Drawing and Teaching Using MacBook Pro

[bluegt]

Hi, need some advice from the group.

My mom is a teacher that has been delivering courses online using a Dell XPS for the last two years. Her Dell has a terrible webcam, bad battery life, keyboard issues… BUT it has a touchscreen that is critical for drawing (eg writing on slides, drawing diagrams) while teaching her courses.

She just bought a new MBP 14” and is wondering how to do what she used to on the Dell.

Any suggestions?
- Maybe an external drawing pad (I recall there was something called Wacom? 10+ years ago)?
- or can she use the screen on her iPad easily as a drawing pad?
- what about using a pencil/stylus on the MacBook touchpad?

She’s not super tech savvy so needs a plug and play solution - any advice would be appreciated!

 

[Macintosh101]

Macbooks have no touch screen support, and no pencil support (on the trackpad or the screen). I feel her needs would be much better suited by getting at 12.9 iPad Pro with magic keyboard attached. This means she could use it like a laptop, but also touch the screen and draw on it with the Apple Pencil etc.

 

[mystery hill]

Why does she need a Mac?

She could go for an iPad Air/Pro + Magic Keyboard case + Apple Pencil.

Since she already has a MacBook, she can use the iPad as a second display with Sidecar and an Apple Pencil.

 

[bluegt]

She needs to use a full Mac/PC because she also does research & writes papers, statistical analysis (e.g., SPSS), etc.

The suggestion of Sidecar was a revelation... never knew that existed! It works really well with Zoom, screen sharing PowerPoint while using an Apple Pencil to draw. Love it!!!