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Physical? Virtual? Hybrid? Canva empowers collaboration in ALL classrooms

Announcement posted by Canva 24 Nov 2020

Collaboration in the classroom, done right with Canva

With collaboration in the classroom key to exceptional learning outcomes, Canva for Education has today launched a whole new raft of features to cement its position as the collaboration platform of choice for teachers and their students around the globe, regardless of whether they’re in a physical classroom, virtual or a hybrid of the two.


From real-time collaboration functionality, Talking Presentations, online whiteboards for class brainstorms, a Notification Center, a ‘Publish Assignment’ option as well as all new group work templates, Canva for Education has everything educators need to keep students engaged, accountable, communicating, debating, sharing decisions and creating together to achieve a deeper level of learning. 


Group work now available, in real-time


Class group work is now a breeze on Canva for Education. Teachers and students can work on one document simultaneously, regardless of where they are located. With a raft of new templates specifically designed with classroom collaboration at its core, from group critique activities to stipulating group roles, you can now create, collaborate, brainstorm, note and present learnings, together, remotely.  


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Avatars show who’s working on the document, with comments and replies showing-up right away. Collaborators can see which elements are selected by who, thanks to color-coding, and names on-display within designs. 


Comments are also supported on web and mobile, so teachers and students can, quite literally, collaborate from anywhere.


The importance of collaboration in the classroom helps students develop their higher-level thinking, oral communication, self-management and leadership skills. George Lee, Coordinator of the CAST academy at Balboa High School, part of the San Francisco Unified School District, explained teachers have been looking for a way to create a sense of collaboration in a visual format when students only have one screen in front of them. 


“Canva is the only collaborative tool that utilizes visual language. Simultaneous collaboration has enabled a creative community which is actually better than a physical classroom. The notion of creativity is not a single person, rather a collaboration. It isn’t until we come together and understand something collectively that we truly gain knowledge. Canva gives us the opportunity to do this in the classroom,” said Lee. 

Not just another presentation

If COVID-19 has taught us anything it’s that the classroom is no longer limited to four walls within the school premises. With remote and hybrid learning part of the ‘new normal’, we know the tools and elements educators use in the classroom not only need to contribute to a student’s learning experience, the output needs to be interesting, impressive and memorable to ensure full engagement.


Canva for Education’s new Talking Presentations feature provides an alternative to live, or fully pre-recorded formats, giving educators and students alike the ability to integrate short videos of themselves as playable elements within their presentation slides. 

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Carly Daff, Canva for Education’s Director of Product, explained it’s important to equip teachers with the tools they need to ensure they can keep students looking forward to every class.


“Even before schools moved to an online environment, one of the biggest challenges facing educators was maintaining students’ engagement and shifting their attention away from their phones and computers. Now with many schools online, and students in the comfort of their own homes with computers and phones at the ready, it’s more important than ever to find ways to keep students engaged virtually and ensure they’re paying attention.


“Our new Talking Presentations feature ensures students and teachers alike can create interactive learning experiences that not only allow teachers to add their personal touches to their lessons, but it also empowers Student Voice. This tool is also useful for those who, whilst at home, might have conflicting priorities and are not able to adhere to a strict ‘school hours’ routine. If they happen to miss a class, they can simply watch and re-watch the content at their own pace, and a time more suitable to them,” said Daff.

Easily distribute assignments on Canva

Distributing assignments to a class has never been easier. With Canva for Education’s all new ‘Publish Assignment’ feature, teachers can create an assignment and designate it to their relevant classes to complete. 

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Each student within the class will receive an email notifying them of the assignment, instructions to complete the task, as well as a button to open it directly from any device. Alternatively, they’ll be able to find the assignment in their class designs page.


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Streamline collaboration with notifications

Teachers and students will never miss a beat with Canva’s new Notifications Center; helping classes stay informed by making it easy to review and respond to classmates and colleagues, moving projects along faster than ever before.


Once enabled, teachers and students have the ability to receive alerts when tagged in comments, granted permissions to designs, folders and projects, or when approval or access requests are received. All requests can be seen and responded to in one place easily, leaving less time searching through emails.


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New templates to encourage and support group work in the classroom

Teachers and their students can now build creative and collaborative classes with our newest templates. Form groups, assign roles and best of all, keep the creativity flowing as students collaborate in real-time, remotely, or within the classroom. 


Each of these new templates come complete with briefing sheets and student ready worksheets.


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Share this template with your class and have them form groups together.


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Assign project roles - it is important students work together similarly to how they will in the real world.


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Empower classes to set norms and expectations with a group contract.


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Sentiment is key to success - check in with how students are feeling in their groups.


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Bolstering connection in the classroom

Canva for Education also recently partnered with the lovable Care Bears as part of its ‘Back to School’ campaign - adding a little bit of fun and positivity to what has been a rather tumultuous year. With over 52 Care Bears themed templates available exclusively to the Canva for Education community, the collection includes: classroom kits, classroom worksheets, a colourful array of classroom announcements to be used in conjunction with any LMS, and most importantly, social and emotional learning (SEL) activities to bolster connections in the classroom.


“Social connection is critical to the physical and mental well being of students. Our new range of SEL activities and collaboration tools aims to empower students to feel seen and heard by their teachers, and their peers. The more we can provide educators with the resources needed to engage in connection with students, the more we open their minds up to the limitless potential of learning and growth,” concluded Daff.

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To get started, teachers can register for their free Canva for Education account at www.canva.com/education

 

About Canva

 

Canva is a free online graphic design platform used by more than 40 million people every month across 190 countries. Canva for Education is the creativity tool for every classroom. Featuring Canva’s intuitive drag-and-drop design tools, Canva for Education offers a rich and authentic learning experience empowering teachers and students to create and collaborate. It also includes add-ons such as education-specific content and classroom-friendly templates, an all-new collaboration space, a review workflow, version history plus so much more.