Microsoft Whiteboard is a digital interactive board that enhances virtual or in person collaboration. This tool can support teaching and learning by enabling teachers and students to develop ideas together as necessary or in a formulated way, whether the class is taught face-to-face, blended, or online. Microsoft Whiteboard is available for Windows, iPhone, and iPad. Additionally, there is also a web version that can be used to create simple whiteboards or view those that are shared.
Teachers can use Microsoft Whiteboard for lesson planning, direct instruction, demonstrations, collaborative discussions, and individual or group homework. Whiteboards can be posted or shared for instruction, collaboration, or review. Students can work in groups to collaborate on projects, presentations, and brainstorming. Microsoft Whiteboard can be used for:
Collaboration: With Microsoft Whiteboard, teachers can add the content to the board and invite students to the board to work collaboratively. With everyone on the same Whiteboard, live cursor identities will allow teachers to see where students are, which students are actively engaged, and which students might need additional help or clarification of the tasks. While in a Teams meeting, teachers can share a whiteboard from the Share tray, or prepare a board ahead of time and then present it. In a Teams channel or chat, add a whiteboard by selecting the + button at the top of the screen, and then searching for Whiteboard. In standalone Whiteboard apps, select the Share button at the top right to generate a Share link. Teachers can collaborate outside of a class meeting or share a screen during a class meeting.
Communication: Teachers can create and communicate engaging content. Teachers can pull in images, content from other documents, shapes, and stickers to add fun and life to lessons. Whiteboards can be annotated with digital ink, highlighters, stickers, sticky notes, and text boxes for special emphasis.
Assignments: Teachers can use assignments in Teams to duplicate the whiteboards so students can submit their work for grading when they are done. Microsoft Whiteboard is especially useful with Microsoft Teams’ new Group Assignments feature as it allows students to work and create together in real-time.
Whiteboard supports automatic Alt text, leveraging Microsoft’s Cognitive Vision Service to analyze the content of the image and automatically suggest a text description. Alt text is helpful for students with visual impairments, as it gives a description of what is in an image or drawing so that the descriptions can be read in large print or with a screen reader. Teachers and students can add alt text to all content that is created in Microsoft Whiteboard, including images, drawings, sticky notes, and others. Microsoft Whiteboard supports the pinch-to-zoom gesture so that students that do not have other assistive technology settings enabled can easily magnify content on a Whiteboard, and can also explore the screen using the drag gesture. Students can also resize text boxes as needed to make them appear larger on screen.
Privacy settings in Microsoft Whiteboard