Microsoft teased the appearance of its Whiteboard for Education software for the iPad a few days ago and now it looks like the app and subsequent service is ready for prime time.
Today, November 20, 2018, Microsoft announced that Whiteboard for Education is available for Windows 10 and will be available for iOS and iPads in preview form next week.
The app is free and includes some interesting new features for education such as real-time collaboration, multi-input support, OneNote Class Notebooks support, multi-themed education stickers and accessibility tweaks that include Ink Beautification and Ink Grab.
Here are the details of the preview:
Collaborate in real time, wherever you are.
Give ideas room to grow using Whiteboard’s infinite canvas. Drive an interactive lesson from the front of the classroom on a large display. Flip the classroom by letting students contribute with notes, images, diagrams, and more on their individual devices. Brainstorm with others and be inspired by their thoughts in real time. Provide a limitless space for lessons, student ideas, and group projects.
Unlock creativity and interact naturally.
Work with whatever feels most natural to you. Teachers and students can use their fingers to make quick additions or draw the finer details with a digital pen. The pen-first, touch-first technology gives students immediate creative power, right at their fingertips. Don’t have pen or touch? Whiteboard for EDU works great with a keyboard and mouse too.
Supercharge your learning experience.
From the ground up, Whiteboard for EDU has been designed with teachers and students in mind: to work the way you already do.
Export your board directly to OneNote Class Notebooks for safekeeping.
Change Whiteboard’s background to a variety of new colors (including blackboard mode!) and reduce eye strain. Play with different line styles to support writing and graphing. Use education-themed stickers with your students to collect poll responses and give feedback in real time.
Increase the readability of quickly-jotted notes with Ink Beautification, which analyzes handwriting and automatically replaces it with more legible strokes. Choose different ink styles and colors to give handwriting extra oomph. And for teachers and students who occasionally use analog whiteboards, you can convert pictures of your notes into real digital ink with Ink Grab, making the move from analog to digital seamless.
To get started, users need to download the apps then login into Whiteboard with Office 365 Education account and then enable “Education Preview,” in the Settings menu.
As with most Microsoft preview services, the company is seeking feedback from users and encourages users to want to participate, to visit the Whiteboard for Education Facebook page to leave comments, suggestions, and complaints.
