainstorming, designing, collaboration, and learning activities of all sorts.

Recently I recorded a webinar where we took a deep dive into Google Jamboard. We looked at how to use all the features of Jamboard, as well as explored templates, ideas, and examples for how it can be used in schools for teaching and learning.

See below for the recorded video, as well as links to my Jamboard resource doc and slideshow, as well as detailed directions.

▶️ Training Video (47 minutes)


Or watch directly on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEYZd5rADxo


🧰 Session Resources



✔️ Overview

What is Jamboard?
  • Jamboard is a collaborative, interactive, digital whiteboard tool from Google.
  • Pen, eraser, sticky notes, images, shapes, text, backgrounds, etc.
  • Web version and mobile app (some differences).
  • Can have up to 20 frames in one Jam.
  • Note: There is also a physical whiteboard from Google also called a Jamboard.  The physical board is not needed to use the Jamboard program.


🛠️ Basic Use and Features

Create a Jam
  • Go to jamboard.google.com and click "+" button
  • Or in Drive click "New" then "More" then "Google Jamboard"
  • Or go to jam.new

Toolbar


Managing Frames
  • You can add more frames by clicking the right arrow at the top of the screen.
  • You can have up to 20 frames in a Jam.
  • You can use the arrow buttons to move through the frames.
  • Click on the frame button to expand the frame bar where you can:
  • Scroll to more frames
  • Add more frames
  • Make a copy of a frame or delete a frame


Change Background
  • Change the background to dots, lines, grid, or more.
  • Or upload your own background.
  • Note: Uploading your own background can be used to "lock" items that you do not want the students to change.


More Actions
  • Click the 3-dots button in the top right corner to access more actions:
  • Download as PDF - Save entire Jam as a PDF
  • Save frame as image - Just save the current selected frame as a PNG image
  • Make a copy - Get your own copy of a Jam
  • See version history - View who has made changes to the Jam



Sharing

You can share your Jam just like a normal document with the Share button:
  • Share with specific people
  • Share as a link for anyone
Or through Google Classroom:
  • Students can view
  • Students can edit (collaborate together)
  • Make a copy for each student


📱 Jamboard Mobile App

In addition to the web version of Jamboard, there is also a mobile version which includes some extra tools and features.

The extra features in the mobile app include:
  • Insert content (from the "+" menu)
  • Insert Drive content
  • Insert image from camera
  • Insert stickers
  • Assistive Drawing Tools (in the Pen menu)
  • Handwriting recognition
  • Shape recognition
  • Autodraw





⚖️ Jamboard versus Slides and Drawings

There are a lot of similarities between Jamboard, Slides, and Drawings. However, some of the differences of Jamboard that may provide benefits for certain uses include:
  • Pen, marker, highlighter, and brush - Very easy to write and draw with
  • Sticky notes
  • Quick background templates
  • Assistive drawing tools on mobile
  • Overall simplicity and ease of use


💡 Jamboard Templates, Ideas, and Examples

Below are links to a large collection of templates for Jamboard. You can make copies of these templates and use as thay are, or modify to meet your needs.



📷 Using Jamboard in Google Meet

You can use Jamboard inside of Google Meet for collaboration or to demonstrate a concept.
  • Click the 3-dots button at the bottom of Meet
  • Click "Whiteboard" from the menu
You can create a new Jam or open an existing Jam from your Drive.
  • Start a new whiteboard
  • Choose from Drive

You can choose which permissions to give:
  • to the people in the Meet (View or Edit)
  • or to anyone with the link to the Jam.
The Jam will open automatically for you. A link to the Jam will show up in the Chat window for participants to access.



🖼️ Creating Backgrounds for Jamboard

Jamboard allows you to add your own custom background to any frame. This can be a good way to add content that is "locked" and can't be moved by your students.

Some good tools for creating a background image are:
  • Google Slides
  • Google Drawings
You will want to resize the Slide or Drawing so that it fits the Jamboard canvas size properly.
  • Click "File" then "Page setup"
  • Choose "Custom"
  • Set the width and height to 1920 by 1080 pixels

Create your image as usual with shapes, pictures, text, etc. When you are done, download the image:
  • Click "File"
  • Click "Download"
  • Click "PNG image"
This image can now be set as the background in Jamboard.



➕ Using Equatio with Jamboard

Math Examples with Equatio - Jamboard template link

The free Equatio extension can be used in Jamboard to add math, science, and other content.
Launch Equatio:
  • Open up a Jamboard file
  • Then click on the Equatio extension icon in the top right corner of Chrome.
  • The Equatio toolbar will open up at the bottom of the screen.


For more details see my earlier post and video:




Post by Eric Curts
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