Scrawlar is a free whiteboard and document sharing service that I recently tried after reading about it on Larry Ferlazzo’s blog. Through Scrawlar teachers can create online spaces in which they and their students can share drawings and documents. After entering the room a teacher can create a drawing on a whiteboard or create a document to share with all of the students who have access to the Scrawlar room. Students can share their works with the teacher too.

To use Scrawlar the teacher has to register with an email address. Students join the online room by entering the class code that the teacher created during the set-up process. Students do not have to enter email addresses to join the room, just their names and the class code.

Applications for Education
Scrawlar works in the web browser on iPads, Android tablets, Chromebooks, and laptops. The drawing tools could be great to use during mathematics lessons in which you want students to demonstrate how to solve a problem and share it with you. Typing mathematics is often a challenge that distracts students from focusing on solving the problem, by using the drawing tools that distraction is removed.