This site is being phased out.
Windows Journal
During my lectures, I write on the screen of a tablet PC, SMART Tablet, with a digital pen and the writing instantly appears on the screen for the students to see.
The software I use is Windows Journal.
I chose it over the software that came with SMART Tablet (SMART Notebook), OneNote, and others. Initially the only reason was its simplicity and ubiquity.
Issues:
- You can't select the whole document.
- Scrolling should be better.
- After erasing and then switching colors, you discover that you are still in the erasing more, so you switch to the writing mode, but then the color choice is lost...
- You can't edit images (just write over them).
- Handwriting recognition doesn't work for math.
In the spring of 2013 I was forced to use SMART Notebook instead and it proved itself far inferior:
- It doesn't recognize strokes for "Undo" or "Erase".
- It doesn't scroll from page to page, so you can't see the bottom of the last page.
- The colors to choose from (fewer than Journal) disappear when you use other tools.
- There is no "Lasso" for copy-and-paste.
- More...
In the end of the lecture, the file is immediately published in the pdf format to the class web page (as an example see Differential Equations -- Fall 2011).
Whenever possible, I edit the lectures to make them more readable. I use another tablet, HP Slate, also with Windows Journal.
Later the lectures are transcribed into articles that you see on this site.