Google Meet Whiteboard

google meet icon When you are in a Live classroom you may be looking to use an interactive whiteboard to help demonstrate a concept to your students. Unfortunately Google Meet does not have a built-in whiteboard tool. However, there are many excellent whiteboard tools that can be used with Google Meet. Chrome Canvas (canvas.apps.chrome) and Google Jamboard (jamboard.google.com) are both Google-friendly web apps that both provide simple, yet effective, drawing tools which may be used in conjunction with images that you upload. Google Jamboard allows for collaboration so your Google Meet attendees can work on the whiteboard with you in real time.

Teaching Strategies

Whiteboard Activities

Use for a brainstorming exercise to collect student ideas for a solution to a problem.
Use as a “warm up” activity with a “What do we know?” (K) and/or “What do we want or need to know?” (W). Also, as a “wrap up” activity to assess “What did we learn?” (L). Try to set clear expectations for contributing to the whiteboard, e.g. “I'm looking for at least 1 suggestion from each of you,” so the experience is engaging and equitable.
Use as graphic organizer for whole class practice or formative assessment tasks. For example, draw a vertical line down the middle of the whiteboard and ask for “EXAMPLES” of parallelograms on one side. “NON-EXAMPLES” on the other. Ask for either drawn shapes or written text (or both).

Annotation Activities

During a class, the teacher can screen share illustrations, photos, or diagrams. Have students label parts, circle key characteristics, or highlight specific features. For example:

ELA

Ask students to highlight all of the contractions seen in a passage.
Draw a line to connect each homophone pair. Then call on individual students to give a verbal definition of each word in a pair Make sure students are unmuted when they speak.
When reviewing a passage, ask students to underline each instance of the authors use of DIALOGUE.

Math

Define the shapes that are parallelograms? Circle each one in red. Draw an X over those that are not parallelograms.

Science

Label the body parts of these 3 insects.
Number the stages of the life cycle of a butterfly in the correct order.

Be Creative! Pair Annotation & Chat Activities!

Screen share a picture of a painting or piece of art, a political cartoon, or an historical photograph. Instruct students to, “Study this image for 60 seconds. Then, highlight or circle 1 thing you notice and post in the chat why you selected it.”

Features & Functions

OPTION ONE: Chrome Canvas

Chrome Canvas is a website that provides simple but effective drawing tools. You essentially are given a "blank canvas" on which to draw, sketch, or write. You can copy and paste an image on the canvas, and annotate on the image (for example, marking up a screen shot of a selection of text.) You can save and download each canvas you create, which is helpful if you want to provide follow up files or artifacts for students to reference after the Meet.

Try Chrome Canvas: canvas.apps.chrome

Start your Google Meet. In another tab, open the Chrome Canvas website (canvas.apps.chrome). Present your screen (see Screen Sharing section) so attendees can see your Whiteboard.

Tools include:

Pencil
Pen
Marker
Chalk
Eraser

OPTION TWO: Google Jamboard

Google Jamboard is a Google for Education App that functions as a digital whiteboard: sketch ideas and save them in the cloud to be accessed on any device. Jamboard can be used on Chrome or iOS devices. It's very similar to Chrome Canvas, with one notable difference: Jamboard allows for sharing and collaboration, so your Google Meet attendees can work on the whiteboard with you, in real time.

Try Google Jamboard: jamboard.google.com

Start your Google Meet. In another tab, open Jamboard (jamboard.google.com). Present your screen (see Screen Sharing section) so attendees can see your whiteboard. With Jamboard, you can create multiple pages and “SHARE” the Jamboard with all attendees in Meet, as you would a Google document.
Copy the shareable link generated by Jamboard, and paste in the chat window during the Google Meeting.