• Last updated / reviewed: 12th August, 2009

Introduction

The aim of this how to guide is to encourage you to re-think your use of technology in your classroom teaching. This guide is focused on how you might re-think your use of chalk (or whiteboards) and instead use Paper Show for annotating presentations and hand written work.

Some context

Paper Show enables you to project your hand written material as you write on a piece of paper or annotate a printed out powerpoint presentation. Paper show is a digital pen and paper kit, for a more detailed introduction see, http://www.papershow.com/en/index.asp. A key difference between Paper Show and a visualiser is Paper Show connects through the computer. Therefore, you can save the outcome and use other software at the same time.

Currently, many people are still using chalk (or whiteboards) in their teaching to present information. This is for a number of reasons. One in particular is the freedom to develop material and express ideas without being constrained by presentational software (which often encourages a linear style) while the software makes it difficult to use elaborate mathematical notation or graphical analysis.

However, the use of chalk (whiteboards) does mean a number of learning opportunities are missed. In particular, the material you’ve just presented is lost once it is erased. If the material you where presenting was recorded (both in terms of the final outcome, and/or the evolution of the argument) students would be able to change the way they interact within the lecture. For example, they will not be concentrating on writing everything becuase the material will be available afterwards. Therefore, they are able to engage more with the concepts and class interactions. Secondly, the use of chalk (whiteboards) inhibits the way other technologies are used in the classroom. For instance, it is difficult to switch to projected material if you are using a chalk board. This limits the use of audio and/or video, online resources and interactive classroom technologies (audience response systems, SMS and social networking tools) in your teaching.

The aim of this How To Guides is to introduce a number of available classroom technologies at the University of Bath to encourage you to reflect on how you currently teach. The key to technologies such as Paper Show, Visualisers, and Symposium Tablets is these still enable you the freedom associated with writing while gaining the benefits of wider integration and not significantly increasing staff development time.

For more information on getting the technology then please contact the Audio Visual unit.

The process

Scenario 1: Using Paper Show to capture hand written material

At start of lecture
1.    Insert USB stick, and connect to pen (about 30 second job)
2.    When the software opens then select “new file”
3.    Write on the page. Remember to use the add new page when you need a new blank page.

At the end of the lecture
1.    Click on save
2.    Close software, remove USB and pen

Post-lecture

You can upload the file to Moodle by reconnecting the USB stick and Pen. Open the file, and select Export and save to your computer. Then pload the file to Moodle.

Scenario 2: Using Paper Show to annotate a powerpoint presentation.

The following describes how to use the Paper Show to present / edit a presentation.

Pre-lecture
1.    Once you have the harware, plugin the USB stick and allow it to connect to the pen.
2.    Import the powerpoint presenation you are going to use.
3.   Print the powerpoint onto the special paper. To save paper, only print out the pages you plan to annotate during the lecture. If you are not going to annotate each slide then you can use the keyboard to navigate the slides.

At start of lecture
1.    Insert USB stick, and connect to pen (about 30 second job)
2.    When the software opens then select “open file”
3.    To navigate through the presentation (similar keys to powerpoint) you need to set the preferences to full screen (about 10 second job)

At the end of the lecture
1.    Click “esc” (toggles off full screen).
2.    Click on save
3.    Close software, remove USB and pen

Post-lecture
1.    You can upload the file to Moodle by reconnecting the USB stick and Pen. Open the file, and select Export and save to your computer. Then pload the file to Moodle.

More information

For more information on how you might use this and other technologies to enhance your teaching please email e-learning@bath.ac.uk. Alternatively, contact the AV Unit in the library.