Rest in Peace Jamboard
In the school year of 2023-2024 the HFMinute was born after media teacher Mr. Ambrosio created a Jamboard on ways to promote the content put out on the HF Tornado News website. Everyone who worked in the studio used it to draft article and video ideas, however, this will no longer be the case for anyone in the whole wide world.
The birth of the digital sticky note
Two extremely talented engineers by the name of Braine Tee and TJ Varghese participated in the Google Hackathon back in 2013 when they came up with the idea of Jamboard, an application that works live for quick, simple, and raw discussion like the ones a teacher may have when drafting words onto a whiteboard, only that it was fully digital. The engineers, alongside more than 40 others at Google worked on this new app which would be announced on October 24, 2016, and officially out to the public on May 23, 2017
This was extremely useful in environments such as classrooms as it allowed teachers and students to collaborate on whatever topic was being discussed without having to deal with wasting paper, sloppy handwriting, and losing those small sticky notes. Not only that but in scenarios where students must stay at home such as pandemics like COVID-19 or weather emergencies, classes are able to have real-time connections in just a click.
The Jamboard Device
If you worked a corporate job and originally wanted to dedicate team discussions to take place only on Jamboard, you could buy yourself the official device. The Jamboard-boards price was $4,999 and the board included a wall mount, eraser, and not only one but two styluses l. If you worked in the education department, you would need to pay a support and management fee of $600, however, it would’ve been a one-time payment, unlike the rest of the world who needed to pay an annual fee of $600.
The Jamboard 55-inch device could be easily used by tapping the screen to start a new project without having the hassle of opening an app or searching up the website on your search engine. In the case that you have no more than 16 people in a meeting and you aren’t using anything else to come up with ideas, this purchase could be a genuinely useful tool, but now with the recall, who knows if it was truly a smart investment?
Learning to say goodbye
Google sent out an email with information about the process, as well as including alternatives so it’s users have a new application to use with their old and new creations.
As the days go by, it only goes downhill from there. On September 1, 2024, Google talked about the ability to use the application on its sister websites such as Google Meet. When October 1 hit, Google made it so you can only view your boards. December 1, which will be the last day you can save and transport your files into other apps as the file extermination process will begin. The final day of the digital sticky note will be the last day of 2024 (December 31) as it will cease operations.