What's new in Classroomscreen: July 2023

As you might already know, Classroomscreen is all about helping you manage your classes more easily and effectively. To keep this mission on track, it was time for us to do some updates. Let's dive into the details and explore how these enhancements will make your Classroomscreen experience even more delightful.

A fresh-looking website  

We collaborated with our skilled friends at the Amsterdam-based web development agency Yummygum to create a new website. With user experience as the top priority, they have designed an simple and easy to use website with improved accessibility to resources and inspiration for our teaching community.

As wee have made so many updates to our application over the last couple of years, we wanted the website to reflect this same look and feel. With the support of Yummygum, having added lots of beautiful visuals and animations to our website, we can now proudly say that this is the case.

Discover the Classroomscreen templates

Classroomscreen is so versatile, it can be used in countless ways. If you are feeling unsure about how Classroomscreen can support you in the classroom, have no fear - we have developed 6 templates that are ready to be used immediately for your lessons. Want to start your lesson with a daily check-in, institute silent reading, or start with some group work? Just select the right template and get started!

Of course, you can always customize these templates according to your preferences (and save them in your dashboard if you have a Pro account). You’ll find these templates located on our new homepage.

Say hello to our new blog

Another part of the website that we’re pretty excited about is this new blog section you’re reading right now. With a refreshed blog space, we will have more ways to share future updates with our community. So, go ahead and bookmark this blog or subscribe to our newsletter and we’ll do our utmost best to keep you informed and inspired about everything that we’re working on. 

Be sure to check out some of the other pages on our new website when you have the time. There’s loads of different content to discover such as the improved page for schools and districts and a new about us page.

A game-changing update to our application

Next to updating our website, we also took the time to make some major changes to our application. Since we’ve modified many things that our community suggested, we want to give a big thank you to everyone who has helped by providing us with their valuable insights. We couldn't have done it without you! 

In February 2023, as some of you remember, we introduced shortcut keys to improve user experience in the application. With this current update, we are unveiling additional features such as improved widget functionalities and also completely new widgets. We’ve bundled our application updates into three different parts:

1. Improved screen user experience (UX)
2. Brand-new widgets
3. Improved popular widgets

Improved screen user experience (UX)

It is our mission to keep the time you spend making and preparing your screens in Classroomscreen as little as possible. Having improved the user experience, we’ll contribute immensely to this goal. In the new Classroomscreen application you’ll find the following improved screen UX features: 

• Resize from every corner: You can now resize the widget from every corner. The buttons that were previously placed on the corners are now grouped in a fresh-looking floating toolbar above the widget.
• Lock in position: You’re now able to lock widgets into position. By doing so, you prevent the accidental moving, resizing, or deleting of widgets.
• Copy widget(s): We’ve added the option to copy, one or more, selected widgets so you can paste your selection onto every screen within your account.
• Arranging widgets: Are you using widgets that overlap one another on the screen? If so, we’ve got you covered with this feature, you can now control which widget is on top and which one goes to the back. 

Meet the brand-new widgets

Over the years our platform has grown and we’re proud of the work done by our developers which makes it possible to introduce three new widgets to Classroomscreen.

Visual timer

Get familiar with our new Visual timer. This widget gives your students a clear indication of how much time there’s left for a given task. You can easily adjust the Visual timer, and add or subtract the minutes, by clicking and dragging the carets in the circle (clockwise or counterclockwise). Because the Visual timer always represents 60 minutes, it gives students a concrete association with an abstract concept.

Hyperlink

With this new widget, you can start building your network of valuable links. Even though you have all the classroom essentials at your fingertips within Classroomscreen, it can still be useful to link to external web pages. The website icon that is automatically generated ensures you can quickly see your resources queued up and ready to go.

Event countdown

What’s the date today? How many days until the final test? What are we doing in the next period? The Event countdown widget is your new best friend! This widget will show your students what you’ve told them before. With this widget, you can create a clear overview of all the events that are important for your students to keep track of.

Improved popular widgets

Our team looked into the data ahead of making updates. By analyzing usage and identifying some of the most popular widgets, we gained valuable insight on what to improve. We hope you find that these modifications enhance the time you spend working within Classroomscreen.

Text widget

Did you know that the Text widget is the most commonly used? For some, it might not come as a surprise. This widget is ideal when it comes to sharing instructions with your students which is why we have given the Text widget some extra attention in this update. You will immediately notice that resizing the widget has changed; when you enlarge the Text widget, the text size will also increase accordingly. This will make it easier to fit instructions on your screen without having to adjust the font size precisely. Now, you're just a click and drag away from modifications!

Draw widget

Another popular widget that received some extra love from our developers. With the Draw widget, it is now possible to resize the canvas and make an image bigger from all corners.

For both the draw and text widgets, we’ve introduced a new (and kinda magical) ‘resize to’ button that makes the widget snap in to fit your text or drawing. Find this button to the left of the trash bin or surprise yourself by doing a double click on one of the corners.

This overview highlights the most visible changes within Classroomscreen (for now, at least), but we’ve also made various improvements throughout the application to fix bugs and enhance the user experience. If you have any feedback, please let us know by contacting our support team. w

We've got lots more planned!

We’ll be working on new options for grouping and aligning widgets in addition to creating an exciting new feature that allows you to make annotations across your entire screen. Another highly-requested feature is the ability to collaborate. We are currently preparing an update that enables you to publish screens and share them with colleagues or students. The above features are high on our to-do list in the coming months, and the groundwork has already been laid.

We value your feedback and encourage you to explore our updated website and application. Well see you, with more updates, at the beginning of next school year!

Be sure to take the latest version of Classroomscreen for a ride:
To the updated version of Classroomscreen

Happy teaching 💚💜