Tools to Get Everyone on the Same Page

ByRichard Byrne

Getting a room full of students to look at the same document, website, or slideshow at the same time sometimes feels like herding cats. Fortunately, there are some tools that can make this a bit easier than repeatedly saying, “please look up here at the screen.”

DisplayNote Broadcast

DisplayNote Broadcast is a tool that you can use on your computer to broadcast your screen to your students’ laptop, tablet, or phone screens. It works equally well whether you use Mac, Windows, or Chromebook because it doesn’t require you to install any software.

To use DisplayNote Broadcast you need a free account but your students do not. Once you’ve created an account simply go to the broadcast site and click “start a broadcast.” A six digit code is then created. Give that code to your students to enter on the DisplayNote Broadcast site and they’ll be able to follow along with everything you do on your computer.

Here’s a short video overview of DisplayNote Broadcast from a teacher’s perspective and from a student’s perspective.

Apple Classroom

If your classroom is filled with Mac and iOS devices, Apple Classroom can make it easy to get everyone on the page. In theory it works well. In my experience, it can be a bit glitchy. When it works well, it provides an easy way to make sure that all of the students in the room are looking at whatever you’ve shared with them and or make sure they’re staying on task.

If you have iPads in your classroom and you’ve never tried to use Apple Classroom, this video shows you how to use it on a Mac and this video shows you how to run it from an iPad.

ClassPoint and Mentimeter

ClassPoint and Mentimeter are tools that you can use for free to have your students follow your slides on their computers, tablets, or phones. Unfortunately, while they’re great for sharing slides they only work with slides. In both cases you start your slideshow presentation and then a code is generated for students to enter to view the slides on their devices. A demo of ClassPoint can be seen here. A demo of Mentimeter is available to view here.

50 Ideas for Short Workshops

 50 Tech Tuesday Tips is a great place to find ideas for short staff development workshops. And if you don’t want to run the workshop, I’ll do it for you! Purchase ten or more copies of my eBook and I’ll host a 60 minute webinar for your group for free.