Hi everyone, I'm Sam Kary from The New EdTech Classroom and in this video I'm going to show
you how to set up digital interactive notebooks in Google Jamboard. I know that a lot of teachers have
been using Google Slides or Powerpoint to set up digital interactive notebooks for students
and that's definitely a good option, but I think Jamboard has some advantages over Slides and
in this video I'll show you why. You can show your support for the work that I do on this channel
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sure to ask in the comments if you have any questions. Okay first let's jump over here
to a digital interactive notebook in Google Jamboard so you can see what they look like,
as well as why you might want to make one. You'll notice that this Jamboard has different pages for
the different sections of the notebook, similar to having different slides in Google Slides.
What I like about Jamboard, and the reason I think it's an even better option for digital interactive
notebooks, is the fact that both you and your students can interact anywhere on the board. It's a
much more open canvas for interacting than Google Slides. You can see here for example that students
can use the draw tool to use the digital pencil anywhere on the page, or with the text tool they
can just click and add text wherever they want it to go. Then after students respond, you can easily
jump in and add quick feedback by using the sticky note tool and students can easily show that they
got your feedback and make revisions if necessary. Note however that currently you can only add 20
frames to a single Jam at once, so if you plan to create notebooks that are longer than that,
you'd have to create separate notebooks or use Slides instead. All right now that we've gotten
an idea of what a digital interactive notebook in Jamboard would look like, let me show you how
to set one up from the beginning. First I'm going to head over to Slides Mania to get a notebook
template that I'll be using in Jamboard. Although the templates are labeled Google Slides and
Powerpoint templates, you can also easily upload them as Jamboard backgrounds. To find notebook
templates, I'll go up to the education tab and then select 'Notebook Style' from the drop down menu.
There you'll see several different notebook style slides that you can download for free.
I'm going to go ahead and take a look at this mini journal notebook. After you click on a presentation,
to download it just click 'Download Powerpoint' or 'Open in Google Slides.' I'll choose Google Slides
here, click 'Use Template,' and then I'll have access to this template to use as needed. Before adding
this template as a Jamboard background you'll want to make sure to make whatever changes you plan to
make to your notebook on these slides, since you won't be able to make those edits once it's in
Jamboard as a background. For example, I'll edit this first slide so that students have space to
add their own names for their journals. Then on the next slide I'll edit the generic text so that it's
customized to whatever I want students to input in their notebooks. I'm going to set this notebook
up for students to record their responses to prompts about a book they are reading and so for
this first slide I'm going to set up some general instructions for students about how to complete
their notebooks. After I've edited the title I'll write a brief description about the purpose of the
notebook and then I'll have students post an image of their books, as well as write the title of the
book, and since I don't need these icons I'll go ahead and delete them. Then on the right-hand side
I'll change the to-do list to be a checklist that reminds students what they need to do every time
they complete a journal entry. For example I might tell students that every page needs to include the
pages they read and their answer to the prompt, and that they need to be sure to proofread their
responses, as well as review teacher feedback, and try the extension activity. Then on the following
pages I'll start to set up some prompts. One option would be to set up all your prompts ahead of time
and assign them all at once, but I also want to show you how you can have students add new pages
to their Jamboard after they've been assigned. So for this example I'm going to show you how to
create a couple of prompts to start and then add new pages to the Jamboard later. On this first page
I'll change the text so that it asks students to analyze the cover of the book. Then I'll take off
the boxes that say 'Add your text here' by clicking on them and clicking delete. Next I'll set up the
next day's prompt to be about main characters in the book. In the first box they'll draw the
main character and then they'll describe the main character, as well as include a quote about them.
So you can see the general idea here is that I'm editing the slides template before bringing it
into Jamboard so that it includes the information I want students to write about before I add these
as backgrounds in jamboard. Now that I've set up these slides to look the way that I want them to
look for their digital interactive notebooks, let's look at how to add them to Jamboard as backgrounds,
as well as how to assign copies of Jamboards to students so that they can actually write on them.
If you don't plan on giving all the prompts to students at once, and instead plan to drip out
prompts to students along the way, what you'll want to do here is create a teacher copy of the slides,
as well as a student copy. This version is going to be my teacher copy, so I'll change the title of the
document to "Digital Interactive Notebook Master Copy." This is the version I'll add new prompts
to first and can then keep as a completed version of my notebook to reuse year after year. After I'm
done building it, next I'll copy this document to create a student-facing version. First I'll select
only the slides I just created because I don't want students to see all these unfinished ones
and then I'll go up to File, click Make a Copy, and choose 'Selected slides.' Then I'll change
the name of this new document, so that rather than Master Copy, it's called Student Copy. I'll click okay
and then I'll have two separate slide decks, one master copy and one student-facing copy, and I'll
show you why this is important in just a moment. Okay now that I've set up my notebook and slides,
I'm going to need to download them as image files in order to add them as backgrounds in Jamboard.
To do that, go back up to File, scroll down to Download, and then choose either a jpeg file or a
png file. Repeat this step until you've downloaded all the slides as image files. I like to make sure
everything is nice and organized, so I suggest that you create a folder so that you can keep all
of your images in a single folder and easily find it later. I'll do this by finding the files I just
downloaded, highlighting all of them, right-clicking, and selecting 'New folder with selection.' That will
create a new folder that I'll rename "Digital Interactive Notebooks." Now that I have all of
my images in one neatly organized file it's time to bring them into Google Jamboard as backgrounds.
I'll go to jamboard.google.com and then click on the orange 'Add' button to create a new Jam.
In order to add the images I just downloaded as a background in Jamboard I'll go up to 'Set
background,' and then choose 'Image.' One option would be to find that image on your computer
or in your drive folder, but since I just created a folder with all the images, I can also just drag
and drop them in and you'll see that they'll automatically show up as a background when I
do so. Then to add another frame I'll click the Next arrow and repeat the process of setting a
new background, choosing image, and dragging and dropping the next slide image in. Remember that
you'll only be able to add 20 of these frames in a single Jamboard. Once you've set up this
Google Jamboard with all your notebook slides as backgrounds, you'll want to assign it to students.
If you're a Google Classroom user, your best bet will be to head over to Google Classroom,
where you'll want to assign this Jamboard as an individual copy for each student. To do this, go
up to the 'Create' button and go down to 'Assignment' and I'm going to be sure to label this assignment
'Student Copy.' You'll see why in a moment. After I've written instructions, I'll go down to 'Add,'
and I'll find the Jamboard I just created in Google Drive under 'Recents,' and click 'Insert.'
Then I'll click on the drop down menu and select 'Make a copy for each student.' Notice that for
this assignment I'm not assigning it to a topic. Let me show you why. After I've clicked 'Assign,'
you'll see that the digital interactive notebook is now at the very top of the Classwork page
and that it isn't categorized under a topic. I wouldn't recommend doing this often, but for
assignments like this one that you want students to be able to access over and over again over an
extended period of time, it's the best way to pin the assignment to the top of your Google Classroom.
Once students start completing their Jamboard notebooks, you'll be able to see their work by
clicking 'View Assignment,' selecting a student's notebook you want to review, and then clicking 'Open
with Google Jamboard.' Then you'll be able to see the work that students have added and you'll also
be able to easily provide them with feedback by using tools like the sticky note tool, for example.
You could leave students a sticky note explaining something they did well, as well as something that
they could improve on. Then you can set up a system where students have to use the draw tool
to put a check next to your feedback, to show that they read it, and then respond by adding additional
information if you ask them to. Now let's look at how you can continue to add new pages to
a student's Jamboard notebook, even though you've already pushed out a copy through Google Classroom.
My recommendation is that you always build new pages using your master teacher copy. That way,
once you've created your notebook once, you'll be able to reuse all the pages over and over again
in years to come, but since you have the student version you'll also be able to drip out new pages
at your own pace. Once you've added a new page to the master copy, you'll want to copy and paste it
over to the student slide copy you already set up. Then what you're going to need to do is go back to
Google Classroom so that you can post these slides for students, and then they can add them themselves
to their Jamboards. When creating this assignment, title it something like "Background Images for
Digital Interactive Notebooks." Bring the slides in from your Google Drive folder, and this time
leave the settings the way that they are so that students can only view the document.
Just like we did with Google Jamboard, leave this assignment with no topic so that it sits at the
top of Google Classroom. In order for students to bring in the new notebook backgrounds to Jamboard,
you'll need to teach them how to download the image and add it as a Jamboard background.
Here they'll just repeat the same process you went through to add images to the initial Jamboard you
set up. So have students go to Google Classroom, click on the Background Images assignment, and
open up the slides, which you'll notice have been shared as 'View Only.' Show them how to download the
slide as an image by going up to 'File,' 'Download,' 'Image.' Then have students return to Jamboard,
click on the right arrow to add a new frame or page, click 'Set background,' and then select 'Image.'
Students can either drag files in like I showed earlier, or they can find the image
they downloaded on their computers and bring it in that way. Now every time you add a new notebook
page to your master slides copy and paste it over to the student version, as soon as you do that, the
new page you just added will show up on the 'View Only' slide deck you posted to Google Classroom
and students will be able to repeat the process of downloading the image from the
slides and then uploading it to Jamboard to add a new page to their notebooks. Of course rather
than giving students pages one by one, you might want to give them a week's set of pages at a time,
and of course if you also wanted to just give them all the notebook pages at once, that would be an
option. If you do end up teaching students how to download images and bring them into Jamboard as a
background, you'll also be organically embedding foundational technology skill development,
and although it might take students a couple of tries to get the hang of it, eventually they'll
be able to do it without any problems. And remember that since you're also the owner of the Jamboard,
you could also add the new page to the student's Jamboard if they were having trouble doing it
themselves. If you have any questions about setting up digital interactive notebooks in Google
Jamboard, or ideas about how to use it, please ask or comment below. Thanks so much for watching my
video to the end. If you're interested in learning all about how to use instructional technology
to increase student engagement, personalize instruction, provide authentic learning experiences,
improve communication with families, optimize your organization systems, and so much more, then check
out my online course, The 21st Century Classroom. In the video description you'll find a link to
21centuryclass.com where you can learn more about the course, as well as sign up for the latest
enrollment updates. In the video description you'll also find the link to my website, where
you can find additional resources for teaching with technology, as well as links to my social
media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and TikTok, where I post 60 second
quick tips about teaching with technology. Thanks again for watching and have a great week!