Google Jamboard – An Easy to Access and Learn Tool that Can Amplify Student Learning

What is Google Jamboard

Google Jamboard is an interactive template where students and teachers can interact individually as well as collaboratively within in-person and online classroom settings that can be either synchronously or asynchronously. The best way to think of Jamboard is that of a board game where you can move game pieces. However, on Jamboard, you are able to write sticky notes, create text boxes, add pictures from the internet or uploaded from the computer, and freehand draw to interact and create content. 

What’s amazing about Jamboard is that you can create templates on Google Slides or Canva and copy it onto a blank Jamboard. This allows us to incorporate many strategies such as Venn Diagrams, KWL Charts, A-Z Vocabulary, Brain Dumps, I Used to Think – Now I Think, and much more. Check out this fantastic setup Jamboard Templates by TCEA that provide the very templates for these strategies to happen. 

Sharing Jamboards for Student Access

Just like Google Slides and Docs, Jamboard can be shared to students through the share button on the far right hand side of the screen (see below; 4 steps are outlined). Be sure to ensure students have editing access and the link is available to be shared to anyone with a link. Additionally, you can post Jamboard assignments on Canvas by using the template you’ve created and sharing the link as a hyperlink when you create an assignment so students can access it. You can make multiple copies of the Jamboard within the same Jamboard template, which is great so you can see how multiple students or groups of students are doing on the task you’ve assigned. 

Adding Contact on a Jamboard

There are a number of things students and teachers can do to add content onto a Jamboard individually or collaboratively. There are two toolbars that allow you to create content and navigate the Jamboard. See below as they have been provided to illustrate what they look like.

Top Toolbar. On the top toolbar on Jamboard, there are a number of options available for you to use.  To edit, you can use the undo arrow or redo arrow to make corrections. There is a magnifying tool where you can zoom in and out of the Jamboard, a set background option, and a clear frame option that allows you to erase the Jamboard. Last, in the very center, you will see two slides side by side. This can be clicked on and allows you to add additional Jamboard slides for students to interact with. 

Left Hand Toolbar. On the toolbar to the left-hand side of the Jamboard, you have the options to draw, erase, add a sticky note, add a sticky note, add a photo, add a shape, add a textbook, and utilize a laser pointer to highlight various. 

Creating Templates for Jamboard

Creating templates for Jamboard can be done on Google Slides and Canva. Using their design features, you can create graphic organizers and designs on them. You can download the designs you’ve created from each platform and upload them on Jamboard as the background image, which cannot be erased when you click on the “clear frame” option on the top toolbar. Ultimately, with the use of these backgrounds, there are endless possibilities of the strategies and uses various strategies for your students to learn skills and content. 

Templates and More

Here’s a video going through how to use Google Jamboard. Then, take a look at the Ultimate Google Jamboard Collection. This Jamboard Template collection provides you with over 1200 templates for you to make a copy of and use for your classroom instruction. 

Jamboard Templates by Matt Miller

• Mad Libs Template – Students develop a mad lib to create concrete concepts of content learned.
• Timeline Template – Students develop individually or collaboratively a timeline.
• Book Snaps Template – Students find a passage, snap a picture, and annotate on it.

Conclusion – Google Jamboard

Google Jamboard is a very easy-to-use tool that can be used in any classroom setting. It provides opportunities for many instructional strategies to be utilized with the tool, which will be discussed in the next post regarding this EdTech tool. Go ahead and try this fantastic tool as it is a fun, engaging, and collaborative tool that can help facilitate and amplify student learning without much legwork upfront in regard to planning and setting up using Jamboard for students.