At the end of November Flockdraw was launched. It is a simple whiteboard tool and allows a number of simultaneous participants. Today we had a little play in class during some down time.
It is a very simple little web based application, go to the Flockdraw home page and click on “Start Drawing”. At the top of the canvas is a unique URL for that drawing.
After starting a new one I wrote this on my whiteboard and invited some children in the class to go to the address. It was during some quiet time this afternoon and I just left them scribbling on the drawing to see what would happen.
They really enjoyed the idea and were quick to explore all of the tools – but it was mostly scribbling over the top of each other. I suggested some children pair up or get in threes and start a drawing together. Smaller groups allowed them to sit and communicate what they wanted to achieve from the drawing and still have fun doing it.
From the Flockdraw Twitter account I have just learned that there is a limit of 10 simultaneous “drawers”, with others logging on becoming simply “viewers”. It also seems that soon there will be an option for downloading the finished piece as an image file added very soon.
Flockdraw seems to have a starter toolset: pencil; eraser; line; fill and text. It presently has a limited pallet of colours and I suppose this modest start will allow it to build gradually. With further functionality such as uploading images, undo, pasting text, multiple pages, clear page and drawing shapes – I can envisage it to be a powerful little collaborative notebook. It certainly will be worth following it’s development.
A finished winter scene from a pair of children collaborating in Flockdraw.
Other than a little bit of fun drawing together, I haven’t really found much use for the online whiteboard tools of a single page style – have you? Multiple page collaborative online notebooks might be different. (I am yet to fully explore shared Drawings in Google Docs)
The tool itself worked well, but I was equally interested in some of the wording in the introduction from the Flockdraw team:
Through the course of development, you hit roadblocks and stumble. Unseen problems become evident. You must adapt.
But you don’t give up. You innovate. You conquer. You continue forward and exceed your own expectations.
I think that last sentence is relevant to real life, it certainly resonates with me.
Don’t give up – innovate and conquer.
