Seven Free Online Whiteboard Tools for Teachers and Students

This afternoon through the Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page I received a request for some free whiteboard apps. All of the following seven tools can be used to draw and type on a whiteboard in your browser. With the exception of PixiClip all of these tools can be used collaboratively for brainstorming sessions. While PixiClip doesn't allow for collaboration it does have a voice-over capability. Sketchlot is a free collaborative whiteboard service that works on any device that has a web browser. Aww App is a simple browser-based application for creating drawings. PixiClip is a great new tool tool for creating, narrating, and sharing drawings. Stoodle is an online whiteboard service supported in part by the CK-12 Foundation. Draw It Live is a nice little website that offers a free space for you to instantly create a collaborative whiteboard to use with anyone you like. Realtime Board is a nice tool for hosting online, collaborative brainstorming sessions.

Get Close to Think Deeply: Creating Primary-Level Close Readings With the adoption of the Common Core State Standards, students are expected to read and comprehend increasingly complex texts, with exemplars of such texts provided in Appendix B of the Common Core. To promote this critical thinking, teachers can provide students with the opportunity to engage in a close reading of a text deemed complex by quantitative, qualitative, or reader-based/purpose-based measures of difficulty (Fisher & Frey, 2012; Fisher, Frey, & Lapp, 2012). During a close reading, students answer and discuss text-dependent questions, developing metacognition as they notice what is confusing, make inferences about the text, and determine the author’s purpose. Fisher, D., Frey, N., & Lapp, D. (2012). Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2012). Prior to developing a close reading, determine your educational objectives. Step 1: Choose a complex text that merits critical attention from your students and adequately addresses your focus standards. Step 2: Plan the sequence of readings.

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