🖥️ Reviving a remote teaching classic
Flash back: My remote teaching setup from 2020.
Flash back to 2020 …
Lots of us were adjusting to a new normal when the COVID-19 pandemic forced school closures and ushered in remote teaching and learning.
We got INCREDIBLY familiar with …
Zoom and Google Meet (we were experts at muting students and breakout rooms)
our learning management systems (Google Classroom, Canvas, Schoology)
video-based apps like Flipgrid (I still miss it!)
running review games like Kahoot! on a video call
There was a HUGE demand for online whiteboards. (Turns out that teachers loved to teach with them — and wanted a digital replacement when teaching virtually.)
When there’s a demand, the market usually supplies an option! There was a huge surge in virtual whiteboard options (kind of like how fast we advanced with app-based online ordering for fast food … we had years of progress in a matter of months!).
Now, SIX years later … the online whiteboards are still here. There’s a TON we can do with them — especially student whiteboards — but lots of us aren’t thinking about them.
Read our full updated post here: 15 online whiteboard options for 1:1 classes
In today’s 💡 Big Idea, we do a deep dive into these tools. There’s a lot, so don’t miss …
5 collaborative whiteboard tools (the "everyone can join" boards)
5 individual whiteboard tools (the "digital desk" boards)
5 recording/screen sharing apps (the "flipped lesson" boards)
🎁 BONUS: Download the Online Whiteboard Bell Ringer Pack
🤖 A copy/paste AI prompt to get customized suggestions for what you teach
Inside:
📺 WEBINAR: 5 ways Snorkl is transforming learning
👀 DTT Digest: 4 resources worth checking out
💻 Tech Tip: Google’s “Career Dreamer” app
💡 The Big Idea: Whiteboard options for 1:1 classrooms
😄 Smile of the day: Is it spring break yet?
👋 How we can help
📺 WEBINAR: 5 ways Snorkl is transforming learning
I’m co-hosting a webinar about an AI-powered classroom app that has a TON of potential — Snorkl!
I’ll join Snorkl co-founder Jon Laven in this FREE webinar to share five real classroom examples of Snorkl in action.
See how students record and write their thinking, receive instant AI feedback, and give teachers clearer insight into understanding—all while increasing student ownership and engagement.
DATE: Tuesday, Feb. 24
TIME: 7pm U.S. Eastern / 6pm Central / 5pm Mountain / 4pm Pacific
LENGTH: 30-45 minutes
RECORDING: Available afterward
👀 DTT Digest
4 teaching resources worth checking out today
🤖 20 ways to use AI to enhance existing lessons— Artificial intelligence can help you write lesson plans faster — and give you new ideas you might not consider. Here are some tips and strategies you can use.
💡 Tips for prompting in Google Gemini — Creating the right prompt makes all the difference when working with generative AI. But sometimes it's hard to know how to craft the right prompt. Here are some tips.
❗️Turn Any Quiz Into a Kahoot – Right From Brisk — Instead of jumping between tools, you can create a quiz in Brisk and send it straight into Kahoot in just a few clicks.
ICYMI 🧠 Practical ideas for activating prior knowledge — This post from Edutopia shares 12 research-backed, teacher-tested strategies to help kids unpack what they already know.
💻 TECH TIP 💻
💼 A "career identity" tool you (and your students) need to see
If you work with high school or college students or need to create a LinkedIn profile or resume yourself you’ll love Career Dreamer. It’s a new, experimental AI tool from Grow with Google designed to turn "life experience" into a professional narrative. You don't need a polished resume to start. You just answer a few simple questions about what you’ve done and what you enjoy, and the AI helps you:
Identify the "superpowers" you might be taking for granted (perfect for students who don’t realize how much experience they already have!).
Create a clear, punchy way to describe who you are professionally.
Explore new careers as it uses actual job market data to show you careers that align with your unique background.
📈🆙 Level up: Combine Career Dreamer with the NEW LinkedIN template
Connect personal experiences and identified skills to a professional narrative, practicing self-presentation.
Activity:
Step 1: Students use Career Dreamer to generate their "Career Identity Statement" and identify key skills.
Step 2: They then use this information to fill out sections of the LinkedIn profile template, focusing on summarizing their experiences and skills in a professional context.
Step 3: Students prepare a short (2-3 minute) presentation where they introduce themselves using their Career Identity Statement and explain how 2-3 key skills identified by Career Dreamer relate to their aspirations, potentially using examples from their LinkedIn draft.
Follow-up: Peer feedback on presentations, focusing on clarity and confidence.
💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡
🚨Updated: Whiteboard options for 1:1 classrooms
Back in 2021 we wrote a post called 10 online whiteboard options for remote learning. As time went on, more companies created online whiteboarding tools (or added the feature to their app). We added five more to bring it to 15!
Since our last update even more has changed.
Some of our favorite tools are now retired (RIP Jamboard).
AI has supercharged old standbys into online whiteboard powerhouses.
We went on the hunt for new or updated online whiteboard options that you could use in your 1:1, online or remote learning classes. We’ve broken them down into three categories:
Collaborative (the "everyone can join" boards)
Individual (the "digital desk" boards)
Recording/Screen sharing (the "flipped lesson" boards)
Collaborative Whiteboards (Best for Group Work)
FigJam: A creative, modern playground that is perfect for mapping out complex ideas and running high-energy, class-wide brainstorms.
Padlet Sandbox: A simple collaborative canvas that allows you to turn "cards" into digital storybooks or interactive slideshows with branching logic.
Canva Online Whiteboard: Combines the design power of Canva with animation tools and a massive library of professional templates for real-time collaboration.
Google Slides / PowerPoint: An "oldie but goodie" method where students use shared slides as whiteboards to add text, images, and shapes without needing a touchscreen.
Whiteboard.chat: A feature-rich app that includes math equations, dice, and compasses, allowing you to connect up to 100 people to a single board.
Individual Whiteboards (Best for Formative Assessment)
Snorkl: An innovative platform where students record their drawings and voice explanations while AI provides instant, personalized feedback on their thinking.
Brisk Boost Whiteboard: Supercharges the visual canvas with an AI tutor that interacts with students in real-time as they work through resources.
Markify: Allows teachers to push a PDF or image to every student's device for individual markup while monitoring the entire class from a single dashboard.
Whiteboard.fi: A simple tool where every student gets an individual board; teachers can "push" their own drawings to students for immediate feedback with no login required.
Explain Everything / Educreations: Classic "screencasting" whiteboards that allow students to record their voice and drawings to create instructional videos or explain their logic.
Seesaw: A versatile tool for younger learners to snap pictures, draw, and label their work, making it easy to capture and turn in digital "thinking" within one app.
Recording & Display Whiteboards (Best for Direct Instruction)
Canvas Chrome App: A minimalist, "no-frills" drawing app that is great for quick doodles and works seamlessly on any Chromebook.
Microsoft Whiteboard (Windows): A built-in Windows app that offers a variety of pens, rulers, and a lasso tool for moving items around an infinite canvas.
OneNote: An infinite digital notebook that is particularly powerful for math teachers due to its robust equation editor and math-solving tools.
Physical Whiteboards: Sometimes the "real thing" is best; just aim your camera at a handheld or wall-mounted board to keep that familiar classroom feel.
🎁 BONUS: Online whiteboard bell ringer pack
Want to try one of these whiteboards out tomorrow? This pack offers a collection of five versatile, high-impact digital whiteboard templates designed to help you reclaim those first five minutes of class. It includes ready-to-go activity ideas that cover everything from social-emotional check-ins and vocabulary building to critical thinking and brainstorming.
Each template acts as a low-prep background that works with any of your favorite online whiteboard tools, making it easy to start tomorrow's lesson with more fun.
What’s inside:
5 unique templates plus ideas for how to use them in your classroom tomorrow:
Vibe Check (SEL): Quickly gauge the emotional temperature of the room before you begin.
Error Analysis: Help students build mastery by identifying and fixing intentional mistakes.
Vocabulary Sketch-It: Use dual-coding to improve long-term memory retention of new terms.
Would You Rather?: Build community while helping students practice their argumentative skills.
Idea Dump: Activate prior knowledge with an open-ended brainstorming session.
Ready to start? Pick your favorite download method and try an activity with your students today!
🤖 PROMPT: How to use these in your class
Copy this prompt into an AI assistant like ChatGPT or Google Gemini to get custom ideas for your exact teaching situation. (Fill in the blanks before submitting!)
ALTERNATIVE: Take a picture with your phone of the prompt. Add it to a chat in your AI assistant and say “let’s do this”.
BONUS: If you saw example activities in the bell ringer pack that you liked, copy them and ask for ideas.
I’m a [subject/grade] teacher. I’ve been reading about online whiteboard tools and want to know how I can use these to create hands-on, visual, collaborative learning activities that support what I teach. I’m about to teach [content]. The tools I’ve learned about are: collaborative whiteboards like FigJam, Padlet Sandbox, Canva Online Whiteboard, Google Slides/PowerPoint shared slides, and Whiteboard.chat; individual whiteboards like Snorkl, Brisk Boost Whiteboard, Markify, Whiteboard.fi, and Explain Everything/Educreations; recording and display whiteboards for teaching like Canvas Chrome App, Microsoft Whiteboard for Windows, OneNote, and actual physical whiteboards (that you can record with a camera).
😄 Smile of the day
We’re not even close 😭
Source: Bored Teachers
👋 How we can help
There are even more ways I can support you in the important work you do in education:
Read one of my six books about meaningful teaching with tech.
Take one of our online courses about practical and popular topics in education.
Bring me to your school, district or event to speak. I love working with educators!
