And they had the text in front of them and they were adding all sorts of notes about what kinds of images he was using and language, etc. I had three different groups and they were annotating a short essay that was about the light and about somebody who smuggles a tomato plant on board an airplane. typically when I'm using the board whatever we're doing I'll divide the kids up into groups. Have your students ever used a board in a new way you may not have anticipated going into a session?Ībby : What one of my favorite moments was early on when it was really new and where I was still feeling a little bit of questioning if it’s going to work.

So all of that has been really beautiful. But there was something about what they were doing on Miro that feels active as if they are literally like inhabiting different parts of the board, moving from place to place. I'd like not just for people to be talking but to be moving around and doing other things, and obviously we can't do that. But what I didn't expect was how much the kids would be able to invent things on it and I love that kind of energy and that feels very much like an active classroom. Though in retrospect I probably didn't need to worry so much. What I didn't know- I was actually quite intimidated at first by it- it took me a while to get the functionality to a place where I felt like I could do it. I feel like there's a way in which people are really watching each other in that way to begin with. There's something that I love when I say to the kids, “okay push this link get to Miro here we go”, and all of a sudden all the cursors appear and they're all scurrying around the board and they're bumping elbows as it were. I have remained virtual the whole year up until now and so I also had to bridge that gap myself, and what I found is that it's very much that way. It felt like I could use it to create a space that literally felt sort of active and as if everyone were together there and that might be able to bridge, not just the virtual gap, but the gap between students who were virtual and students who were actually in the classroom. It didn't just feel like a tool that I was using so that I could communicate with my students. The thing that became clear to me about Miro immediately from just being on the board with you and other situations with colleagues is that as I was trying it out it felt to me like a place. How could we build community first in a completely virtual classroom, and then…somewhat harder I would say, in a hybrid class where some kids are online and some kids are not. How has your use of collaborative, digital whiteboard tools like Miro changed your approach to teaching and learning this year?Ībby: I would say that I was really worried about community, and we all have been. As we enter the final stretch of this school year, taking time to pause and reflect will best prepare us for a purposeful approach to the next school year (after finding some opportunities for some well-deserved time to also unplug).Ĭoncord Academy's Abby Laber reflects on her use of digital collaboration whiteboard tools this year and discusses ways they have enhanced and complemented more traditional teaching and learning approaches. However, at the heart of any tool is the guiding purpose behind how it would be used, unique to each school, classroom, teacher, and student. Teachers have heroically answered the call to adopt new strategies and tools on an unprecedented scale, while faced with a dizzying array of options from the world of educational technology. From early childhood centers to higher education, there has not been one sector of academia that was immune from the need to recalibrate our approach to teaching and learning. Across the world, from every corner of education, the required shift towards adopting new instructional approaches over these past twelve months has been universal. We hope to offer informative and practical tips, strategies, and insight into successful uses of technology with a steady eye on what’s current and what’s next. This digital newsletter is designed to celebrate examples of the best of educational technology, and its ability to complement more traditional approaches of instruction to ultimately enhance teaching and learning.

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