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Windows Journal

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lecture with tablet
lecture with tablet

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.