Tablet for remote teaching

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Introduction

Tablet1.jpg

If you require a tablet with stylus for remote/hybrid teaching, DTU Compute can supply you with a Samsung S6 Lite with S Pen (Using "best in class" Wacom EMR digitizer) and a protective case. The tablet can be very handy in both standard remote teaching but also in an auditorium during hybrid teaching. It is possible with superDisplay (superDisplay) to show any program running on the laptop, on the tablet, and use the tablets stylus as pen input device for that program. The tablet simply becomes an additional monitor for your laptop and you can draw on that monitor. This works without any latency and is truly plugnplay. This extra monitor can be shared via streaming, projector etc. It can also do it via wifi, completely wireless, though with a (surprisingly) small amount of latency. It is also possible to join either Zoom or MS Teams meetings and share the tablet screen very easily (simultaneous joined with a laptop or other device also), to show live annotation of PDF's, or use the highly recommended program Nebo, to live sketch equations, fomulas, text, diagrams etc. Nebo is also able to recognize your handwriting and can convert this into text. It can also do this with equations and formulas, translating these into LaTeX and show the output. The LaTeX code can also be exported if needed. Because S6 Lite is a Android tablet, many more apps are available in the store if needed.

If you are not sure if a tablet is what you need, please drop by at ITS and try out ours, which has all the applications installed.

Requesting the tablet

Please contact us at itsupport@compute.dtu.dk and request the tablet with pen. This offer is only for Compute staff involved in DTU courses or activities in which the use of such a tablet is beneficial for productivity. We cannot supply everybody with this device and will prioritize if needed, teaching activities are high priority.

Using the tablet

Power on the tablet and make hasty progress through all the initial configuration options. At DTU you can connect to DTUsecure - read information specific to Android here:
https://itswiki.compute.dtu.dk/index.php/DTUsecure_WiFi . The most important thing would be to register the tablet to your Google Account. If you do not have a Google Account, or do not want to use your personal account, feel free to create a new one, either using your work email address or by using a new Gmail mail address. The configuration process will also ask for you to create a Samsung Account, this can be skipped and created later, but it is not needed.

After this initial configuration the tablet will present a desktop with a search bar and different icons. If you long press any of these icons/widgets, they can be removed from the desktop, and none of them are required for this tablets purpose. Any icons removed will not delete the app, merely remove it from the desktop view. In general and opposite of Apple iOS, in Android, everything can be changed if you wish to do so. The very lively wallpaper can be changed to a solid black etc.

There are three navigation buttons on Android that you see in the bottom of the screen:

  • The 'back' button takes you to the previous page
  • The 'home' button takes you back to the desktop
  • The 'overview' button lets you look through your latest apps and navigate easily to them.

When you swipe up from the bottom of the screen, all your installed apps will be visible. Swipe down from the top to see different settings.

Open the Google Play Store (Icon is an arrow/triangle), search and install: 'superDisplay', 'Nebo', 'Zoom', 'Teams', 'Office', 'OneNote' and any other apps you might require. SuperDisplay and Nebo needs to be purchased, but you can get the amount refunded by doing a Travel expense reimbursement in DTU Expense, using project number 109252, E-33-10. Only superDisplay and Nebo expenses are covered.

The S Pen

The S Pen does not need charging and can stick magnetically to the side of the tablet (Just below the volume and power button). It is important to "dock" the S pen here, as the pen magnets align with the tablet at this location. It is also important to have the tip of the pen pointing towards the volume and power buttons.

The button on the pen can be configured to launch a shortcut menu to for instance the Nebo App, Zoom etc. It can also be disabled in the options menu, if you find that you click it unintentionally while using the pen.

superDisplay

Video - superDisplay demo

This in general, works really really well and will likely be the preferred way to use the tablet for most.

Install the windows driver located on their website superDisplay on your laptop. Then go to the Play store on your tablet and install superDisplay. Run superdisplay, connect a usb cable from the tablet to your laptop and tap the tablet screen with your finger. Your tablet now becomes an extra monitor for you laptop. You can with the mouse drag any application to this new monitor; MS Whiteboard, OneNote, Paint, Gimp, PDF with annotation, etc. You can now use the pen as input device for the chosen application and you can selectively stream this screen via Zoom, or via video.dtu.dk. On the tablet you have some options to control the app behavior (lock the screen for hand control/only pen input, resize the image, enable touch input).

OneNote

With OneNote you can create sketches, drawings, text and in general use it as a whiteboard, with several pages/notes. If you stream your OneNote during a lecture, and students might want to go revisit one of the earlier notes created during the lecture, you can share your notebook with the students via a link, and they can navigate and look through the notes, as the wish (They cant edit, only if you allow). Without interrupting your lecturing (you might be sketching and progressing your lecturing at page 8 now, some students might be looking at page 4 to revisit something they did not understand). Several students might be looking at different notes, while your stream only shows the page that you are looking at and using. This mimics the behavior in auditoriums with maybe five filled blackboards, and you progressing the lecture at the last blackboard.

Nebo App

Video - Nebo Text eksempel
Video - Nebo Matematik eksempel

Nebo works like the familiar worksheet style from Maple or Jupyter. Input can be done with the keyboard, touch or pen. You can create 'Notebooks' that can contain multiple 'Notes' and these notes can contain different 'objects'. When you create a note you can write with the pen directly on the lines (Stay within the lines, you might want to reduce pen size). You can double tap what you have just written, to have Nebo recognize the content. With the pen, you can join or split words, replace single letters in a word and a lot more. If you need some more blank space / whiteboard to work on, press the plus sign in the top right corner and add the 'Sketch' object to the note. You can resize the object if you like. Also try adding the 'Math' object and try to write formulas and double tap the formula when complete, Nebo will translate it. If you tap the object, tap the '...', you can copy the formula and paste it as LaTeX into any LaTeX editor. All notes can be synchronized to a cloud storage solution automatically for future use.

Follow the Nebo tutorial, it is very well made and will get you started in no time.

Zoom

Select "SSO" as signin option and input 'dtudk' as domain, it will then take you to DTU login page. Only use your DTU credentials, not your DTU email address, when you log in.

Start a meeting either from your laptop or directly from the tablet, both devices can join the meeting with your DTU account if needed, you just need the meeting ID. (The Meeting ID can be found in several ways, one is to click in the top left corner on the "i")

The tablet can work as a pure whiteboard, you just press "share screen" and then select whiteboard. Tap the pen icon and start writing with your pen. If you share your screen from your laptop, you can on the tablet, press the "pen" icon and annotate directly over the laptop shared screen. You can also share your entire tablet screen, then go to Nebo or any app, and show/create content there.

Teams

Login with DTU credentials and create a meeting. If you created your meeting from another device, this will be announced on the tablet, and you will only need to pres "join meeting with this device" on the tablet, no meeting ID needed.

Google Cast / Windows Connect / Apple Airplay

If you do not use superDisplay, Zoom or Teams, you can use Google Cast (Chrome Cast) or Windows Connect, to stream your tablet screen to your laptop (which might be streaming its content to Zoom or video.dtu.dk).

If you have a windows laptop, you can enable other devices to be allowed to stream their screen to your laptop ("Projecting to this PC"). Afterwards you can enable the "smart view" setting on the tablet and then connect to your laptop.

If you want to utilize Google Cast, you can use the application "Airserver" or "Reflector 3" on your laptop, to enable it as a Chrome Cast Reciever. Then you can cast your tablet screen to your laptop.

Sync files between laptop and tablet

You can use cloud solutions like Google Drive or iCloud, or you can synchronize files locally, directly between the two devices with something like SMBSync2

Tips and Tricks

  • You might want to enable the "black theme" so that it is a bit easier on the eyes and battery
  • You might want to enable 10 minute delay before the screen turns off
  • You might want to disable the Samsung Pen overlay on the screen and right navigation bar
  • Do not worry about trying out different things if you are new to android, it is very easy to restore to factory settings.
  • You might want to have a look at Wacom Bamboo app and the Inkredible app, they might be useful for you also.

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