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Padlet is an online virtual bulletin board where students and teachers can post notes, images, videos, and documents, facilitating collaboration and sharing of ideas.

Support for Project-Based Learning: Provides a digital platform for students to share resources, collaborate on projects, and provide feedback to peers. It encourages active participation and engagement as students can contribute their thoughts and resources asynchronously. It inspires creativity by allowing students to curate multimedia content and showcase their ideas uniquely.

Can be used in both synchronous and asynchronous learning environments, but particularly effective for asynchronous collaboration and reflection.

Project-Based Unit: Students can create a Padlet board to collect research materials, brainstorm ideas, and share project updates with peers. They can collaborate asynchronously to gather resources and provide feedback on each other's contributions.

ISTE Standards: ISTE Standard for Students 2: Knowledge Constructor by providing tools for students to curate and organize information effectively. In addition to 1.3.c Curate Information Students curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions.

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Padlet Tutorial for Teachers + 8 Ways to Use With Students

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Google Meet is a video conferencing tool that allows for real-time communication and collaboration among participants.

Support for Project-Based Learning: Google Meet facilitates synchronous discussions, presentations, and group work for project-based learning. It encourages differentiation by enabling real-time interactions and discussions tailored to students' needs and interests. It fosters engagement by providing opportunities for live feedback, questions, and discussions, promoting active participation. It inspires creativity by allowing students to present their project ideas and findings through video and screen sharing.

Best for synchronous learning as it enables real-time communication and collaboration among students and teachers.

Project-Based Unit: Students can use Google Meet and breakout rooms for brainstorming sessions, project presentations, and peer feedback sessions, engaging in real-time discussions and collaborations.

ISTE Standards: Supports ISTE Standard for Students 6: Creative Communicator by providing opportunities for students to communicate their ideas effectively through digital presentations.

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Using Google Hangouts in the classroom is a great way to connect and collaborate. It's also a powerful tool for making connections, working collaboratively and introducing the wider world to your students. Many educators have embraced Hangouts to enrich both their students' learning experiences and their own professional development. You can connect students with their peers from around the country, or even from abroad, if time zone differences permit.

How to Get Started on Google Hangouts

1. If you don't already have a Google account, sign up for one.

2. To use Hangouts on your smartphone or tablet, download the appropriate app for your device in the app store.

3. You can also use Hangouts on a computer. If you're using a Chrome browser, get the extension in the Chrome Store. If you prefer Safari, Firefox or Internet Explorer, download and install the plug-in.

4. If you need more information, here's a quick "Get Started With Hangouts" guide from Google.

7 Ways Teachers Use Google Hangouts for Learning

1. Form a virtual book club: Classes that are reading the same book or similar genres can discuss novels together and recommend books to one another. Before the Hangout, have each class brainstorm 10 questions they want to ask their book club partners. Then, send the questions to the other class before the meeting date to allow students ample time to construct their answers. When the classes meet, they each take turns asking and answering one another's questions.

2. Participate in a "mystery" Hangout: In this activity, two classrooms video-chat with each other but do not reveal their individual locations. Before meeting online, both classes research facts about their own state and create clues about their location. Then, each class takes turns asking "yes" or "no"-type questions in a race to solve the mystery. More details on how to get started can be found on my blog here. To find classes to connect with yours, visit the Mystery Location Calls Google+ Community or reach out to members of the Connected Classrooms Workshop Google+ Community.

3. Rethink student presentations: Projects and presentations are authentic assessments that many teachers have embraced over the recent years. However, with Hangouts, teachers can take this assignment a step further by recruiting parents, community members or career professionals to be their captive audience. This is a perfect finale as a Project-Based Learning (PBL)-culminating activity. What better way to make learning real and relevant than to have students share their work with adults who can provide constructive feedback at the end of the presentation? Think Shark Tank but with much nicer panelists.

4. Work on projects together: Classes that are studying similar themes or topics can collaborate on a project together in a way never possible before. For example, two classes can work together to fight bullying in their schools. Using Hangouts, both classes collaboratively create a survey to better understand the extent of bullying in each of their schools. After polling their respective schools, they meet online to discuss results and examine similarities. Each class then sends their data set to the other class and each class is tasked with formulating an action plan for the other school. When the classes meet again a few weeks later, they present their action plan to the other class. At the end of the project, both classes build a Wiki or a Google Site together where they post their data, analysis and action plans.

5. Invite guest speakers: Inviting a speaker into the classroom has never been easier ... or less expensive. Video-calling enables anyone from around the world to "visit" a school. Also, as an added plus, Google Hangouts has the ability to handle up to 10 people in a video call at once and up to 15 using a Google Apps account. This means that there's never a dull moment or radio silence during the call. Last year, my classes were able to participate in two amazing Hangouts on Air. We got to speak with Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee and Education Secretary Duncan.

6. Go on a virtual field trip: With video-calling technology becoming more popular, many companies are now offering virtual field trips via Hangouts on Air, which is a public Google Hangout that broadcasts a live recording of the event. After the video call ends, it is archived on the host's YouTube channel for anyone to view again later. Here are a few companies that are offering or (have recently offered) virtual field trips that could bring that out-of-classroom experience to your students: Learn Around the World, Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants and SeaTrek.TV. Occasionally, announcements of virtual field trips from various members of the Connected Classrooms Workshop Google+ Community will be posted. One upcoming event you don't want to miss is this invitation from Galatic Unite. To express your interest in joining a Hangout with Virgin Galactic Future Astronauts, fill out this form.

7. Collaborate with your PLN: With everyone just a video call away, educators can work on projects and share ideas with anyone around the world. Many educators have forged powerful connections (called PLNs) via social media platforms like Twitter and Google+, and they're using Google Hangouts to learn together or to plan professional development events for educators like Edcamps and PLAYDATEs.

The possibilities of using Hangouts in education are endless. How will you transform your learning and the learning of your students? Also, check out this post on using Google docs in the classroom.

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7 Ways to Use Google Hangouts in the Classroom - WeAreTeachers

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Using Google Hangouts in the classroom is a great way to connect and collaborate. It's also a powerful tool for making connections, working collaboratively and introducing the wider world to your students. Many educators have embraced Hangouts to enrich both their students' learning experiences and their own professional development.

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Parlay Ideas is a discussion platform that facilitates structured, inclusive, and student-led discussions through a variety of discussion formats and tools.

Support for Project-Based Learning: Parlay Ideas promotes collaborative discussions where students can share ideas, perspectives, and findings related to their project topics in real-time. It encourages differentiation by allowing students to engage in discussions at their own pace and level of comfort. Parlay Ideas fosters engagement by providing interactive discussion formats such as round-robin and fishbowl discussions. It inspires creativity by giving students the opportunity to explore diverse viewpoints and articulate their thoughts effectively.

Best for synchronous learning because itt enables real-time discussions and collaboration among students and teachers.

Project-Based Unit: Students can use Parlay Ideas to conduct peer reviews and provide feedback on project drafts, engaging in structured discussions to analyze and improve their work collaboratively. Can be used for a Socratic Seminar as a Summative Assessment or smaller discussions as part of a larger unit on real-world issues.

ISTE Standards: Supports ISTE Standard for Students 2: Digital Citizen by promoting respectful and inclusive online discussions. Educating students on how to engage in academic dialogue and respect opinions of their peers.

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Explore more than 4000 discussion prompts for a wide range of subjects, topics, and levels. Created by teachers in the community and the Parlay team.

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Flipgrid is a video discussion platform where students can record short video responses to prompts, fostering asynchronous communication and collaboration.

Support for Project-Based Learning: Provides a platform for students to share their ideas, reflections, and project updates asynchronously. It encourages active participation and engagement as students can express themselves through video responses. It alsoallows for differentiation by accommodating various learning styles and preferences. Flipgrid inspires creativity by giving students the freedom to personalize their video responses with visuals, annotations, and digital effects.

Best for asynchronous learning as it allows students to contribute video responses at their own convenience.

Project-Based Unit: Students can use Flipgrid to document their project progress, sharing reflections, insights, and challenges they encountered throughout the project timeline. They can also provide peer feedback and engage in asynchronous discussions about their projects.

ISTE Standards: ISTE Standard for Students 7: Global Collaborator by providing opportunities for students to communicate and collaborate with peers from diverse backgrounds. Additionally, ISTE Standard 1.2.a Digital Footprint Students cultivate and manage their digital identity and reputation, and are aware of the permanence of their actions in the digital world.

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The popular tool has features that teachers in any subject can use to help students connect with each other and share their learning.

Olaf Doering / Alamy Stock Photo

The video-sharing tool Flipgrid, as we all know, is popular in schools-so popular, in so many countries, that its rapid rise been attributed to "Flipgrid Fever." The tool has been free for educators to use for over a year now after being acquired by Microsoft.

One of the main things going for Flipgrid is its ease of use. Teachers set up an account and create grids, which act as communities for students to work in. Within each grid the teacher creates prompts called topics, and students post video responses to the prompts and replies to each other's videos. Most of the videos are quite short, just a minute or two long, and the tool is simple enough that kindergartners use it.

9 New Ways to Use Flipgrid

1. Sharing book reviews: With Flipgrid's new augmented reality (AR) feature, classrooms and classroom libraries can use the video QR code to create an engaging way for students to share book reviews. After a student records their review, the teacher can print the QR code and tape it on the book, and the student's classmates can use their devices to scan the code and watch the review as a way to help them decide if they'd like to read the book.

2. Practicing world language skills: Flipgrid makes it possible for teachers in different districts and different countries to collaborate. For world language teachers, this creates opportunities for students to practice their speaking skills with a larger group than just their class. Students can post videos to get practice with the vocabulary they're learning, and instead of being limited to practicing with the people in their physical classroom, they can engage and build their skills with other students around the world studying the same language or have conversations with native speakers of the language.

3. Increasing accessibility for all students: Flipgrid has expanded many of its accessibility features to ensure that all students can participate. Students can use closed captioning when viewing videos, which also generates a full transcript for each video. Microsoft's Immersive Reader can be used within both the closed captioning and any text within a topic to read the texts aloud and break up words into syllables for easier decoding.

4. Inviting outside speakers: Using Guest Mode, teachers can invite guest speakers to participate in classroom discussions. Guests can watch student videos and post their own videos. This option provides a way for experts in a field to share their knowledge asynchronously, with students posting videos of their questions for the expert to answer at a convenient time in a video response. STEM teachers, for example, could invite engineers or scientists to discuss their careers and research and to answer student questions.

5. Building student portfolios: A teacher can create a grid for student portfolios. Within this grid, the teacher creates a topic for each student, and students post videos explaining their work, demonstrating a recently learned skill, or reflecting on an in-class experience. The teacher can share the link to a student's topic with their parents or guardians so they can view their child's work throughout the year. Since the topics can also be available to every student in the class, students can observe their classmates' work.

6. Adding annotations: When students record a video, they have the option to write directly on the video, and they can add sticky notes with additional text. For students in math practicing solving problems or students in chemistry learning to balance chemical equations, this feature is a great way to show their thinking.

7. Building a mixtape: The mixtape is a way to curate videos from any topic or grid in a single location. A teacher can select any student video and add it to the mixtape, which can be shared with the entire class. Collecting memories from throughout the year is a great way to take advantage of the feature: As the year progresses, the teacher can save interesting videos or important moments from different topics. Watching the mixtape as a class at the end of the year will help students recall what they've learned.

8. Sharing and celebrating work: Celebrating completed projects or finished assignments is often forgotten in the classroom due to time constraints, but Flipgrid makes it fairly easy and quick. Using the student-to-student replies option, everyone in the class can view and respond to each other's videos. For example, students in a history class could share a long-term project they have completed, walking through what they learned and what they created. Peers in the class compose video responses, providing positive feedback on the work completed. When I do this with my ELA students, I require everyone to comment on two or three classmates' projects from any of my sections.

9. Supporting absent students: Flipgrid can be a catch-up solution for students who are absent. The teacher creates a topic for work completed in class, and if a student is absent during a given class period, one of their peers can post a quick video about what assignments were completed in class so the absent students can quickly learn about what they missed.

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9 New Ways to Use Flipgrid in the Classroom

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The popular tool has features that teachers in any subject can use to help students connect with each other and share their learning.

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Canva is a graphic design platform that allows users to create presentations, posters, infographics, and other visual content using customizable templates and drag-and-drop tools.

Supports for Project-Based Learning: Canva provides students with tools to create visually engaging presentations, infographics, and digital artifacts to communicate their ideas effectively. It encourages creativity and personalization through customizable templates and design elements. Canva also allows for differentiation by accommodating various learning preferences and abilities, enabling students to express themselves visually.

Can be used in both synchronous and asynchronous learning environments as students can collaborate in real-time or work independently on their design projects.

Project-Based Unit: Students can use Canva to design multimedia presentations or infographics to showcase their project findings, incorporating visuals, text, and multimedia elements to enhance understanding and engagement. Students can create a PSA about a real-world problem or an interactive presentation. Students can make their link public and share with their peers or present for feedback.

ISTE Standards: ISTE Standard for Students 5: Computational Thinker by providing opportunities for students to analyze data, create visualizations, and present information effectively.

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Getting Started with Canva for Student Creation

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Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform where teachers can create quizzes, surveys, and interactive presentations to engage students asynchronously.

Support for Project-Based Learning: Gamifies assessments, quizzes, and review activities related to project content. It encourages student engagement and participation through interactive challenges and competitions. It allows for differentiation by providing customizable quizzes with various question formats and difficulty levels. It inspires creativity by allowing students to create their own Kahoot! quizzes to share with peers.

Best for asynchronous learning as it enables students to participate in interactive activities at their own pace.

Project-Based Unit: Students can create Kahoot! quizzes as part of their project presentations, incorporating questions related to their research findings, key concepts, and learning objectives. Peers can then play the quizzes to assess their understanding and provide feedback.

ISTE Standards: ISTE Standard for Students 4: Innovative Designer by providing opportunities for students to design interactive learning experiences that demonstrate their understanding of content.

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Spend significant time in any classroom, and there's a good possibility you will hear a teacher tell kids to get ready to do "a Kahoot!."

Founded in 2012, Kahoot!, a game-based learning platform-which features quizzes and other interactive learning experiences-is very popular among teachers and students. That is the case even though it has significant limitations for going beyond basic factual recall.

That popularity-which soared during the pandemic years-has recently attracted the attention of investors. Now, the company has agreed to be acquired for $1.7 billion by a group of investors led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

The deal is expected to close by the end of the year, pending regulatory approvals, according to EdWeek Market Brief. When the deal is finalized, Norway-based Kahoot!, which is currently traded on the Oslo Stock Exchange, will become a fully private company. That final deal could mean changes could be in store for the learning platform, but it is unclear what those changes might be.

That nearly $2 billion valuation and popularity in K-12 education raises four key questions:

1. What is Kahoot!?

Kahoot! is an online learning platform where people can create, share, and play quiz-style games that transform the classroom into a game show. Teachers can either create their own quizzes, or find, use, or repurpose public quizzes.

Using the free version, teachers can create multiple-choice quizzes, add images as answers, view analytics, and other basic functions. Teachers, schools, or districts have to pay to access more options and advanced features.

Kahoots can be presented live or assigned for self-paced learning. During live Kahoots, the quizzes are projected on interactive whiteboards for everyone to see, and students answer the questions on their own devices. Students usually have to answer the questions before the timer ends.

After each question, students can see everyone's scores. Answering correctly faster gives students higher scores. When the game is over, the dashboard shows a podium with the winners.

2. Why is Kahoot! so popular?

Kahoot! is among the most popular game-based learning platforms. Over the last 12 months, 8.6 million educators have used the Kahoot! platform globally, according to the company.

"I think part of the reason Kahoot! and other quizzing tools are so popular is because it breaks up instruction and really can engage kids in a way that some of the more traditional teaching methods may not," said Christine Elgersma, the senior editor for learning content at Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that examines the impact of technology on children. Common Sense's review gave Kahoot! four out of five stars.

One "pro" is that it makes formative assessment-tools teachers use to gauge kids' grasp of new material-engaging. A "con" is that user-created quizzes can be poor quality or inappropriate. Competitors to Kahoot! include Quizizz, Blooket, Gimkit, Quizlet, Formative, Mentimeter, and Plickers.

Louisa Rosenheck, the director of learning design for Kahoot!, said in an email that at its core, Kahoot! is "a social experience-everyone gets to answer for themselves, but they are part of a larger group having a shared experience, so it strikes the right balance of independence and community.

"The 'campfire' moment of everyone gathered around the main screen together is a powerful one," she said.

3. How do teachers use it?

Teachers use the platform at different points in a unit or lesson. Some teachers use it before introducing a new topic to gauge how much students already know about it, or they use it as an "exit ticket" to get a sense of how much students learned during the lesson.

Teachers have also asked students to create their own Kahoots for projects and presentations. Sometimes, teachers use it as an icebreaker at the beginning of the school year, where the questions help students get to know their teacher.

Kahoot! often hears from educators that they favor the platform because it's easy to use, "versatile," "innovative," and "students love it," Rosenheck said.

"The question types are familiar and easy to interact with. It seamlessly leverages the learning already happening in the classroom, and makes it more social and engaging," she added.

Adam Sparks, a former middle and high school social studies and English teacher in Nebraska and Illinois who taught for seven years, said he used to have Kahoot! Fridays in his middle school social studies class. He'd start the class with a 10-question Kahoot! based on current events.

"That was my incentive for the kids to pay attention to current events, and then it was the jumping-off point for us to talk about [those events]," said Sparks, who is now the CEO and co-founder of Short Answer, a peer-to-peer feedback online platform.

"The real positive of Kahoot! is that kids find it really engaging," Sparks added. Indeed, several teachers have weighed in on Twitter, Threads, and Facebook saying that their students love the game aspect.

"The competition piece is big for kids," Sparks said. "There is definitely the dopamine hit of, 'I gotta go fast and I gotta get it. Did I get it?' It does put you on the edge of your seat. When you walk into a room with kids playing Kahoot!, you will see all the physical signs of engagement."

His Kahoot! Fridays also motivated students to seek out news stories on their own.

"Otherwise 8th grade students are probably not seeking out a New York Times article," he quipped.

4. Is Kahoot! an effective tool for learning?

Sparks believes Kahoot! is most useful for student engagement and motivation. He and other educators caution that it's not the best tool for gauging how deeply students really understand.

"How quickly a student can click a button is not a good indication, to me, of what they actually understand," Sparks said. "Recognition and recall are just very different from application and analysis. When we assess a student, we should be looking for: How can you use this information that I'm teaching or this skill that I'm teaching you?"

Elgersma of Common Sense Media agreed: "You wouldn't be using it for a lot of critical thinking skills, or to really dig deep into any kind of subject matter. It's definitely more for engagement. Maybe [for] some surface learning and to get a quick snapshot of where kids are with a particular topic."

A 2021 literature review of the effects of Kahoot! on learning concluded that generally the platform can "positively affect learning outcomes from the perspective of interaction." Kahoot! can improve students' engagement with teachers and peers, which in turn can positively affect student participation, attendance, and academic performance.
But there are drawbacks. Teachers who responded to Education Week's request for feedback about Kahoot! pointed out that some students get stressed out about the timer; the same students tend to win; and some students have difficulty reading questions and answers projected on the interactive board.

Some argue that there's no need for Kahoot! to become a tool to assess deep learning. "There's a use case for Kahoot! and, for what it does, it definitely serves a purpose in the classroom that teachers appreciate," Elgersma said.

But Kahoot! is working to update its platform to incorporate feedback from educators, Rosenheck said. For instance, timers can now be turned off to eliminate the focus on speed, and new game modes allow students to engage in different ways beyond multiple choice. Kahoot! is also working on making the platform accessible for all students' learning styles and improving how the student performance data is generated so it's more accurate.

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4 Things Educators Need to Know About Kahoot!

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The game-based educational platform can raise student engagement, but it is not good for deeper learning.

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Quizlet is an online platform for creating and sharing flashcards, quizzes, and study games to support learning and review.

Support for Project-Based Learning: Quizlet provides students with tools to review project content independently and at their own pace. The digital tool encourages self-directed learning and differentiation by offering a variety of study modes and interactive activities to cater to individual learning preferences. Quizlet fosters engagement by gamifying the learning experience through quizzes and study games, motivating students to review project materials regularly. It also inspires creativity by allowing students to create their own study sets and customize study activities with images, audio, and diagrams.

Best for asynchronous learning as it allows students to access study materials and review content independently.

Project-Based Unit: Students can use Quizlet to create study sets related to their project topics, reviewing key concepts, vocabulary, and terms to deepen their understanding of project content asynchronously. They can create the study quiz sets as a group and share it with their peers.

ISTE Standards: Supports ISTE Standard for Students 3: Knowledge Constructor by providing tools for students to curate and organize information effectively. Additionally, 1.1a Learning Goals Students articulate and set personal learning goals, develop strategies leveraging technology to achieve them and reflect on the learning process itself to improve learning outcomes.

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Quizlet Launches Advanced AI-Powered Tools for Next-Gen Studying

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/PRNewswire/ -- Ahead of back-to-school season, global learning platform Quizlet today announced a series of new study tools designed to help students return…

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Google Jamboard is a collaborative online whiteboard tool that allows students and teachers to brainstorm ideas, sketch diagrams, and share notes in real-time.

Support for Project-Based Learning: Facilities collaborative brainstorming sessions, idea generation, and visual representation of concepts. It encourages active participation and engagement as students can contribute their ideas simultaneously. Google Jamboard fosters creativity by providing a flexible canvas for students to express their thoughts uniquely.

Best for synchronous learning as it enables real-time collaboration and interaction among students.

Project-Based Unit: Students can use Jamboard to brainstorm and organize ideas for a group project, creating mind maps, flowcharts, and diagrams to plan their project tasks and workflow.

ISTE Standards: ISTE Standard for Students 1: Empowered Learner by providing tools for students to actively participate in collaborative learning experiences.

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Ed Tech

Whiteboards and chalkboards have been a fixture in classrooms for ages. They're great for gathering ideas and making thinking visible.

But there are drawbacks ...

Having to write "DON'T ERASE!" next to important stuff

Taking pictures of the whiteboard with your cell phone

Markers drying up or running out of ink

Having only so much whiteboard space in your classroom

If you can sympathize, you've got to check out Google's Jamboard app. Jamboard ( jamboard.google.com) is a physical device -- an interactive touchscreen display/monitor, and it's pricey. But thankfully, the app that runs on those interactive displays is a teacher's favorite price -- FREE!

The Jamboard app is a fantastic tool for learning in face to face environments and for virtual/remote learning. The features are simple and intuitive. It's really easy to collaborate. Plus, it's very visual.

What is Google Jamboard?

You can find Jamboard by going to jamboard.google.com. You can also find it by clicking the "New" button in your Google Drive and hovering over "More".

Don't have touchscreens? That's OK. You can use a mouse or touchpad on a laptop or Chromebook. Or you can download the Jamboard app for Android or iOS (Apple) mobile devices.

When you open Jamboard, you'll see all of the recent jams you've opened. You can click the + button in the bottom right to create a new jam.

1. Draw: Use a pen, marker, highlighter or brush. You can draw from pre-determined colors.

2. Eraser: Erase something you've drawn.

3. Select: Choose and adjust a shape, sticky note, image, text box.

4. Sticky note: Add a sticky note with text. You can choose from several colors.

5. Image: Add an image from your device, image search, Google Drive or Photos.

6. Shapes: Add a circle, square, triangle, diamond, rounded rectangle, half circle, bar or arrow. Choose border color and fill color from the menu bar at the top of the jam.

7. Text box: Add a box where you can type and format text.

8. Laser: Use a pointer to emphasize and highlight certain items on the screen when presenting ideas to others.

9. Background: Choose from dots, lines, graph, or dark colors.

10. Clear frame: Wipe everything off your frame with one click. (Undo if it was a mistake!)

11. Frame bar: See all of your frames in one place. Add new frames, duplicate or delete.

12. Menu: From here, you can rename your jam, download it as a PDF, save a frame as an image, remove, or make a copy your jam.

13. Zoom: Zoom in, zoom out, or fit to window.

14. Undo and redo: I'll bet you know all about this one already.

Note: If you watch videos or read documentation about Jamboard, you might get excited about some features that you can't access by just using the free app. Integrating Google Meet, adding files from Drive, and some other features only work when you purchase the interactive display. When in doubt, try it out on the app first.

Student collaboration with Jamboard

Jamboard is made for collaboration! You can also share your jams just like you'd share a document or slide presentation. Click the "Share" button and share with individuals and groups or create a shareable link.

Students can interact in jams in lots of ways:

Students can brainstorm and create in small groups face to face on one device.

Share an "everyone can edit" link with students in Google Classroom for whole-class collaboration.

In remote or online settings, students can work together in small groups in the same jam.

In lots of the ideas below, you can add a layer of collaboration by giving students an "anyone can edit" link.

Note: Jamboard does not have a version history. This does remove an element of accountability that encourages students not to abuse the activity, writes Wes Fryer in his Speed of Creativity blog. You know your students, so you may well know whether they'll abuse this situation or not. I could see using it with small groups more readily than a whole group because the one who acts out is usually trying to perform for a large audience. You can always use Jamboard to display your own ideas and make them viewable later.

The Do More with Google Jamboard Online Course!

This course will introduce you to Jamboard features you might not know. It will give you dozens of ideas for using it in the classroom.

Plus, it provides you with:
- A collection of more than 100 templates.
- 40 activity ideas you can use immediately
- Tutorial slide s to use as a quick visual review.
- I nteractive infographics you can give your students
- Video playlists, posts, and extra resources.

20 ideas for using Jamboard in class (+ FREE templates!)

So ... what could this look like in class? I'm glad you asked! Here are several ideas for using it with your students. If you like the ideas, then click the "Get this template!" button and make a copy of a template you can use right away with students!

9. Screen record to describe thinking

How do we know what students are thinking when they create with Jamboard? Let's give them a way to tell us! Have students do screen recordings of their jams with a tool like Screencastify. They can describe what they've done, show us how they do it, and tell us why.

Google Jamboard tips and tricks:

Control D to duplicate. For many items on Jamboard, you can choose duplicate out of a menu. But using the keyboard shortcut (Control D) can save lots of time.

Voice typing. Jamboard doesn't offer voice typing for those that struggle with using a traditional keyboard. But students can always open a Google Doc and use voice typing out of the Tools menu. Copy and paste the text into Jamboard.

Make jams available to students. Grab a share link to any jam you use to teach students. Put that link somewhere in Google Classroom or a class website so students can access it later. (Adding the link to the description of an assignment connected to that jam streamlines things!)

Make jams into templates you can copy. Want to make templates that you force the user to copy -- like I did in this post? Click the "Share" button and change the link to "Anyone with the link can view". Copy the link. Then, when you paste the link, change the end of it, deleting the word "edit" and everything after it ... then typing the word "copy" in its place. That link will force the user to make a copy of your file.

More Google Jamboard resources:

Have you used Jamboard? What are your best tips, tricks and ideas? Please share them in a comment below!

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How to use Jamboard in the classroom: 20+ tips and ideas

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Jamboard is a collaborative online whiteboard. It gives students lots of creative work space. How do you use Google Jamboard in the classroom? Check out

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Google Classroom is a learning management system that allows teachers to create and distribute assignments, provide feedback, and facilitate communication with students.

Support for Project-Based Learning: Google Classroom serves as a centralized platform or LMS for organizing project materials, distributing resources, and facilitating communication among students and teachers. It encourages collaboration and engagement by providing a structured environment for students to access project instructions, submit assignments, and receive feedback asynchronously. Google Classroom fosters differentiation by allowing teachers to customize assignments and provide individualized support to students based on their needs and learning progress. Additionally, inspires creativity by enabling students to showcase their project work digitally and collaborate with peers in virtual spaces.

Can be used in both synchronous and asynchronous learning environments as it provides a platform for distributing resources and facilitating communication among students and teachers.

Project-Based Unit: Students can use Google Classroom to access project instructions, materials, videos, collaborate on group assignments, submit project artifacts, and receive feedback from peers and teachers asynchronously and synchronously throughout the project lifecycle.

ISTE Standards: Supports ISTE Standard for Students 4: Innovative Designer by providing opportunities for students to design and implement authentic learning experiences using digital tools and resources. In addition to 1.6.a Choose Platforms or Tools Students choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or communication.

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With its features and integrations, Google Classroom really provides tons of possibilities for how to create, assign, and facilitate learning. For instance, with add-ons like Kami, teachers can mark up student work and hand it back without leaving the application. In terms of differentiation, teachers can assign work to select students instead of the entire group. With the level of organization possible with Google Classroom, teachers may find that they can facilitate universal design for learning content and activities for their students.

Because Google Classroom takes on all of the back-end organization (folders are created in the teacher's Google Drive for each class, and each class has folders for each assignment), it's easy to go back and reference previous assignments or specific student work. And since Google Classroom now integrates with Google Meet, classes can access video meetings with easy-to-find links. Teachers can take advantage of all of the recent education-centric upgrades to Meet -- like Q&A, polls, and hand-raising -- to keep kids engaged and actively participating. Automatic grading also makes it super easy to use exit tickets as a formative assessment. Use the class Stream for social purposes, check-ins, announcements, or specific discussions.

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Put this tool into practice:
Google Classroom is a platform that helps teachers manage workflow and communication with their students. Though it wasn't originally designed to be a full LMS, it increasingly is heading in that direction. It's available as a website, an Android app, and an iOS app. When teachers log in, they have a section for each of their classes. Each class can be given a color and different banner to help teachers and students differentiate between multiple courses. Teachers can also create topics, which can be broad subjects like science or social studies, which works better for teachers who want everything within one Google Classroom. Teachers can also use topics more specifically, such as "Civil War" or "Matter."

The teacher and student dashboards are very similar: Announcements and discussion questions appear on the Stream page, which is what first appears. Although assignments also show up on the Stream page, they're now created and interacted with on the Classwork page. The Classwork page also houses materials like links, videos, and other documents that teachers and students will need to reference. To turn in an assignment, students upload the work -- if that's required -- and mark the assignment as done. Teachers have the option to allow kids to resubmit work multiple times. The recently added To-Do feature allows students and teachers to keep track of due dates and missing work and integrates with Google Calendar. Teachers can invite other teachers to their Google Classroom, which is useful for team-teaching situations. Students can be invited to a classroom via email or with a link.

The Grades page has improved some since Google Classroom launched years ago. Teachers can now create categories such as homework, classwork, projects, etc., and give them different weights toward the final grade. Google Classroom has a grading tool, allowing teachers to give grades and written feedback while viewing the student document. Should teachers choose, they can now grade assignments even if students haven't turned them in, which is useful when they forget to submit an assignment. Teachers have access to five originality checks per classroom, where Google will check a Google document for plagiarism. For unlimited originality checks, schools need to have enterprise education accounts. Similarly, teachers who have access to enterprise-level education accounts can use Google Classroom to track attendance.

Teachers can also choose to turn on parent summaries, which are emails that parents or guardians can receive about their kids. The summaries are limited to missing assignments, upcoming assignments, and announcements; parents won't get information on their kids' grades.

Google Classroom is, without a doubt, great for remote learning, paperless assignment submission, and class updates. And reusing assignments and rubrics easily allows teachers more time to focus on student learning. Aside from being able to streamline document management, teachers can ask polling questions and foster fruitful discussions; students who find participating in oral discussions difficult may find it easier to contribute in an online format. Once comfortable with all of these features, teachers can use their Google Classroom as a nexus point, easily linking and directing students to other tools on the internet. This maintains a high level of organization, allows kids to get where teachers want them to go efficiently, and continuously breathes new life into the tool. Coaches and administration can also find it useful for organizing information and learning for their teaching staff.

As far as assessment and grading are concerned, teachers can only give grades on a 100-point scale (including decimals, if needed), and there's no standards-based grading option. True LMS products integrate with Common Core standards. However, it is possible for teachers to create their own rubrics from within Google Classroom (importing from Sheets is also an option). As of 2021, Google is gradually rolling out an integration with the Infinite Campus and Skyward 2.0 student information systems (SIS) so that grades entered in the gradebook will transfer to those systems, with more SIS integrations to come. Once this is available, the Grades page might be more appealing for some teachers. Teachers can create quizzes that use Google Forms, which make use of traditional questions such as short answer, long answer, and multiple choice. Teachers looking for dragging labels on an image, number lines, charts, and graphs, or other advanced question types, need to look elsewhere.

Some other minor drawbacks are helpful to note: Sometimes kids will mark something as done without uploading work, either on purpose to stall for time, by accident, or because uploading wasn't required. In any case, it can cause confusion and frustration on multiple fronts. It would be great if teachers could choose whether or not uploading something is required for an assignment to be marked as complete. Also, the parent communications are limited to a static email either once a day or once per week. More options for school-home communication would help build out those interactions.

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Google Classroom Review for Teachers | Common Sense Education

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Is Google Classroom good for learning? Use Common Sense Education's reviews and learning ratings to find the best media and edtech resources for your classroom.

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Quizizz is a game-based learning platform where teachers can create and share quizzes and interactive activities to assess student understanding.

Support for Project-Based Learning: Quizizz engages students in project-based learning by offering gamified quizzes and review activities related to project content. It encourages active participation and collaboration by allowing students to compete individually or in teams to answer quiz questions. Quizizz fosters differentiation by providing customizable quizzes with adaptive question sets and pacing options to meet diverse learning needs. Moreover, inspires creativity by enabling teachers to create thematic quizzes and incorporate multimedia elements to enhance engagement and excitement.

Can be used in both synchronous and asynchronous learning environments as it provides opportunities for interactive assessment and engagement.

Project-Based Unit: Students can use Quizizz to review project concepts and assess their understanding through interactive quizzes, either collaboratively during synchronous sessions or individually as part of asynchronous review activities.

ISTE Standards: Supports ISTE Standard for Students 5: Computational Thinker by providing opportunities for students to analyze and interpret data through interactive quizzes and assessments.

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Quizizz | Free Online Quizzes, Lessons, Activities and Homework

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Motivate every student to mastery with easy-to-customize content plus tools for inclusive assessment, instruction, and practice. Engage students with Quizizz today!

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Edpuzzle is an interactive video platform that allows teachers to create and share customized video lessons with embedded questions and assessments.

Support for Project-Based Learning: Edpuzzle enhances project-based learning by providing students with interactive video resources to explore project topics independently. It encourages differentiation by allowing students to learn at their own pace and revisit content as needed. Edpuzzle fosters engagement by incorporating quizzes, polls, and discussions within videos, promoting active learning and reflection. Additionally, inspires creativity by enabling teachers to personalize video lessons with custom voiceovers, annotations, and supplementary materials to enhance understanding.

Best for asynchronous learning as it allows students to engage with video lessons and assessments at their own convenience. Students are able to re-take the assessments as needed and re-watch the video as well.

Project-Based Unit: Students can use Edpuzzle to watch instructional videos related to their project themes, completing embedded quizzes and reflective questions to reinforce their understanding of project concepts asynchronously. Students can even learn how to make their own Edpuzzle by recording and editing a video or by editing an existing video on YouTube.

ISTE Standards: Supports ISTE Standard for Students 7: Global Collaborator by providing opportunities for students to interact with multimedia resources and engage in self-directed learning experiences.

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Google Slides and Google Docs are cloud-based presentation and word processing tools that allow for real-time collaboration and sharing of documents.

Support for Project-Based Learning: Google Slides and Docs facilitate collaborative project work by allowing students to create, edit, and share documents and presentations in real-time. They encourage differentiation by enabling group work and peer collaboration on project tasks, with features like comments and suggestions for providing feedback. They foster engagement by providing a platform for interactive presentations and discussions during synchronous sessions. Moreover, they inspire creativity by offering customizable templates, multimedia integration, and creative formatting options for showcasing project content.

Best for synchronous learning as they enable real-time collaboration and interaction among students and teachers. However, students can also assign specific tasks and interact via comments on the Slides/Docs asynchronously.

Project-Based Unit: Students can use Google Slides to create multimedia presentations or Google Docs to collaborate on research papers or project proposals, working together synchronously and asynchronously to develop and refine their project materials. They can also use Screencastify to record the presentation and upload the completed video to Padlet. Students are able to interact with their peers and provide feedback.

ISTE Standards: Supports ISTE Standard for Students 6: Creative Communicator by providing tools for students to create and share multimedia presentations. Additionally, 1.2.b Online Behavior Students engage in positive, safe, legal and ethical behavior when using technology, including in social interactions online or when using networked devices.

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Sixth-grade students at Curtner Elementary School in Milpitas, CA have been hard at work researching the question, "How can we make a positive impact on climate change?"

Every Monday morning, all three sixth grade classes make their way to the Curtner Learning Lab, a recent renovation that included knocking walls down to combine the library and two classrooms into a 21st century learning center, with ample space, flexible rolling furniture, and Chromebooks for student use. Working in teams of three, the students log on to the Chromebooks with their Google accounts, open a team Google Doc used for collaboration, and get right to work on the PBL unit on climate change.

K-12 students and teachers at school sites throughout the Milpitas Unified School District are taking advantage of the district's cutting-edge technology infrastructure. It has Google Apps for Education accounts for all students and teachers, close to 7000 Chromebooks (for 10,000 students), and 21st century learning centers at every site. Here are some of the reasons that teachers and students are benefitting from using Google's tools during PBL.

Collaboration

Student teams shared one Google Doc, copied from a template created by the teacher to guide their research process. Because each student could edit the document, all three students could collaborate together in real time. Student teams researched three "need to know questions" generated by the class in response to the driving question. The students researched each question together, but they searched different websites, and collaboratively added facts, data, and conclusions from different sources, meeting a key Common Core writing standard. The cumulative work was much more in-depth than if the students had worked by themselves only.

As students conducted research, they also recorded additional questions or "wonderings" that would further their inquiry process. Online research was conducted from within the Google Doc, using the "research" tool, which allows students to search the Web, insert links, and cite sources. In addition to using Google Docs for sustained inquiry during a project, students can use Google Docs and Slides to support the other Gold Standard PBL Essential Project Design Elements.

Reflection. Docs can be used by students for reflection on learning throughout the project.

Critique and Revision. Students and teachers can engage in an ongoing, iterative process of critique and revision to help create high-quality products.

Public Product. Google Docs and Slides can be published on the Web, allowing student products to be showcased to a public audience.

Project Management

Teachers at Curtner and other school sites throughout the district are using Google Sites, another app in the Google Apps for Education suite, to quickly and easily create project websites to support the management of PBL. Teachers at Curtner keep all student Google Docs in a Google Drive folder that is then embedded in the Google Site. This drive folder is easily accessible to all students and teachers involved in the project. Google sites are being used in many aspects of project management:

They serve as virtual "project walls" - a place where teachers can collect all information related to the project in one website.

Project requirements and resources can be embedded, attached, or linked, for students to easily access, such as the driving question, lists of student-generated questions for inquiry, and more.

Teachers, especially of younger primary students, can create a page on the Google Site with links to the websites that students will use for research.

Google Sites serve as a hub for managing resources, links, and information needed by teachers and students throughout all phases of a project.

Alternatively, or in addition to using Google Sites, some teachers are delving into the use of Google Classroom, Google's online platform that allows teachers to post announcements and assignments, use it for collaboration and discussion, and provide a seamless integration with Google's other apps. Google classroom takes PBL into the Cloud.

For Curtner students, as well as other students and teachers in Milpitas Unified, using Google Docs to work collaboratively has become part of the district's culture. Now teachers are pairing these tools with PBL, and are getting powerful results. To get started using Google Apps, school districts can sign up for Google Apps for Education, which provides them with the same suite of tools.

For further reading:

Watch:
● Google Docs & Project Based Learning
● Using Technology to Help Manage a Project
● Collaborative Digital Presentation Enrich Projects
● Enhancing Project Based Learning with Google Apps
Read:
● How to Use Google Tools in Project Based Learning
● PBL Pilot: Apps, Tips, and Tricks
● The High Hopes Project: A Model for Global STEM learning
● Launch a Business Venture with Your Students
Do you have questions, comments, or tips how to use Google Apps in a PBL classroom? Please enter them below.

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Google Apps for Education Enhances Project Based Learning

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How to use various Google Apps for supporting student collaboration and project management in projects, with examples and a list of further readings.