Jam Slides - Google Slides Replacement Template for Jamboard

Last year Google announced that they would be shutting down Jamboard, which was a collaborative digital whiteboarding tool. According to Google's timeline, as of October 1, 2024, Jamboard will become view-only, and as of December 31, 2024, the tool will shut down entirely.

This announcement was a great disappointment to many educators who have come to rely on Jamboard for teaching and learning.

Since then many other tools have been explored as potential replacements for Jamboard including Figjam, Lucidspark, Miro, Padlet Sandboxes, Canva, and more. I have even hosted an intro and advanced webinar on moving from Jamboard to Figjam.

All of these are excellent tools and I encourage you to test them out. However, I would like to suggest one other option to consider … Google Slides.

Although no tool is an exact replacement for Jamboard, Google Slides is actually very similar. In addition, it is a Google tool, so you and your students already have access to it and are probably pretty familiar with how it works.

To make this transition even easier, I have created a free Google Slides template that you can copy and use. This "Jam Slides" template is designed to help you mimic all of the features from Jamboard in Google Slides.

See below to get your own copy of the template, and to watch a tutorial video where I use this template and go through each Jamboard feature one by one and show how they can all be done in Google Slides.

Import your Jamboards into FigJam

Google recently announced that they are shutting down Jamboard by the end of 2024. Thankfully Figma has partnered with Google to provide their tools absolutely free to educators and students.

One of their tools is FigJam which is an advanced collaborative whiteboarding tool with features including stamps, emotes, stickies, shapes, connectors, drawing tools, plugins, interactive widgets, and much more.

To help you get started with FigJam I recently hosted two webinars on the basics of using FigJam in your school, as well as going deeper into advanced topics, features, and uses.

To make this transition even easier, Figma has now announced the launch of their import tool for Jamboard. With this easy-to-use tool you can convert all of your existing Jams into FigJam files. See below for details on this new tool, as well as a helpful 2-minute video on how it works.

FigJam for Schools Advanced Webinar

I recently had the pleasure to host an advanced webinar on FigJam for Schools, as a follow up to the introductory session I hosted last week.

As you have probably heard by now, Google has announced that they are shutting down Jamboard by the end of 2024. Thankfully Figma has partnered with Google to provide their tools absolutely free to educators and students.

One of their tools is FigJam which is an advanced collaborative whiteboarding tool with features including stamps, emotes, stickies, shapes, connectors, drawing tools, plugins, interactive widgets, and much more.

To help you get started with FigJam, and get the most out of it, I have hosted two webinars with David Curran, a former teacher who has recently joined the Figma for Edu team. These sessions covered all of the basics of using FigJam in your school, as well as going deeper into advanced topics, features, and uses.

See below for a recording of the advanced webinar, as well as the recording from the earlier introductory webinar, and resources from both sessions.

Jamboard for Teaching and Learning

I am a massive fan of charcuterie, so nothing would make me happier than if Jamboard was literally a board with lots of yummy jams on it, along with meats and cheeses.

Even though that is unfortunately not the case, Jamboard is still a pretty awesome thing!

Jamboard is actually a tool from Google that is an online, interactive, collaborative whiteboard. It has loads of useful features including drawing tools, sticky notes, images, shapes, textboxes, backgrounds, and much more. Jamboard can be used for brainstorming, designing, collaboration, and learning activities of all sorts.

Recently I recorded a webinar where we took a deep dive into Google Jamboard. We looked at how to use all the features of Jamboard, as well as explored templates, ideas, and examples for how it can be used in schools for teaching and learning.

See below for the recorded video, as well as links to my Jamboard resource doc and slideshow, as well as detailed directions.

Create Jamboard Math Activities with Equatio

Jamboard is an excellent tool for creating interactive learning activities for students. However, if you are wanting to create math activities, Jamboard does not have many built-in math features, other than a small collection of shapes.

Thankfully there is a powerful tool, that is also free for educators, that can be used to easily add all sorts of mathematical manipulatives, symbols, and expressions to Jamboard. That tool is the Equatio extension for Chrome. 

Equatio is a toolbar that makes it super easy to create mathematical expressions, as well as a wide variety of math manipulatives, and insert them into Google Docs, Slides, Forms, and more. We will be looking specifically how to do that in Jamboard.

See below for a 12-minute video covering all the details, as well as written directions.

Rainbow "Scratch-Off" Drawing Templates for Jamboard

When my kids were young, one of their favorite art activities was using rainbow scratch paper to create pictures or to write words. It is a fun way to be creative and is motivating to discover the colorful pattern underneath.

With that as an inspiration, I created a digital version of rainbow scratch paper using Google Jamboard. Actually I created a dozen templates, each with a different rainbow pattern underneath!

See below for links to the templates, along with a short 4-minute video and written directions on how your students can use these Jamboard templates to create some awesome rainbow art. And  I would love to see what they make, so please feel free to share their creations online and tag with the hashtag #controlaltachieve

New Online Video Course - Canvases for Design: Google Drawings and Jamboard

I am excited to announce a new online video course that I have created through Kiker Learning, called "Canvases for Design: Google Drawings and Jamboard"!

This course covers how you and your students can create, design, diagram, brainstorm, collaborate with others, and more, using Google Drawings and Jamboard.

In this course we take a look at both of these tools and learn all about the features they provide. Then we explore exciting projects that our students can complete with these tools including: graphic organizers, desktop publishing, interactive images, green screen images, math activities, and much much more.

See below for all the details on the course and how it can be accessed.