Microsoft Whiteboard will get several new features in the coming months

Microsoft Whiteboard is a great tool with an infinite canvas and an interface designed for pen, touch, and keyboard. Microsoft today announced that Whiteboard will get several new features targeting education customers in the coming weeks. Whiteboard will soon allow you to pull in images, content from other documents, shapes, and stickers to the created whiteboard. And the upcoming laser pointer feature will allow anyone to draw attention to important concepts. Find the full change log below.

Create Visually Engaging Class Material

Coming this summer to our Whiteboard web client and Whiteboard in Teams app, you’ll be able to pull in images, content from other documents, shapes, and stickers to add fun and life to your lessons. You can save time by creating the boards ahead of class and then simply opening the previously created whiteboard during class to get going.

Focused, Dynamic Lessons

This summer, you will be able to use the laser pointer to draw attention to important concepts. As whiteboards are inherently non-linear, you have the flexibility to dynamically change the flow of the lesson depending on the conversations that come up and where those discussions take you. For a more guided experience, you will be able to lock your students’ view so that they see what you see. Run your lessons with a video conferencing application like Microsoft Teams for the best experience.

Group Projects and Interactive Lessons

When it comes to group projects and interactive lessons, you may want a little more structure. This summer, Microsoft Whiteboard will make it simpler to upload digital worksheets that you already have to the board, or create new ones using structured organizers that will come with the app. Add your content to the board, open it in a Teams meeting, or invite your students to the board and see their creativity blossom. With everyone on the same Whiteboard, live cursor identities will allow you to see where students are, who is actively engaged with the work, and which students might need additional help or clarification on the tasks.

Keep Focused with Microsoft Teams

If you use Microsoft Teams in your classrooms, life just got easier as Microsoft Whiteboard is directly built into Teams. While in a Teams meeting, open the share tray to share a new or an existing Whiteboard with the class at any time without needing to switch between apps and without losing the participant video feeds and context. This saves you time, keeps everyone focused on the lesson, and allows you to stay connected with the class. This feature is available right now.

Assignments

All those Whiteboard lessons you created, whether previously prepared or created through ad hoc discussions, are now even more useful as they can be uploaded to Teams Assignments as homework or reference material. Assignments in Teams will duplicate the whiteboards for you and students can submit their work for grading when they are done. Whiteboard is especially useful with Microsoft Teams’ new Group Assignments feature as it allows students to work and create together in real-time.

Source: Microsoft