When I'm researching Web tools for my students, in order to meet the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) (as put forth from ISTE), I want them to be authentic. I look to Web tools that are currently being used in professional settings; tools that will most likely resemble those that students will use when they get out of school.

This is not always easy at the elementary level as many great (and free) resources out there require an email to sign up for an account (most of my students don't have one). I want a Web 2.0 site that can be accessed instantly without any registration or hoops to jump through so I can focus on getting students into it with as much ease as possible. DabbleBoard fits this bill perfectly.

In looking at the NETS on "Communication and Collaboration" (Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others), there are many possibilities out there, but DabbleBoard is my current favorite. It's billed as an "online whiteboard," which allows students to jump into a page already created by a teacher, in order to start collaborating with text, images, and drawings. The teacher doesn't even need an account to get started, but it's beneficial to save pages. When a page is shared, DabbleBoard creates a very long and complicated URL (by using "random 160-bit keys"), making the page secure as it impossible for anyone to access the page without the address. Because the address is so long and complicated, I would suggest using a site such as TinyURL.com to create a shorter address-alias (which could be written down on a piece of paper and handed out).

Once students access the address, they can immediately start contributing to the page. There's even a place for live chat as well as video and audio capabilities (I'm not sure how many people the video or the audio will hold, but at least the teacher could be seen and heard).

Images can be uploaded to the page -- perfect for asking students to label drawings. Pages and past drawings can be saved and are indexed in thumbnail representations on the left hand side of the screen. Only the teacher (or whoever started the account) can see these, so images or sketches could be pulled in at a moments notice. For instance, if a discussion warranted, a teacher could easily drag over a Venn Diagram that he/she made previously.

It doesn't appear that you can make multiple pages unless you give students the new (complicated) addresses to those pages, but the canvas can be expanded to whatever horizontal size you'd like it. I wish this allowed for vertical growth, so that students could scroll down instead of sideways, allowing the thumbnails of previous drawings to be dragged in easily.

It took me a while to figure it out, but you can quickly clear all the drawings on a screen by holding down the SHIFT key and dragging a selection around the objects you want and then hitting the DELETE key.

Users can type text or make shapes by creating straight or smooth symbols, or drawings by working in freehand mode. In other words, in freehand mode, I can sketch out a number problem. In shape mode, when I draw something, it gets transformed to the shape that it most closely represents. So a curvy line will suddenly appear as a circle. Make a sloppy box, and you're presented with a perfect rectangle. Line sizes and colors can be controlled before or after the drawing has been made and you can click on the objects and move them around on the board. You can easily copy, rotate, group, ungroup, stretch, or shrink each object.

When the work is complete, you can download it as a PNG file as well as save it on the site (to be called up again later).

DabbleBoard is a "no fuss, jump right in" tool that makes it easy to have students practice working in collaboration with a tool that represents what professionals are using today, as well as one that our students will most likely be using in their future careers.

Bob Sprankle has been a multi-age teacher in Wells, ME for 10 years and has served as the school's Technology Integrator for the past two years.

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