Jamboard is an online tool owned by Google that allows you to collaborate in real-time. Whether it is for an in-class activity, school group meeting, or collaborative and interactive group discussion, Jamboard can be a great way to share and organize ideas. Jamboards can also be saved and shared, making it easy to refer back to for future use.

To access Jamboard, go to jamboard.google.com, and sign in to your Gmail account. You can use either your Illinois Gmail account or a personal Gmail, whichever works best for your purposes. Your dashboard will show you any Jamboards you have created or boards that were shared with you. In the upper right of the dashboard, you will see different ways to filter and organize your boards according to your preference. To create a new Jamboard, click the + symbol in the bottom right of the screen. 

Some of the primary features you will want to note when you make a new Jamboard are highlighted above.

1. Title: This is where you can rename your Jamboard.

2. Tools: These are the different editing and collaborative tools you can use on Jamboard. In order from top to bottom, you have a pen feature to draw, an eraser, cursor to move things around, sticky note, adding a picture, inserting shapes, text box, and laser pointer. The screenshot below shows an example of what each tool looks like when added on the Jamboard.

3. Slides: This is where you can move between your different slides on Jamboard. Note that you can add a slide by clicking the right arrow. If you click on the rectangles in the middle, you will expand the frame bar, and you will have the options to duplicate, add, or delete a slide and rearrange the order of slides.

4. Options: The three dots in the upper right give you more options on Jamboard. Here you can rename your Jamboard, download it as a PDF, and more.

5. Share: The share button allows you to share the link to your Jamboard with the people you are using it to collaborate with. You can either type in the emails of the people you wish to share the Jamboard with or you can copy the link. Note: if you have the link set to "Restricted", some people may not be able to access the Jamboard. It is best practice that you set the link sharing to Anyone with the link before sharing the link with others. This also allows people who do not have a Gmail or people who would prefer to be anonymous to participate in the Jamboard.

If you would like to learn about more ways to get creative with Jamboard, check out some of these resources below:

About Jamboard

Jamboard Help

Interactive Jamboard Ideas