Navigating the End of Google Jamboard

A whiteboard displaying a collaborative activity with post-it notes.

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital tools, change is constant. Google Jamboard, a trusted  virtual collaboration tool, is bidding farewell come December 31, 2024. But fear not, for in this post, we’ll guide you through the discontinuation of Google Jamboard by introducing you to a lineup of powerful alternatives ready to pick up the slack, ensuring your collaborative endeavors stay on track. Check out the following innovative virtual whiteboarding solutions, and start deciding which ones meet your needs in an effort to make the transition from Google Jamboard a smooth one!

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DEU EdTech Quick Tips – Issue 76

In this Issue: Events for SDG/OE Week, and More EdTech Tidbits

      • Open Education Events during USask SDG Week and #OEWeek2023
      • Using Perusall in Online Courses
      • Buy, Borrow, Bend, or Build?: A Framework for Course Material Selection
      • Enhance Course Navigation with Emojis 📖 ✏️ 💡
      • Canvas Quick Tip: Disabling YouTube Inline Preview in Canvas
      • DEU Support and Contact Information

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Using Poll Everywhere in an Asynchronous Online Course

Poll Everywhere is a web-based polling tool now available at USask. It allows for group engagement, feedback, and interaction through live online polling, surveys, Q&As, quizzes, word clouds, and more. Poll Everywhere is also a fairly flexible tool, and can be used for teaching and learning in face-to-face synchronous, online synchronous (i.e., Zoom), and online asynchronous situations. This post will focus on providing some tips and ideas for using Poll Everywhere in your asynchronous online courses, including instructions for how to embed the activity into a Canvas page.

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Drawing and Whiteboarding Tools for Synchronous Online Teaching

During synchronous online teaching sessions, there are many reasons why you may wish to draw or sketch out an idea with students visually, or use a “digital whiteboard” tool to collaborate and organize thoughts during brainstorming or live discussions. You might want your class as a whole, or smaller groups within it, to build meaning with complex ideas by creating mind maps or other visual organizers. You might want students to share ideas, or media from around the web, on a collaborative bulletin board filled with “sticky notes” and hyperlinks. You also may just find it easier to communicate certain ideas, or guide students through a process, by drawing something out “by hand” — an approach that mimics many tried-and-true teaching approaches based on chalkboards in the classroom.

Let’s review a number of digital whiteboard, drawing, or sketching tools that you might consider incorporating into your next synchronous teaching session.

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