AWW stands for A Web Whiteboard, which is exactly what it is. An online digital whiteboard that can be curated by a single or multiple users.
This digital whiteboard is device-responsive, web-based, and FREE which means it’s quick to access for multiple users. A teacher can pre-create a board and invite students to brainstorm on it or students can create their own board to be shared. On the digital canvas you can draw, add text, and upload images.
You can also use this app to transform your projector into a “smart board” by using the AWW app on your tablet, connecting it to your projector, and then displaying your interactions.
Visit the website awwapp.com and it automatically will present you with a blank board.
Use a blank page or create an account so it can be saved and revisited.
Pre-create a board for students to use OR have students create their own boards.
You can use templates! Find the title of your board, click the black drop-down arrow, click on “Create from Templates”
Save the board & export it to a PDF.
Share the board with others or keep it private.
Some Features (as of October 2018):
add text, shapes (circle or rectangle), drawings
upload pictures
add additional pages
share – through email, the automatically generated QR code or URL link, or embed it into a class website
choose from pre-created templates
FREE CHAT BOX **when logged in with an account**
people viewing a whiteboard can leave their questions and comments – great for providing feedback or distance collaboration – which the creator can answer
Digital whiteboards are also known as Interactive online whiteboards. They are a blank canvas and depending on the application, you can add images, hyperlinks, draw or annotate them, upload videos, and some allow voice recording. Several allow real-time collaborative co-creation while some are more for individual use with sharing options. There are a plethora of options available today with many proprietary, paid options, a few fully free and some with varying levels. I’ve even found two ‘open educational apps’ FIPPA compliant (data housed in Canada) that are worth a try. See the ‘getting started’ section below for a few options.
Digital Whiteboards provide a space for students to document their learning, often in multimodal ways. The blank canvas can include drawings, text, images, video, and voice recordings allowing students to create a raw presentation to be reviewed by the teacher or a polished edited version to share with others. Most whiteboard style applications allow for sharing with others and some have ‘collaboration’ options. Digital whiteboards might be incorporated into student assessment (‘showme’ what you know or understand about…), as brainstorming spaces or individual/group project planning or presentation spaces.
Decide on your learning objective and what you want students to achieve. Digital whiteboards can be used to capture various parts of a students learning journey.
Learn what tools are available on your classroom or district devices because some are free while others have a cost.
Download the application or visit the web tool and allow students to play and learn some of the basic functions before assigning structured tasks.
Here are just a few ideas of how a Digital Whiteboard could be used:
Explaining: Explain how they’ve come to a conclusion or answer by providing a visual explanation.
Presenting: Transform a powerpoint format into a presentation that features their annotations, explanations, and share it as a video that can be refined before being viewed by others.
Advantage: Students can hear their voice and re-record their narration until it sounds correct to them.
Collaborating: Work with a partner or in a group and record multiple ideas on the one application. This goes beyond a poster because they can add in videos, overlay them with graphs or additional images, and then record different voices to explain their creation.
Documenting: Students can create a portfolio that documents different projects or components on each canvas page.
Below are a few examples of interactive whiteboard apps. Click on one to learn more!
“Personal” digital whiteboards:
ShowMe – free ipad based with cloud sharing space allows voice recording, image uploading and annotating.
Explain Everything – mobile based app allows image & video upload, annotations & audio narration.
WhiteBoard Chat allows for a teacher to launch student boards.
Whiteboard.fi is another free whiteboard application I only recently came across. It’s been developed by Kahoot so is worth a look. Teachers can create a ‘classroom’ and provide join links for students.
Miro is another whiteboard application with a variety of templates including mind maps and flow charts. Pin notes, type and free draw. Free access includes 3 whiteboards with unlimited team members collaborating. One thing I like about Miro is the ‘infinity board’ aspect… the board can be VERY large and just keep growing with a neat little map feature so you can see the whole board at a glance.
Etherdraw and Draw.io are both Open Source/Open Access Apps that are also FIPPA compliant are available thanks to the wonderful community at OpenETC!
Microsoft’s response to creating a more interactive presentation tool that allows users to become creators as they embed pictures, videos, and more into a customizable slidedeck. This allows Teachers to create relevant materials for introducing content and also provides students with a “digital storytelling” platform.
Many students (and Teachers!) may have access to a free Microsoft Account in their school district which means it gives them FREE access to Sway. It is also a program that can be manipulated across platforms and operating systems; make live changes from an internet browser, the desktop app, mobile app, or from a tablet. You can also make changes offline which allows individuals to continue working regardless of their internet connection.
Sway also provides a welcoming interface as it allows customization without complication. Add photos, videos, and links while emphasizing text. It also is a great lesson of storyboarding because it lets you view your “deck” and rearrange photos, create new “stacks,” and quickly make changes to the appearance through free theme choices.
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Read our Sway Instructions then print & share it with your students!
You or your students will need a Microsoft Account. From there, you can sign-in and select Sway to get started.
You will also need to choose how students are accessing Sway. The tablet/mobile app will have a simpler layout then the online/desktop versions of Sway.
Create a new project.
Option A: Follow the automatic tutorial OR follow THESE PROMPTS
Option B: Explore on your own
Get to know the storyline.
Type, Insert, Edit, and Format
Create a title.
Add relevant images and text.
use the + icon on a card
Add additional content.
On the menu bar, click Insert, select your preferred content source from the menu, and then enter any search keyword or phrase into the Search sources box.
Preview your Sway.
Change the Style.
Click Design on the menu bar and then select, Styles
You can select Remix for random styles OR Customize
Share your Sway.
Click Share
Students could share it to a class notebook, your email, embed it, or share it to social media.
You can also add accessibility features to your Sway
Click More Options ( . . . ) on the top menu bar, and then click or tap Accessibility view
**If you aren’t already a Microsoft Innovative Educator, sign up for FREE with your Microsoft account and you can begin learning at your own pace. Click on THIS LINK to read about Sway and it’s use in classrooms for Digital Storytelling as a new form of presenting.
UPDATE: As of April 2018, Padlet has changed to a paid subscription model. Free access is now limited to 3 boards. Once you’ve deleted a board, you can create additional boards.
For those interested in exploring Open Educational options, you may wish to try a suite of apps from apps.opened.ca hosted in the ‘Sandstorm’ ecosystem (a Canadian housed space) – you can even host the apps on your own server. Scrumblr and Brainstorm are the closest I’ve found to Padlet. You might also be interested in Etherpad (like a google doc but FIPPA compliant!). For more information, please visit ‘Open ETech: Free Range Ed Tech’.
Padlet is an online wall to which anyone with the link can easily add text, audio, video, images, hyperlinks and even make simple sketches! There are templates available including a gps located map.
Users can share their ideas from any device with internet access whether they’re inside or outside the classroom. These virtual sticky notes can then help keep track of and enrich classroom discussions or help when designing a project. Students are even able to comment or react to the posts of others (depending on how the teacher/moderator configures the settings).
A collaborative whiteboard or posting board is a great way to share information and collaboratively create content. Consider a classroom brainstorm that often entails students raising their hands and sharing, one at a time, while the teacher or another student records on the board… now think about the possibilities if groups of students or pairs of students have a shared Padlet wall open and are all adding and sharing ideas and resources in real time! Once the brainstorming has taken place, the teacher can follow up with a group discussion that might involve evaluating, sorting and classifying responses… something that can be difficult to make time for when the act of brainstorming and recording is lengthy.
Using the Mapping template, students might collaboratively create a geo-located map for place based learning activities, response to a novel that involves a journey, sharing information about cultures and places around the world, etc.
Embedding media like videos and images is simple, and Padlet even allows users to record videos or take pictures in real time and places them directly into their documents. Create and share mind-maps, plans, diagrams, portfolios, maps and more. Remember to always consider privacy and copyright permissions when sharing images, video or other content online.
Another valuable affordance of Padlet for teachers is that you can ‘moderate’ your posts using the privacy settings so that you view anything a student posts and approve it before it becomes ‘live’.
Important features and considerations:
Accountability: MODERATE your wall using the MODIFY menu (the ‘settings wheel’ in Top right corner) to help provide some accountability for students (‘Modify’ –> Require Approval). In a f2f classroom, the T can also circulate while students work and approve posts (using a mobile device) as T circulates, interacts/prompts/probes. You can also ask students to self-identify using initials or you can have students work in small groups or partners.
Privacy: Using the SHARE menu, you can adjust privacy. Consider: is the content sensitive at all? If so, there are also techniques like question boxes to support co-creating ideas/questions around more sensitive issues – the T can then preview the questions and discuss with the class the next day. Will students share their photos? names? what are the school/district norms and expectations or permissions needed? This is NOT a FIPPA compliant space so it is very important that students not be required to login and/or provide any personal or identifying info. (Metadata including things like location services in images provide data so it is important your students are aware of how to protect their own privacy)
Accessibility: You can create a custom URL using the ‘SETTINGS wheel’ (top right corner). This is also where you add a title and instructions/description. Consider: Do all of your students have devices? Will this be an individual or small group or partner? Are there visually impaired students? Other learning needs?
Visit https://padlet.com/ and click on “Create a padlet”. Then double-click anywhere to start writing, it is that simple! The URL can be shared with anyone. To explore some of the settings available, please refer to the video demonstration at the end of the post.
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