Lucidspark - A New Collaborative Online Whiteboard Option

Lucidspark is a new collaborative whiteboard tool from the makers of the popular Lucidchart service. Lucidspark has all of the features that we've come to expect in an online whiteboard tool. It contains tools for placing pre-made shapes, drawing with a pen tool, and adding text to the screen. There is a wide array of color options for all of the elements that you add to your whiteboard in Lucidspark. 

There are two elements of Lucidspark that differentiate it from some of its competitors. First, Lucidspark offers a large gallery of templates that you can apply to your whiteboard. That gallery includes templates for things like concept maps, flowcharts, empathy maps, and story maps. The sharing menu is the other area in which Lucidspark separates itself from some of its competitors. The sharing options in Lucidspark will remind many people of the options found in Google Docs. You can share your Lucidspark pages as "view only," "comment only," and "edit." You can send collaboration invitations via email or by simply posting a link in your LMS. 

Here's a video overview of Lucidspark. 

Applications for Education

Lucidspark, like many other online whiteboard tools, could be a useful tool for teachers conducting live online or hybrid classes. Much like using Jamboard instead of Zoom's whiteboard tool, using Lucidspark when you need to sketch a concept map or illustrate a point enables you to share that sketch later and use it in other places independently of Zoom (or Google Meet or Microsoft Teams).