https://anchor.fm/hitechpod/episodes/62--LMS-as-Surveillance-pt--2--Miro-e1l11v2

This Week's App: Miro

What is Miro?

Most know Miro as an awesome digital whiteboard tool and that is exactly what we highlighted it is as back in Episode 2 | Digital Whiteboarding & Background. That said, we have decided to come back and visit this tool because over the last year or so Miro has become so much more than a basic whiteboard tool.

Miro, is better defined as a visual collaborative platform. Meaning that it allows you to bring your students or team remotely into one area where you all can seamlessly create content, present information, facilitate group activities, polls, games, brainstorm together, and more. In our opinion Miro is the perfect digital playground to facilitate online synchronous collaboration.

In our opinion Miro is the perfect digital playground to facilitate online synchronous collaboration.

What can it be used for?

Miro can be used for so many things, one of which is a definitely a digital whiteboard and we encourage you to check out Episode 2 linked above for more on that, but what else can it do? How can it help with online synchronous collaboration?

• Presentation content & activity materials can be in one place - In Miro you can create or upload your slide content all into the board area you bring your students into, then also use the materials Miro gives you to create group spaces for activates. Miro lets you create break out areas populated with posted notes, areas for students to write thoughts, upload documents, and more.
• You are given full control - Miro then also gives you the ability to organize everything in the board into a meeting plan that allows you to organize the experience and gives you a presenter mode that allows you to move through this outline just like you would through slides. This means you can seamlessly transition from content to activities all in one area and bring your students along for the ride. As if that wasn't enough they also give you the ability to control where on a board your students go if they start to look at other areas of the board.
• There are limitless materials built in for activities - Miro comes built in with digital posted notes, shape tools, writing tools, commenting, and gives people the ability to upload files. This gives you the ability to pre-layout activities for students or also gives them the ability to get creative.
• Frames help you organize - Miro has a feature called ****frames, this feature allows you to pre designate areas of the board for different sections of content and activities. It even allows you to hide content from view until you are ready for students to see it or use it.

We know this is a lot of information and can be hard to imagine so to get a better idea of how this can all be used together, check out this video from Josh to learn more.

https://www.loom.com/share/ba267dc39979401f96bdf87ded9cb326

How do I get started?

Miro is an awesome tool that you can access for free, just by signing up. We recommend starting there and trying some of the great tools available in the app. You can even try out their huge list of templates to get started. We also recommend checking our their Guide for Virtual Collaboration if you need help.

When you are done prepping and setting up then your next step will be inviting people into your board and giving it a try.