A few days ago, ViewSonic invited us to join a webinar about myViewBoard – their home grown solution for presentations and collaborations. It allows you to prepare and present – together with the ability to participate via the app itself.
What is myViewBoard exactly?
The myViewBoard is basically a digital whiteboard where you could visualize your ideas, lessons and meetings. Highlights here are the software’s ability to add stuff on the go with interactivity features as you present. Here’s a summary of the software’s strong points:
Prepare:
- Add text and graphics
- Drag in videos
- Make notes
Present:
- Open from the cloud
- Annotate as you go
- Search the Internet in real time
Participate:
- Add pop quizzes, polls, and more
- Create small groups instantly
- Invite multi-user participation
In short, the ViewSonic myViewBoard is a powerful app that combines the usual softwares required to use for online presentations. It is also compatible with a number of popular web conference/eLearning tools i.e., Google Classroom.
The platform also works in a server-client model fashion so to speak. I.E., the teachers serves the presentation (myViewBoard Entity) while the students acts as the client or recipient (myViewBoard Classroom) with the ability to communicate within the app itself.
Digital whiteboard overview
The myViewBoard’s user interface is pretty straight-forward. It has a main toolbar carrying the most important features of the app, a floating toolbar for easy access to each section of the slides and a few more with the notable Huddle menu to access your groups of lets say, students as seen on the main toolbar.
The main toolbar and floating toolbar are customizable so you may opt for a cleaner look while presenting.
During one of ViewSonic’s web conferences, we had the chance to see how the myViewBoard works. Basically click and drop stuff. Even the web search integration works like a charm.
Interaction between participants are also well executed, although we just saw it via the live stream. Pop quizzes and polls are simply easy to integrate too.
There are tons of features shown to us but what I like the most are the built-in browser, immersive reading (text to speech) and the downloadable contents (lesson plans, etc.).
These are powerful features combined, allowing teachers the breathing room and creativity to flow. The built-in browser for example, allows almost everything you search for to get added on the white board with a few clicks. Immersive reading on the other hand allows text to speech options with translations as well. Templates for lesson plan are also downloadable via the myViewBoard. All could be done while presenting.
It is worth to note that ViewSonic is throwing in a certification program for the myViewBoard to get anyone started with the app. You may sign-up here if you are interested.
FAQ about myViewBoard
Is the free version good enough for students/teachers? What are the limitations?
- myViewBoard Personal Account is enough for student part.
- myViewBoard Entity would be advisable to teachers or school. Doing this, They can have access to all features of the software.
- Entity account should be request to ViewSonic.
What are the recommended system/network requirements to run the standalone software?
Recommend – For the best performance, Windows 10 is required. This is to support the 20 points touch feature.
- CPU: Intel Core i5
- Memory: 8GB
- Storage: SSD
- OS: Windows 10
Minimum – Workable but performance is not good as recommend. Windows 7 only supports single touch.
- CPU: Intel Core i3
- Memory: 4GB
- Storage: SSD
- OS: Windows 10
Touch function is not really necessary because not everyone is able to afford a system like the Microsoft Surface. The myViewBoard works with non-touch laptop as well.
Could we use other MyViewboard enabled devices to simulcast/share cameras? I.E., casting on the computer + phone camera/audio?
- Myviewboard can be installed to different devices such as Desktops, Laptops and Phones.
- If you want to share your screen by phone, you can’t do it. It’s only available to Laptops and Desktops.
Does the myViewBoard allow pre-defined/created templates?
Yes. Your template just need to get setup to to software. See steps by steps process:
- Click first the upload icon.
- Go to the folder where in your files or images are located. Open folder, Copy All (Ctrl + A), then Open.
- Once uploaded, you will see the template to another hard drive icon.
- Then click the image or background you want, then you will see it in the canvas once clicked.
Does the digital whiteboard allow element snapping or grid alignment for better formatting?
No. I don’t think so. But we do have Grib Template though.
Does it allow user submitted questionnaires/pop-quiz/polls as well?
For submission of questionnaires, you can also use the Pop-quiz or Poll.
Built-in browser and clips: Are the contents labelled for re-use? No copyright issues?
- For myviewboard clips, yes. Cause this one is ViewSonic partnered to boclips and we’re authorize to reuse the video.
- For youtube, not really. It’s just like for personal use. If you can search and browse the video, you can also put it to your canvass.
Immersive Reading: Could we insert this to the canvas?
- If you mean, you want to read the paragraph by not going to another window, it can. Just type or put the sentence you want and click below icon.
- But please note, you cannot access the Grammar Options or Translate Options on this process. You really need to click the book icon, if you want to use the full function of Immersive Reading.
Original Content: Could lesson planners upload their works here and share them with colleagues as well? Hoping to see DepEd curated/published content here.
- Original Content as mentioned is created by VS.
- If we want to upload lesson plan of DepEd to this site, we need to create partnership.
Polls/Pop-quiz: Possibility to allow images, formulas and videos? Do we allow free-form answers as well? I.E., drawings.
- So far none, only text is allowed.
- End-users can use THROW functions if they want to share image files to myViewBoard. I suggest that we can remind end-users about this.
Personally speaking, the myViewBoard is an excellent app for teachers looking to streamline their work at home setup. Why use tons of applications if a single one could do it all for you?
