App review by Amanda Bindel, Common Sense Education | Updated April 2019

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Jamboard

Name: Jamboard
Item: Jamboard
Rating: 4
Author: Amanda Bindel

Versatile whiteboard app integrates with Google Suite

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Community rating

Based on 2 reviews

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Grades

4–12

Subjects & Skills

Communication & Collaboration

Great for

Media Literacy, Creating Media, Assessment, Presentation

Take a look inside

5 images

Use Jamboard just like a whiteboard -- add images and text.

Collaborate by adding people to a Jamboard.

Add files from Google Drive into a Jamboard for presentations or collaboration.

Add sticky notes customizable with colors and text with a tap.

Short videos in the help section explain how to use Jamboard.

Pros: Students can pull files from Google Drive and collaborate within Jamboards.

Cons: Works more like slides with multiple pages rather than endless scrolling.

Bottom Line: Great addition to Google classrooms but can be used by anyone.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

Use Jamboard as you would any whiteboard app. Teachers can demonstrate on the Jamboard whiteboards and share them with students for collaborative whole-class discussions. Students can work in groups using Jamboard, collaborating in real time with drawings, images, and text. Students can use Jamboard as a presentation tool, too. The flexibility of the app and the integration with Google Drive make Jamboard a tool that groups can use throughout a project -- from brainstorming and planning to presentation.

What Is It?

Google Jamboards are physical interactive whiteboards for front-of-the-class use, but the Jamboard app puts a whiteboard on any tablet in a student's hand. Students or teachers can create Jamboards, share them, and collaborate on them. For classes with the physical whiteboard, the creations could be broadcast onto the big Jamboard, but that's not necessary at all with the app. Jamboards can be saved as image files or PDFs. Rather than requiring endless scrolling, boards can have multiple pages, more like a slideshow.

Is It Good for Learning?

Since Jamboard can be used many ways, it can enhance learning in a variety of situations and in different content areas. It can be used for teacher-led lessons, collaborative class discussions, small group projects and presentations, and individual planning and organization. This versatility, along with the ease of integration into the Google platform, make this a tool that many Google educators will want to implement and students will enjoy using.

Learning Rating

Overall Rating

Engagement

Intuitive design makes using Jamboard easy, and the options for collaboration make it fun.

Pedagogy

Jamboard empowers students to share ideas and collaborate. Features are intuitive, saving and sharing is easy, and boards are automatically saved.

Support

It integrates easily with Google Drive, allowing students to add files to their Jamboard and save boards to Drive. The help section includes several quick videos demonstrating features.

Common Sense reviewer

Amanda Bindel Classroom teacher

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Featured review by
Jamie K. , Other

Other

Fort Worth Independent School District
Fort Worth, United States

Great interactive whiteboard!

Overall this is a very nice addition to Google Workspace It is integrated into Google Meets now which makes it easier to access. It is a whiteboard at heart and is not revolutionary but does bring that classroom experience to the students virtually with the added benefit of being able to work on the board simultaneously. I found the tool useful to stimulate further discussion. The easy integration of images makes the tool more fun and engaging for students.

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