The idea of using Interactive White Boards in classroom is undoubtedly a great idea as the benefits are endless. Technology makes it even more effective by introducing online whiteboard platforms for real time collaboration
and communication tools. It’s a cool technology to implement in a classroom. Let’s learn about one of such awesome teaching tools.
Stoodle , an online white board service partly supported by CK12 Foundation, enables students and educators to quickly create and work on a collaborative whiteboard space. The web platform allows you to write, draw and upload images. It also enables you to connect it with your computer’s micro phone and talk to the people you collaborate in the online whiteboard space.
Evolution of Stoodle:
Stoodle.org started off as “Instunet” (the Interactive Student Network), an idea of connecting students from different schools to share their knowledge among one another, formed by Arjun Mehta in October 2011. After building the first version of the website, Arjun brought on Simar and Divyahans to help spearhead the project.
In June 2012, the team was given the opportunity to pitch the burgeoning company to Neeru Khosla, Executive Director of the CK-12 Foundation. Sharing a similar vision for the future of education, she graciously brought Instunet under the CK-12 umbrella and gave full support to the project. Since then, Instunet has changed its name to Stoodle.org, and the team has been working tirelessly on a product to disrupt the online learning space.
How to get started:
Stoodle has an interface which is very simple and user friendly. Educators or studentswith a basic technical and internet knowledge can easily use Stoodle. There is no need to register an account. You can get started with just a few clicks.
Go to Stoodle.ck12.org.
Hit “Launch a classroom!” to create a whiteboard space.
Name your room, copy the URL, send it to your peers and collaborate.
Benefits:
Real-time collaboration:
Stoodle provides you with a virtual whiteboard with infinite pages. It enables you to collaborate with your peers from around the world. Create your classroom, send the URL to your peers and collaborate with them in real-time.
Real-time communication:
Stoodle don’t just allow you to share a virtual whiteboard space to collaborate with, but also enables you to communicate with the people you’re collaborating. As said earlier, you can connect your computer’s micro phone to Stoodle and talk to your peers in real-time. Text as well as audio chat are available for communication.
Permanent storage of data:
Stoodle stores all the data that you work on the virtual space. It’s available for later access. It helps students revise all the lessons they’ve learnt.
Support for image uploading:
The feature enables educators to give a pictorial representation to all the lesson concepts.
Access to basic drawing tools and colors:
The collaborative work can be more engaging with the use of this feature. Students and educators make use of this feature in innovative ways.
Applications:
Students:
Collaborate with your peers to complete your homework.
Do some online projects relate to lessons you’ve learnt.
Do group studies.
Illustrate problems and invite teachers for help.
Educators:
Assign online projects to students.
Conduct discussions.
Provide flexible and personalized feedback.
Review sessions.
Organize illustrated review notes.
I hope this information helps you know about an awesome collaboration and communication tool to use in your classroom. I welcome you to share your ways of implementing Stoodle in your school. I’d also like to know more tools like Stoodle. If you know a few, please feel free to share with us in the comment box.
