Why am I writing this personal entry? Well, it is not an attempt to gain any sympathy. It attempts to show what is possible if a clear intention and goal serve the learner's needs. In May of 2022 just near the end of another fantastic school year, I do not remember what happened. But, I was unable to finish the school year and was unable to teach the following year. Why? On May 21st, 2022, I fell down a flight of 16 stairs (luckily carpeted) from the 2nd to 1st story of our home. I was found at the bottom of the stairs. I was found foaming at the mouth. This would lead to a 2-month hospital stay which included an induced coma because my seizures would not stop, several rounds of lumbar punctures, and relearning basic physical movements like something as simple as being able to roll in the hospital bed. Simply put, when I was admitted to the hospital, I was diagnosed as being “critically ill.” Please take a moment and read those words: critically ill. They are not terms that are
I have spent a long time looking for a free, real-time, collaborative whiteboard that can be used on tablets, chromebooks, PCs, and Macs and have been let down again and again. Until I ran across Realtime Board. I wasn't sure at first until I discovered that they provide FREE accounts for educators. I have been using it for a week and have been loving it.
1) It is web based sand works on my class iPads, student Chromebooks, and my teacher desktop.
2) It's easy to create a new board.
3) On any board you can upload a variety of media files or files directly from the web.
4) There are a variety of pre-made templates you can work from.
5) Drawing and erasing is very easy. I love using a stylus on my iPad ( although Steve Jobs wouldn't approve) when showing work for calculations.
6) Create shapes, add text, and link them. Great for mind mapping!
7) Realtime Board can be lined to your Google Apps For Education account so you can create new boards directly from Drive.
8) You can also add collaborators directly from drive. Adding students using their GAFE account is easy and you can set permissions as well. That way we can all collaborate on the same board at the same time.
9) Once a board is finished, it can be exported in a variety of formats including image and PDF. I just link the URL of a board into our LMS and students can get their directly.
After a week of use, I am really loving Realtime Board and look forward to dig deeper. Just had to get this out now.
WOW! This sound super cool! We can't wait to try it! Thanks for the tool suggestion! :)
ReplyDeleteTeam Togetherness