“FlatFrog Board has significantly transformed how we teach. Engaging whiteboard sessions replace PowerPoint lectures, allowing students to ask questions and contribute in real time to material on the board. This provides a unique education experience for students.”
Gigalogchip is an IC consulting firm out of Israel specializing in high performance chip design. These designs involve high speed innovations that drive cutting edge communication and medical devices. For example, Gigalogchip has developed a photon counting technology to allow for X-Ray detention using much reduced radiation.
Recently, Gigalogchip was invited to lecture at the prestigious Technion Israel Institute of Technology. With COVID restrictions in placed, the team had to figure out how to create a productive learning experience for the students. The standard method of using PowerPoint lecture via Microsoft Teams or Zoom was acceptable for the lecture. However, the PowerPoint format fails to provide a necessary interaction with the students. Students were able to verbally ask questions or send texts, but they were notable to annotate on the drawings.
Visual and editable
Chip design requires that system drawings are presented on the whiteboard. The instructor must have a way to erase or add content to the drawings before, during and after the class. For example, the Gigalogchip instructor needed to show the system on its own, but he wished to add electrical properties to the drawing and add additional components during the lecture. FlatFrog Board online whiteboard proved to be an essential teaching tool.
Collaborative
Students must also find a way to engage with online whiteboard. Unlike PowerPoint pages, online collaborative whiteboards are perfectly suited for this functionality. Students can interactively add their answers to the whiteboard or post questions on the board real time.
Ad Hoc
A significant advantage of the digital whiteboard is its flexibility. Often when teaching advanced topics, students may ask a question outside the lecture. With collaborative whiteboards such as the FlatFrog Board, the teacher was able to quickly improvise with a fresh drawing.
Hybrid whiteboard
FlatFrog Board also allowed Gigalogchip to lecture on a large display in the classroom. And students had the flexibility to join in person in the room or remotely from their laptop. Hybrid whiteboard allowed for students to engage as though they were in the same room.
Happy teachers, happy students
For Gigalogchip, the FlatFrog Board was the perfect teaching addition allowing for a more involving teaching experience. It provided for better visual lectures with a higher student engagement over a PowerPoint. The ability to draw new electrical designs ad hoc during the lecture proved to be an incredibly effective way to challenge students and transform a teaching session into an engaging workshop.
FlatFrog
FlatFrog is a provider of free online whiteboards (app.flatfrog.com).
FlatFrog has also designed patented InGlass™ touch display technology from the ground up, providing the best pen and touch input to mimic the intuitive feeling of a dry-erase board. InGlass™ touch displays are available through our partners, including Dell, Google, Samsung, SMART, Sharp, Ricoh, Avocor, CTOUCH and more (www.flatfrog.com/partners).
