Jamboard Tip Sheet and samples

Google has announced that it is “winding down” Jamboard. If you are using Jamboard you probably got the announcement. If you haven’t started using it, you might want to think about an alternative. If you are using it now, you can keep doing that until December 31, 2024. See more below.

Creating a collaborative workspace in Slides

Jamboard is a whiteboard that has an online version that you can use for free. Users can add text, sticky notes, images, and links. You can create online discussions and opportunities for synchronous or asynchronous collaborative or individual learning.

Download the Jamboard Tip Sheet

In the Sample Jamboards folder you can see activities by some Ontario literacy practitioners (and me) that you can copy and adapt.

You will also see a folder called EDTechTeacher Samples where you will find copies of many of the Jamboards that were shared in the shared in the Building digital skills with Google workshop.

Check out our library of sample Jamboards

If you’d like to learn more about Jamboard or schedule a demonstration, contact Tracey or our Quick Tech Help service.

“Starting October 1, 2024, you’ll no longer be able to create new or edit existing Jams on any platform, including the web, iOS, and Android. Between October 1, 2024 and December 31, 2024, the app will be placed in “view-only” mode, during which time you can continue to back up your Jam files. Learn more.”

“After December 31, 2024, the Jamboard app will be shut down. You will no longer be able to view your Jams, and all Jam data will be permanently deleted. If there are Jams that you wish to keep, we encourage you to use one of our export or migration options. Learn how to Export your Jams.”

Google is recommending three alternatives. They are all much more complex whiteboards with steeper learning curves and they all require users to log in. They have quite limited free versions. We are looking for an alternative that is as simple to use as Jamboard that are open-source and free or low cost. In the meantime, you might try Padlet.

The alternative I like best so far so far is whiteboard.chat. You can make frames as you can in Jamboard so that different learners of groups of learners can work on activities. It can be integrated with Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams. It does not require users to create accounts. It has activities such as math quizzes that you can insert. You can play around for free – you do not even have to make an account to test it out. Unfortunately, the free account is quite limited. We are not ready to recommend it yet but so far, whiteboard.chat looks promising. If you try it out, let us know what you think.

There also are ways of using Slides to do some of the things Jamboard does. Contact Tracey to learn more.