#377 – Canva Whiteboard

#377 — Canva Whiteboard

AVID Open Access
9 min

Transcript

The following transcript was automatically generated from the podcast audio by generative artificial intelligence.  Because of the automated nature of the process, this transcript may include unintended transcription and mechanical errors.

Paul Beckermann 0:01 Welcome to Tech Talk for Teachers. I’m your host, Paul Beckerman.

Transition Music with Rena’s Children 0:05 Check it out. Check it out. Check it out. Check it out. What’s in the toolkit? Check it out.

Paul Beckermann 0:15 The topic of today’s episode is Canva whiteboard. Interactive Whiteboards have become staples in most classrooms. Using the touch screen capabilities, you can use them to interact with digital files, web pages, and programs. This can be a great way to make presentations more interactive, direct students’ attention to the specific areas on the screen that you’re referencing, facilitate collaborative experiences, and model computer work that you want students to do on their own.

Many times, these physical whiteboards come with a proprietary software package that gives you additional functionality, especially the ability to design and present really professional-looking presentations very quickly.

However, sometimes schools can’t afford these premium tools, and other times tools go away, which is what happened when Google discontinued its popular whiteboard tool called Jamboard. I used to use that one a lot, and it was great, but now I need to find something different. If you don’t have access to a whiteboard program, or the program that you have isn’t quite doing what you’d like it to do, there is a powerful, free whiteboard tool that you might want to consider using.

Transition Music with Rena’s Children 1:25 Here’s the here’s the here’s the tool for today,

Paul Beckermann 1:29 Canva whiteboard. This can be a great option for making your presentations more professional and engaging, and it can also be used by students on their devices.

So what exactly is Canva whiteboard? Canva whiteboard is one of the tools available in the Canva online design platform. In really simple terms, it’s just what the name implies: It’s a whiteboard that you can write on, you can add design elements to it, and you can interact with it in real time.

The Canva whiteboard Canvas is also infinite, meaning you can keep adding and expanding to that Canvas surface without ever running out of space. You can just keep zooming out or panning and getting more area to work on.

So what can you add to a Canva whiteboard canvas? Almost anything you can think of, really. But let me walk you through some of the options that the panel has on the left side of the screen for easy access.

Transition Music with Rena’s Children 2:26 Let’s count it. Let’s count it. Let’s count it. Down

Paul Beckermann 2:30 at the top of that list, you’ll find a design menu. By clicking this, you’ll open a palette of background template options that you can insert onto your whiteboard. Choices include really helpful options like flow charts, organizational maps, graphic organizers, brainstorm webs, workflow diagrams, calendars, and so much more.

Simply find one that meets your needs for the day and click on it to add it to the whiteboard space on your screen. Then you can add content into the space holders within each of those templates, you can draw on it or write on it. You can add other media of your choice as well.

For instance, there’s a template called plus, minus, interesting. You could use this graphic organizer to have your students brainstorm ideas and then look at them from three different perspectives or points of view. Which ideas are positives, which are negatives, and which do you want to learn more about?

Paul Beckermann 4:18 I should note that some of the templates do require a premium account, and this is noted with a crown symbol in the corner of the template, but many of them are included in the plan for free.

While you can use the design templates to quick start your process, you can also build your canvas by hand. Below the design menu on the left, there’s an option for adding elements. Elements include objects like sticky notes, shapes, whiteboard graphics, interactive polls and quizzes, photos, videos, audio, charts, and a bunch of other options. There’s a handy search box at the top of all these menus to help you find what you’re looking for within that menu. It can save you a lot of time.

The next menu option is for text. This allows you to add a text box and type in your content. Or you can even use the built-in AI-powered Magic Write tool to generate content for you. Within the whiteboard setting, you don’t have to go to another AI tool.

Paul Beckermann 5:35 It’s built right in. There are default styles for headings, subheadings, and body text, as well as fancy preformatted text options that you can quickly add to your project and edit. This tool has options for almost anything you can think of.

There is another menu option for uploads. This is where you can import your own images, videos, and audio clips. Anything you bring in appears under this section in a nice visual list for quick access.

Below the uploads menu is the draw option. This tool gives you a palette of colored pencils, markers, and highlighters. You can change the color and size of each of them and use them to mark up your canvas. This is perfect if you’re using the whiteboard as a presentation tool, but it’s also a really powerful feature when your students are collaborating on a document in groups, or maybe with you in front of the full class.

There’s also a Magic Media option on the left panel.

Paul Beckermann 6:18 This is where you can get help generating more design elements with the help of artificial intelligence. You can create images, graphics, and videos by typing in a description of what you’d like, and then clicking the generate button.

To practice this, I typed in images of an acoustic guitar, and I was presented with four different options to choose from. I could select one of these or click Generate again to get four new options. One of the images was distorted and not very usable, but the other three were quite good and gave me three usable options to pick from.

There’s also an option to apply an image filter before generating the image. This applies that filter to all the created images that are produced. This includes things like neon, anime, 3D, and other filters like that. There are a few other helpful features as well.

Paul Beckermann 7:06 At the bottom of the canvas area, there’s an integrated timer tool in case you want to limit the amount of time your students spend on a whiteboard task; you don’t need to pull up a separate timer. It’s just built right in.

You can also open a notes panel on the left-hand side if you want to jot down notes with your class as you work through a graphic. And of course, you can zoom in and out of the Canvas area as needed.

Perhaps the most powerful additional tool, however, is the share feature. While you’re probably pretty used to this, it’s really important, and just like you do with a Google or Microsoft document, you can click the share button and share the whiteboard with your students. As you’d expect, you can allow them to view, edit, or comment. It’s your choice. You can then share the whiteboard with your students by adding in emails or by generating a shareable link.

Paul Beckermann 8:01 The shareable link option would be great for linking into your learning management system so that students can easily access it.

So how might you use a whiteboard tool like this? I’ve already alluded to a few ideas, but here’s a list of six integration ideas that you might consider to get you started.

Transition Music with Rena’s Children 7:10 how do I use integration inspiration? Integration ideas?

Paul Beckermann 7:13 Number one, use it to present content to your class. Two, have students design their own presentations using the whiteboard tool. Three, facilitate collaborative idea generation and brainstorming. Four, organize ideas using one of the built-in graphic organizers. This is a great way for students to make sense of the learning. Five, use the quiz feature to conduct quick formative checks for understanding and you get real-time feedback right within the program. Six, facilitate group work. Each group of students could have their own collaborative workspace, or you could section off a larger canvas into sub-areas, one for each group. This would allow you to keep all the work in one place and let students peek in on other groups’ ideas. Of course, if you don’t want them seeing each other’s work, you want separate whiteboards for each group.

So Canva whiteboard is not your only whiteboard option, but it is a good one. It’s robust and it’s free, so it’s probably worth checking out if you’re looking for options for your classroom.

To learn more about today’s topic and explore other free resources, visit avidopenaccess.org. Specifically, I encourage you to check out the digital templates and graphic organizer options at AVID Open Access. If you find something you’d like, you can import it into your Canvas whiteboard space, or use it separately, whatever meets your needs.

And of course, be sure to join Rena Winston and me every Wednesday for our full-length podcast Unpacking Education, where we’re joined by exceptional guests and explore education topics that are important to you. Thanks for listening. Take care and thanks for all you do. You make a difference.