using ipad2 as whiteboard in classroom?

[upbraid]

At my work place we have some dry erase boards, but they get in the way of the projection screen which is also used pretty often. I am wondering if the ipad2 can be used as a whiteboard so to speak, with a stylus so that the instructors can write down stuff and not have to move the board out of the way.

the main concern is how versatile the apps are for this task, there will be very complicated problems and equation solving involved. Would it be possible to write on a page and open a new page but still have the previous page saved? will it be possible to make annotations to pdf documents? can we look at graphs and write over them?

 

[psonice]

That's an interesting one actually.

First, your question: Can't see why not. All you need is an app that can take notes, a stylus (plenty exist, you'd have to try one to see if it's good enough), and either a cable to the projector or an apple tv and wireless mirroring to get it displayed. No idea on which apps are suitable but I'm sure others can advise - will you need to show a powerpoint or something too?

Next, what it got me thinking about: I work in education sometimes. I see a lot of 'smart boards' - basically a digital whiteboard. It's connected to a computer + projector, but you can use fake whiteboard pens to draw on the screen (they even come in a few colours!) They're really good, you can show pretty much anything from the computer and add notes over the top. You can save your board notes too, and give them to the students. Cool stuff

What would REALLY be cool though: one of those things linked to an iPad wirelessly. Walk around the room, playing a video or showing a presentation on the screen, then going up to the screen and drawing on the top, then walking somewhere else and continuing to draw but on the iPad screen. That would be great for training!

 

[Mcclure]

This has become pretty common. The best set-up that I have found is an iPad, Apple TV, and a projector with HDMI input. The iPad and Apple TV need to be on the same network as well. You can be anywhere in the room, showing Keynote, writing notes, or annotating a pdf. I usually make pdf versions of my lessons so that I can annotate them in class. It is also nice to be able to screen capture out of Keynote to annotate in many of the note taking apps. It would be nice to be able to annotate over any app (like a transparent screen in SMART Notebook) but that isn't possible. I still have trouble giving the iPad to students to answer questions, handwriting is pretty poor if you are not use to it.

 

[quattrocoupe]

Take a look at the Splashtop suite of applications. I have been using these and they work very well, including the whiteboard app.

www.splashtop.com

Hope this is helpful.
JB