collaborative-whiteboard

2 posts

figma

27 FigJam Activities to Spark Creativity in the Classroom | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

FigJam’s collaborative canvas can make classroom participation more inclusive, creative, and engaging across subjects. The post presents 27 adaptable activities that use sticky notes, drawings, widgets, and shared templates to support community-building, discussion, problem-solving, creative breaks, and assessment. Its central conclusion is that familiar teaching activities become more interactive when students can contribute visually and collaboratively. ## Building Classroom Community - Icebreakers help students share interests, personalities, hobbies, dreams, and favorite subjects. - “Let me introduce myself” activities use sticky notes, stickers, and sketches. - Scavenger hunts prompt students to find classmates with shared experiences or interests. - A virtual “shoe rack” lets students express their individuality creatively. - FigJam tools such as drawing, voice recordings, and photobooths give students multiple ways to participate and connect. ## Making Language and History Come Alive - Shared canvases turn reading and historical analysis into group activities rather than isolated assignments. - Students can visualize character relationships, track plot developments, and discuss themes together. - Templates such as book chats support collaborative literary discussion. - History activities can encourage students to debate perspectives and investigate events collectively. ## Visualizing STEM Concepts - FigJam activities help students represent abstract scientific, mathematical, and technical ideas visually. - Collaborative diagrams, notes, and sketches can support group problem-solving. - The flexible canvas allows teachers to adapt activities for different subjects and grade levels. ## Taking Creative Brain Breaks - Short, playful FigJam exercises can reenergize students between lessons. - Drawing, visual prompts, and collaborative challenges provide a creative change of pace. - These breaks maintain engagement while still encouraging communication and imagination. ## Checking Understanding Together - Teachers can use shared templates to see how students are processing a lesson. - Students can contribute answers, questions, reflections, and visual explanations in one collaborative space. - Group responses make misconceptions easier to identify and create opportunities for peer discussion. Overall, the post recommends using FigJam as a flexible classroom workspace rather than limiting it to presentations. Its free education access and adaptable templates make it suitable for teachers who want more inclusive, participatory learning activities.

figma

Introducing new FigJam prices and a more open platform | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

FigJam is expanding from a beta whiteboard into a more accessible, customizable collaboration platform. Figma announced free and paid pricing, lower-friction participation through Open sessions, and a broader ecosystem of widgets, plugins, embeds, templates, shapes, and code blocks. The goal is to help entire organizations use FigJam for meetings, workshops, visual thinking, and everyday productivity. ## More accessible pricing and participation - Starting February 1, 2022, FigJam’s Starter plan will remain free. - The free plan includes: - Unlimited personal whiteboards - Three shared whiteboards - Unlimited collaborators - Paid plans provide unlimited shared whiteboards: - FigJam Professional: $3 per editor per month - FigJam Organization: $5 per editor per month - **Open sessions** let anyone join a FigJam session for 24 hours without logging in, making one-off workshops and planning meetings easier to host. ## Widgets for collaboration and meetings Widgets allow teams to customize FigJam and support social, facilitation, and productivity workflows. - **Team connection:** Donut offers water-cooler prompts and drawing games; other widgets include Rock Paper Scissors and Connect Four. - **Meeting facilitation:** - Simple Vote collects feedback after brainstorming. - Alignment Scale checks whether participants agree. - **Productivity support:** - Table imports Google Sheets data into FigJam. - Stark for FigJam provides accessibility checklists and guidance. - Org Chart helps map departments and plan headcount. - Figma planned to expand widgets with kanban boards, timelines, inline text editing, and improved media embedding. ## Plugins for faster creation - Plugins focus on helping users express and create ideas more quickly, while widgets emphasize collaborative interaction. - More than 40 plugins were already available. - Vimeo was developing a Vimeo Record plugin for recording screen captures and voice-over explanations directly in a FigJam file. - Other examples include: - Tour Guide for animated presentations - Create Sticky from Text for converting text into sticky notes - Stamp Counter for quickly counting votes ## A broader, community-built platform - Figma opened FigJam’s widgets and plugins platform to developers after an initial community beta. - The company positioned this open ecosystem as a way to let users shape how FigJam works for different teams and use cases. - Additional platform improvements announced included embedded content such as videos and documents, new shapes and code blocks, and templates accessible from the FigJam toolbar. FigJam’s strategy is to combine broad access with extensibility: keep basic collaboration free, remove barriers for guests, and let teams adapt the workspace through community-built tools.