FigJam is a digital whiteboard that I like to recommend you progress to since Google Jamboard is being depreciated. FigJam is a collaborative house that may achieve this a lot for facilitating a lesson. Here are some suggestions for organising a lesson in FigJam.

Free Figma FigJam Account

First, be sure you have been verified as an educator so you may have free entry to FigJam, with limitless recordsdata. You can discover your whole recordsdata at figma.com.

Setting Up a Lesson in FigJam

I often begin a brand new FigJam at figjam.new. Alternatively, you may go to figma.com and click on on “FigJam board.”

This offers you a clean canvas you can begin designing your lesson from. If you go to figma.com/@training you may seize some prepared made templates if you happen to don’t wish to begin from scratch.

Drag in a PDF

Since I’m shifting from Jamboard to FigJam, I may need some backgrounds or lesson construction already setup. I’ll export my Jamboard Jam file to PDF. FigJam makes it tremendous straightforward to start out with a PDF.

Drag a PDF proper onto the FigJam canvas.

Delightfully, every web page of the PDF is added as a separate picture that is ready to be simply dragged round an organized.

Drag Images Onto FigJam

Unlike Jamboard, you may drag pictures straight onto FigJam.

IMPORTANT – Create Sections

The key to a FigJam lesson is to create sections. You can create a piece per scholar or a piece per “page.” Down within the toolbar, discover the “Section” icon to attract rectangles onto your canvas.

Each part is numbered, however simply rename-able. I extremely suggest creating sections for every component or web page of your lesson.

Sections Automatically Group

One of many causes to make use of sections in your FigJam is that something in your part is robotically grouped. If you drag the part, the whole lot within the part goes with it. If you duplicate the part, yup all of the part components duplicate additionally.

Hide Sections

I’m into the lesson design mannequin of “Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend, Evaluate.” This means I first wish to have interaction college students have them discover earlier than explaining (or higher but, the scholars clarify.) I’d not need all the weather of a lesson to be out within the open for the scholars. You can conceal sections simply by deciding on the part, every nook reveals a resizing deal with, and a bit floating toolbar enables you to click on on a winky eye to cover or unhide the part.

Embed Google Slides

What is nice about Figjam is it may well act because the canvas that pulls collectively a number of components. Literally paste hyperlinks to different sources comparable to Google Slides, YouTube, and so on… to embed them on the canvas. You can discover these sources inside FigJam with out having to go away the FigJam. Slides enlarges inside the canvas to assist you to embody a short presentation as a part of the general lesson.

Check Out the Timer

Built proper into FigJam is a lesson timer. Click within the higher left on the timer icon to set a timer to assist maintain your lesson on tempo.

Design for Interactivity

A conventional lesson is the instructor on the entrance of the room doing all of the work and the entire considering. We can rethink and redefine that dynamic after we use a digital device like FigJam. Think interactivity and collaboration. FigJam enables you to be on the identical web page with college students, actually.

Start Open Session

One possibility for sharing your FigJam is to click on on the Share button within the higher proper. This will assist you to “Start open session” to offer edit entry to anybody with the hyperlink, however the hyperlink will expire in 24 hours. You may also manually disable the sharing possibility. Simply paste the open session hyperlink into your LMS.

Share with Your Students

For extra accountability than a generic hyperlink, paste the e-mail addresses of your college students into the invite part. Copy the hyperlink to the FigJam utilizing the “Copy link” possibility on the backside.

30 Student Spaces

Try this template for getting all college students on the identical FigJam canvas. It has all 30 sections spaced out fairly a bit to permit for college students to work inside their very own house and never be crowded subsequent to the house of different college students. Use the desk of contents within the heart to hyperlink to every particular person scholar house. Then have college students do a “gallery walk” to every others areas, by utilizing the desk of contents, to go away feedback.

Organize File Location

By default your FigJam file is a “Draft.” At the highest heart you may rename your file and use the drop down arrow subsequent to it to “Move to project” so it’s not a draft. Organize into your staff folder.

Duplicate Before Editing

FigJam fortunately has a model historical past to assist you to rewind the collaborative canvas, however it’s going to simpler to make use of a contemporary copy every time you utilize FigJam. Click on the tiny arrow on the high heart to decide on “Duplicate to your drafts.”

You may also discover the ? within the url and delete it and the whole lot to the best of it to interchange with /duplicate to create a hyperlink that forces a replica.

You may also share this /duplicate hyperlink along with your college students if you wish to power a replica for them. They might want to share it again with you.