Embedded Files
Jamboard is a collaborative tool which enables interaction between many users on a shared work surface. Users can create sticky notes, draw (freehand and vector), insert images, create text boxes and highlight items with a laser pointer. All of these features can be used simultaneously across multiple pages, allowing it to be used in large and small groups with free workflow across the spaces.
In the Classroom
There are many classroom uses for the jamboard tool, especially due to its very intuitive nature. As a primarily collaborative tool, it can be used to quickly gather the thoughts of class without having to address each student individually. It can be used as a sorting or ranking method, asking people to use the location of their contribution as an indicator of their belief (eg. put your note on the left side if you strongly agree or the right side if you strongly disagree). Collaborative group work can be done on a jamboard with each group being assigned a specific page of the board (eg. create a collage on your assigned group page), which allows the teacher to flip between groups effortlessly as the work is being done. Being a strongly visual medium, a jamboard can also be used to gauge class opinion faster than the traditional show of hands. With such a broad range of possibilities, jamboard use in class is seemingly only limited by the teacher's imagination.
Research Connections
Jamboard features many characteristics which make important ties to improved outcomes in education research. With the sheer number of ways students can engage with a jamboard it is strongly connected to the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework (CAST, 2023). While it hits all three of UDL's primary tenets, its greatest strength is in providing students with many means of expression (Stafford, 2022). As a highly interactive and collaborative tool, it also has strong connections to the concepts of constructivism (TEDx Talks, 2019) in which learners are asked to take an active role in the learning process. By working together, students take an active role in constructing their own knowledge, but also the knowledge of their peers.
References
About Universal Design for Learning. (2023). CAST. https://www.cast.org/impact/universal-design-for-learning-udl
Stafford, V. (2022). Using Google Jamboard in teacher training and student learning contexts. Journal of Applied Learning & Teaching, 5 (2), 181-185.
TEDx Talks. (2019, June 28). Education Reimagined Through Constructivism | Michelle Thompson | TEDxBethanyGlobalUniversity [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVMyHt5ULUA
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