RealtimeBoard

Realtime Board is another option for collaborating together online to discuss and develop ideas.  On a board users can add visuals, mark-up, and leave comments in mini-chats.  Users can also add sticky notes as well.  Realtime Board allows users to also Create simple sketches or complex infographics using shapes, texts and mark-up tools.  Each addition to a board can be edited and removed and used to collaborate better.  Users can add Google Docs and PDF-presentations, as well as create mind maps in real time.

So the next question, is what separates Realtime Board from some of its predecessors and counterparts?  When you have completed a board, you can turn the board into a presentation.  You decide the order and how to develop the presentation parts based upon what is included on the board.  You organize the presentation by slides.  You create slides by taking a "screenshot" of the area of the board you want to focus on.  This process reminds of the "Frames" and "Path" features of Prezi.  There are various ways to view the presentation, AND only the owner of the board has the ability to create a presentation.

When students are collaborating on a board, they appear as avatars (if logged in with Facebook or Google and one is available) icons and the work that is being done is shown in real time.  We are encouraging students to collaborate and this provides a way for students to do that and then easily create a presentation.  Often times we assign task to groups of kids on a project and Realtime Board provides an easy way to do that.

You can create an account using an email and password or using Facebook  or Google.   I recommend viewing the Tour to learn even more and seeing some examples for ideas as well.  Visiting the Realtime Board Blog will also be helpful in learning some tips and tricks for how to use the site. 

One thing I am liking about Realtime Board is it is not just a collaboration tool.  As a teacher, it could be used to create presentations in the classroom and provide annotated pictures, graphs, charts, etc.  This one is worth checking out.  It has combined some of the greatest features of Whitebaord Collaboration software with Presentation software.

For more information on Realtime Board, which is in Beta, see the video below.