There are a number of social, psychological, and academic benefits associated with collaborative learning (Laal & Ghodsi, 2012). Some of these include a social support system for learners, reduced anxiety, promotion of critical thinking, increased academic success, and increased motivation to learn (Laal & Ghodsi, 2012). As more of what students create is becoming digital along with most of their research, it makes sense to have a digital whiteboard on which to collaborate. This type of collaboration involves students sharing a picture, website, or other media and making notes, having conversations, and collaborating all on a whiteboard that is transparently placed on top of the subject matter.
A number of companies provide these digital whiteboards. The Bates (2008) SECTIONS framework for choosing media was applied to the the following comparison chart.
A number of companies provide these digital whiteboards. The Bates (2008) SECTIONS framework for choosing media was applied to the the following comparison chart.
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Students |
Sign-up is optional, send invite link easily, students should be familiar with the format. |
No need to sign-up, but need to use the school’s wifi. Must be able to scan a QR code. Very fast learning curve. |
Sign-in required. Very intuitive interface. Able to interact and connect in many different ways within the tool |
Sign-up is not required, but is needed to save a board for later. |
Ease of Use |
works on any device but computer is best. Smartphones do not show up well, it’s possible to use but not ideal. |
Easy for students to use with the teacher. Great to share a PowerPoint presentation with the class and have users connect to and interact with the board. Using it for group collaboration would require a lot of work and desktop computers |
Most feature rich and intuitive of all apps. Works in any browser as well as native apps for Android, iOS, MAC and Windows. Very clean layout and information flows cleanly. Anything installed on student phones would take time and extra permission. |
Very easy to use and intuitive. Works with HTML5 in any browser. Easy to use on mobile, but cannot load any files from some smartphones, the upload function was not made mobile friendly. |
Costs |
Free for up to 10 participants and 20 minutes of collaboration. $14 for more freedom, call capability. Time for teacher to setup is low, perhaps new emails need to be created based on privacy concerns. |
Teacher must take time to download and setup the program on a computer. There is a free, unlimited trial. Full features come at $19.99/ month/user. |
Free for groups of up to 3. Guests, with no sign-in can only view. For $40/month a teacher can create unlimited boards for students, with unlimited collaborators or $40/user/month to create their own boards. Both come with video calling. |
Has free option that meets the desired need for this project. More features start at $10/month. |
Teaching Functions |
Students can collaborate, make changes easily. Requires login to save what happened. Requires pay to come back and edit again. (Workaround exists) |
It allows more collaboration with the teacher and students, additional gamified aspects of learning. Collaborating within student groups is a little more difficult, but not impossible. |
Able to upload files to make comments. Able to chat and video call (added fee). Has great templates and design ideas to keep organized. |
Able to upload pictures, PDFs, PowerPoint files, and URLs for comment. Easy to deploy, great free features. |
Interactions |
Students can type to each other and anyone has access. Interaction with teacher is possible. |
Student-teacher interaction is advanced. Student-student would be in the context of student-teacher |
Student-student with the possibility of teacher-student. Students can chat directly in the app, but no voice calls without a premium level plan. |
Student-student with the possibility of teacher-student. Students can chat directly in the app, but no voice calls without a premium level plan. |
Organizational Issues |
Only one person needs to be signed on to have save privilege. This information does not need to be that of the students, there should be few to no problems for others to deal with outside the classroom. |
Students must be on the same wifi network as the teacher’s computer. Software must be installed on school computer. All of these require setup and permissions. |
Only one person needs to be signed on to have save privilege. This information does not need to be that of the students, there should be few to no problems for others to deal with outside the classroom |
Nothing is installed, student information is not necessary if false information is provided instead. Any device, any network works with no problems |
Networking |
Not directly connected to any specific social media. Can edit any live website. |
Only networks within the class, not connected to any other networking site |
Not directly connected to any specific social media. |
Can share a board through social networking integration |
Security and Privacy |
No student information is required to be given. Information is stored locally, with links holding little information of use to anyone other than the group who created it. |
All information is hosted locally and shared only within the school’s wi-fi network. Logins are not necessary, information is not shared. |
Free version requires sign-in, with student info, whether real or fake. Information is stored in the cloud, requiring additional security concerns. |
No student information is required to be given. Information is stored locally, with links holding little information of use to anyone other than the group who created it. Cloud storage could be of some concern. |
It becomes clear that the needs of the classroom and available budget make the choice of platform easier to make. Smoothboard Air would be better suited for a younger class, or one where the goal is to increase whole class interaction or simply to keep students engaged during a lecture. If a budget is available, Realtime Board is the best option for the mentioned scenario. It is the easiest to use, has native apps for every system but with the ability to run on any browser. It is also feature rich and includes voice chat for all involved. For $40/month, the teacher would still need to create the initial boards and share URLs with students. The time costs are minimal.
In the current situation, where there is no budget, A Web Whiteboard is the winner. It is easy to use, has the most features in its free version, and works well on any web browser. A teacher or computer may be required to upload a file or URL for those who desire to be on a mobile device, but this is likely to be fixed soon. It is still much easier to use on mobile than Twiddla and has more features than the free version of Realtime board. |
It should be noted that there are still other factors for success when using a collaborative form of learning, beyond the tools. In citing Johnsons (1994), Laal & Ghodsi (2012) list five conditions for collaborative learning to be productive.
- Clearly perceived positive interdependence;
- Considerable promotive interaction;
- Clearly perceived individual accountability and personal responsibility to achieve the group’s goals;
- Frequent use of the relevant interpersonal and small-group skills, and;
- Frequent and regular group processing of current functioning to improve the group’s future effectiveness.
Some possible ways to use this technology include visiting an online journal and have students underline words they don't know, peer review essays and assignments, add notes to class PowerPoint presentations, or even to brainstorm ideas for a project together. Activities can be done as a class, a group, or even individually.
Once again, the 2018 cohort provided some suggestions on other platforms to use and other things to consider. Feel free to add your own thoughts as well.
Now that we’ve looked at some of the best infographic creators and collaboration tools, let’s look at some examples of how we can use the two together within the classroom.