Google Jamboard

Google Jamboard is an interactive whiteboard app that inspires students to collaborate together to create! In real time, students can share thoughts, ideas, photos, & more with each other whether they are in the classroom or at home.

Go To Jamboard

① Creating a Jamboard

Go to https://jamboard.google.com/ to access your recent Jams and start/create new ones.
When creating a Jamboard, rename it right away. This will make it easier to find when you go to assign it to students.

You can also create Jamboards inside of the app on an iPad.

② Using Jamboard Tools

Draw

Choose a pen and color. Then use your finger or a stylus to draw. Learn more about drawing in a jam.

Eraser

Choose the eraser to erase with your finger or a stylus. You can also use the eraser that comes with your Jamboard.
Touch and hold the Erase tool to show the Clear Frame option.
Note: The eraser only works with the drawings made using the pen. To delete an object, select it, then tap More Delete.

Select

Use the Select tool to grab objects and drawings made with the pen tools.
Choose the Select tool, then use your finger or the stylus to outline a drawing. You can then drag it to move it around the frame or pinch to resize it.
When using Select, you can also move objects around quickly by just tapping on them and dragging them. No drawing strokes will be generated when using the Select tool.

Sticky Notes

Create sticky notes for students to type in. You can also include sentence starters in the note to spark conversations.

Add Image

You can insert a photo by uploading an image, using a Google Image Search (Copyright Free), bringing in a photo from your Google Drive, & accessing your Google Photos.

Insert Shape

Choose from Circles, Squares, Arrows, and more to insert into your Jam to draw attention to some information or a task.

Insert Text

Use the Insert Text Function when you want to add text without the Sticky Note Feature

Laser Pointer

Choose the laser pointer and use your finger or the stylus to temporarily highlight items on the board.
Other users who are looking at the file from phone or tablet can also see these areas highlighted. When content is being presented on video calls, users on the call can also see the highlight.

③ Creating Copies for Students

There are really two options that you can do with Jamboards. All students could work on one Jamboard (on separate Frames, or you could create a copy for each student to work on their own.

Secondary Note: Unfortunately, Jamboards are not compatible with Schoology Google Assignments...yet. So we have to do it a different way. It is in their feature request for future integration.

Collaborative Jam on Schoology

To create one jamboard for all to work on:

Create your template with placeholders and the correct amount of frames.
You want to change the Share Settings to Anyone at East Penn and make them Editors.
Then, designate teams/students to certain frames to work on.
Copy that link and paste it into Schoology as an event or on your Materials page.

Independent Jam on Schoology

Create your template with placeholders and all information that you want students to fill in.
Change share settings to Anyone at East Penn and they can just be viewers this time.
Go to the of the URL bar and delete the last part of the address where is says /viewer?f=0 and replace it with copy. This will now make a copy for each student.
Paste this link in an assignment in Schoology if you want them to turn it in.
They will just be able to share that document with you by copying the link in the submission form, but I think a cool way would be to make this a discussion board and have all student post their Jamboard link in there so they can see each others’ Jams and spark discussion.

Using Jamboard with Google Classroom

Click on Create
Select Assignment or Material
Attach Google Jamboard file and select, View, Edit, or Make a Copy
You're done!

Can I upload a video to my Jamboard for my students to watch?

Google Jamboard doesn't support videos, however, you can use animated GIFs! There are many free GIF creators out there, but I pay for GIF Brewery 3 for my Mac. It was $5 and I use it all the time (as you can see on these websites).

Do students need an app?

While Jamboard works really well in the Chrome browser, the Android app (on the Chromebook) will give them more features than the web version. On the iPad, the app is almost a necessity. You can find it in Self Service for students to download!