Teaching Online with Whiteboard Fox: Math Instruction and Co-Teaching

By: Matt Rhoads, Ed.D

Dr. Matt Rhoads is a Tech and Instructional Leader and Innovator with hands in Adult Ed, K-12, and Higher Education. He is the author of several books and is the host of Navigating Education – The Podcast.

This week I wanted to provide several posts aimed specifically at Edtech tools I am using now to instruct my students online. Today, I wanted to share an amazing Edtech tool that can be utilized during live online instruction and for screencasts. Whiteboardfox is an online whiteboard teachers can use to write, draw, add text, graphics, worksheets, etc. of the content they are using for their lesson. Specifically, for my online class, we are using it to teach high school co-taught Algebra. We will be using Whiteboardfox for our live online session synchronous sessions and for the development of asynchronous direct instruction videos for our students to interact with. Along with the information I have posted about its features, I have included a YouTube tutorial I created outlining these features visually. A neat feature that whiteboardfox provides us is the ability to share the whiteboard with co-teachers and/or students simultaneously. For example, during an online meeting, a teacher can share the link with a co-teacher or student to either co-teach, collaborate, or work directly one on one on the content. This allows my co-teacher and me to team-teach during our live synchronous sessions or during the production of screencasts that can be used as online lectures for direct instruction. Another amazing feature of whiteboardfox is its ability to allow you to generate the specific content you are working on by providing you the opportunity to paste a .JPEG of graphics you are using for your class to interact with. This could be a math worksheet, a slideshow, an infographic, and much more. Teachers and students can then draw and interact with the graphic in a multitude of ways. Additionally, it allows you to have the graphic side by side with your work already on the whiteboard, which allows notes to be included with the graphic you have posted on the whiteboard. Lastly, whiteboardfox can be used effectively on a tablet or PC. My co-teacher and I could be either using an iPad or PC and can be collaborating on the whiteboard at the same time; very effective across multiple platforms. Also, whiteboardfox can be used on Google Meet and Zoom or any other meeting platform by going directly to whiteboardfox.com and sharing your screen during the meeting. Overall, I highly recommend this tool to teach mathematics as well as all content areas. It’s an effective tool that allows for live co-teaching and working with students one on one in an interactive environment. Try it out today at www.whiteboardfox.com to amplify your online instruction! Let me know your thoughts if you are currently using whiteboardfox in your online class by tweeting me at @mattrhoads1990. I am excited to see how YOU are using it in your online instruction!