Smart Phone Document Camera

In math and some other subjects, students need to see derivations or explanations unfold over time, so we often write on a black or white board during class.  Also, lecture notes and homework solutions are often written by hand.   I’ve been looking for good ways to share hand-written text, both real-time writing and as scanned documents.  These are the topics covered below:

• Writing directly on a PDF using a computer writing tablet

• A physical setup to turn a smart phone into a document camera

• Using a phone camera to scan documents

• Using a phone to make a video of live writing

• Stream writing by hand directly into an online meeting

• Stream writing by hand to your computer so you can share it as one of many windows in an online meeting

Computer writing tablet to write directly on a PDF

In summer 2020, I started using a computer writing tablet to write directly on PDF files, and I've never looked back.  Promising computer writing tablets are:

• XP-Pen for $40

• XP-Pen for $50

• XP-Pen for $70  A colleague has this tablet and it works well.

• Wacom tablet for $80  This is the tablet I have used since Summer 2020.  It works well.

I gave a talk at BGSU to show how to use a writing tablet to do real-time writing in an online class.  You can watch the video on YouTube.  Online meeting platforms like Zoom and WebEx allow you to annotate or to write on a whiteboard.  Those tools are pretty good, especially when you want to write on something that a student is sharing with you.  But for teaching, I have found it better to write directly on a document (PDF or Word) on my own computer.

There are many ways to write directly on a document using a writing tablet.  Here are some:

• Inky, for PC, for writing on PDFs.  Inky makes it easy to write on a PDF, but I do not see a way to use Inky to type onto a PDF.  Inky can be installed from the Microsoft store on a University computer without help from ITS.  Make and name the PDF ahead of time because Inky does not have "Save as".  Right click the PDF and "Open with" Inky.  One downside:  when I save PDF files in a Dropbox folder and share the Dropbox link with students, the Dropbox previewer does not show the writing done with Inky.  Opening the file with Adobe Acrobat Professional, modifying it, and saving it does restore the writing, but that is an extra step you may not want to take.  It is possible that other PDF previewers won't show writing from Inky.

• Adobe Acrobat Professional, for writing and typing on PDF files.  Click the Comment tab in the menu on the right side of the screen, then click the pencil.  You can also click the plain T to simply type wherever you place your cursor.  Save often; after 2-3 pages of writing, Acrobat sometimes crashes for me.  You can also add shapes.

• Adobe Reader might work for you to write or type on a PDF, but it does not seem to work with my Wacom tablet; some letters appear when I write, but others do not.  If it works for you, it may be the best choice.  Use these menus to be able to write or type on a document:  View, Tools, Comment, Open, Pencil/T.  You can also add shapes.

• Microsoft Word, you can use the Draw menu to write directly on a Word document.  Drawback:  once you've drawn on a page, it's hard to move the text and the drawing.  If you are editing a Word document and need to add a drawing, I would recommend that you make a drawing in a different window and then copy and paste a single image into your Word document.

• pdf2go.com is a free website where you can upload PDF files, write or type on them, and save them.  Better yet, pdf2go.com makes a unique URL for the document which I can share with my students (limit of about 10 students per URL and it's only valid for about 24 hours, so you may need to make multiple URLs).  Students can individually edit their own copy of the document; it's not a collaboration tool, it's just a quick way to get a document onto their computers.  

• Microsoft Edge, you can right click a PDF and Open with Microsoft Edge and use the Notes feature to write, but you cannot type.

• Microsoft OneNote has worked well for many students.  You need to add a note and import a PDF as an image, which degrades the visual quality of the PDF a bit.  Troublesome for me is that when students use OneNote, it widens the margins of the PDF which makes the document harder to read and comment on.

• Students recommend Foxit Reader, but my virus detection won't allow me to install it.  Foxit professional is good, but it may not work after a two-week trial period.

The PDF editing programs above do not allow you to start a blank document, so you need a PDF to get started with.  I made a PDF file that has 3 blank pages, which you can download and then write on.

The iPad has very good apps for writing on PDFs; I have had students use Notability and Good Reader.  

On an Android phone, Squid is an app that lets you write on PDFs with your finger or a stylus pen.  

Document camera setup

I used this method in Spring 2020.  The picture above shows what my physical setup looked like.  Books stacked about 15 inches high, a thin, stiff piece of wood 15-18 inches long to make a platform, and the phone plugged in to keep it powered.  Adjust the height of the books so you don’t have to zoom or crop the image.  A steady platform helps the camera focus.  It’s low tech, but your books will appreciate some time off the shelf.  Rolls of paper towels can also work.  For the platform, you can try:

• a wooden yardstick cut in half

• two paint stirring sticks side by side could work, but they are a little bit short

• use a selfie stick to hold the phone, just put a towel over it, then put a heavy book on top

• a cooling rack for cookies

In the picture above, what the phone camera sees is being streamed directly to a web browser on the computer, giving you maximum flexibility with what you can do with it.  See the second to last section below.

Scan documents to PDF

Some Android phone apps that work well to scan documents to PDF are listed here.  The same apps should generally be available for iOS.  Best ones in my experience are listed first:  

1. CamScanner.  Should have a free option.  I do not suggest paying $50 a year for it, however.  Scan to Black and White, produce multiple-page PDFs.  Using “Magic Color” works the best of all apps I have tried.

2. Genius Scan.  Free, with ads.  Will scan one page after another without you having to hit any buttons.  Good image quality, but larger file size than CamScanner

3. Adobe Scan.  Fine, you need to register.

4. Microsoft Office Lens.  Does not produce Black and White images.

5. Google Drive.  OK, but often crops the image in strange ways that you need to fix.

My main criterion is how well they do at turning a page of text written in pencil into a black and white document, second criterion is file size, third is ease of use.  See a PDF with samples from each program.  If you know of another app that you think works better, I’ll be happy to hear about it!

Make a video of the written solution of a problem, or record a whole lecture with writing by hand

Use the phone camera to record a video of you writing the solution to a problem and talking students through it.  Or record a whole lecture that way.  Post to YouTube or your course management system.  When the phone is sitting on the platform shown above, you have your hands free to write. 

Pro tip:  Try to avoid having your hand block what you are writing.  Slide the stack of books to move the phone beyond the top of the paper, so that it is not directly over your hand, then write.  Then you are writing roughly in the middle of the visual field that your students are seeing.

Stream writing by hand directly into an online meeting

You can use your smart phone to join an online meeting and use the back-facing camera to show video of what you are writing in real time.

If you want to go back and forth between windows (like the statement of a homework problem or a graph or a spreadsheet) and live writing, you can have both the phone and the computer join the online meeting.  Share video from the phone, share your screen or just a window with the computer.  Change presenters to change what students see.  It works, but it’s a bit clumsy in my experience.  See the link for technical details on having two devices in the same online meeting.

Stream writing by hand to your computer so you can switch between different documents in a meeting, or so you can make a video that includes writing by hand

If you want to go back and forth between documents and live writing in an online meeting, it works best to have all the windows open and  available on a single computer.  See the link to use the phone to stream the video live to a window on your computer, using a home wifi router.  That is what is being shown in the first picture above. Then share your screen on the computer in the online meeting.  This gives you the most flexibility, because it’s easier to switch between screens than to switch the presenter.  It takes some work to set up, but then it is easy to use.  I’ve made a tutorial that explains how to do this, see this link to set up your smart phone to stream video.  The link takes you to a Word document hosted on Dropbox.  You do not need to install Dropbox.  I will update that document as I learn more and get feedback.

Streaming video of writing to your computer also makes it possible to record that screen in software like Camtasia when making a video.  You can switch between different windows that way and make your video in one take with less editing.

Make a video with Camtasia that features live writing

Use this link to see a video tutorial on how to use Camtasia (or other video capture software) to make a video that includes real time writing.  It also tells how to upload to YouTube and edit the closed captioning there.

Link to this document

Here is a short link to this document:  https://tinyurl.com/ZirbelTech 

Thank you to people who sent pictures of their setup!  See below.

• Wire cooling rack