Tech Set up for In-person MAT 213 and 217

Description

Course: MAT 213 and MAT 217
Modality:  In Person, Live Online, Asynchronous Online

Equipment

• Surface Pro Tablet (or anything else you want to use)
• Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter – USB/HDMI Display Adapter. This lets you display your Surface Pro Tablet (or other laptops) on the Projectors in the room, simply by plugging into the HDMI cable.
• BENFEI HDMI Coupler, HDMI Female to Female Adapter for Extending HDMI Devices. This lets you plug the Display Adaptor into the room’s computer station.

Rather than writing my math on whiteboards around the room, I set up a wireless display of my Surface Pro Tablet in the classroom, so that I can walk around the room with my tablet, and everything I write on my tablet will be displayed on the projector screens. I am simultaneously streaming my tablet screen via Google Meet. Also, I am using the screencasting software www.Loom.com to record everything I write and say for later viewing.

Programs

Teacher membership with www.Loom.com. This is a free screencasting software that lets you record your screen and voice.

Reflection

What worked?

I absolutely love this setup for so many reasons. First, it frees me from writing on a whiteboard.  Erasing boards is exhausting, and then all the writing is gone. When I write on a tablet, the writing is still there, and I can scroll back to it. Second, I don’t have to stand at the front of the room; I can walk around the room and hover behind any students I want, giving them the proper encouragement to put down their distractions and keep writing notes.

What can be improved?

The only downside is that if you’re doing the live stream through Google Meet for students at home, you need a second computer for them to see you unless you’re okay with awkward up-the-nose camera angles of your face while you’re holding the tablet and writing on it. Notice that you don’t need a “Hyflex” classroom with a camera for the whole whiteboard, because you’re no longer writing on whiteboards. You don’t have the cost of markers or the elbow grease of constantly erasing your boards.

Contributor

For more information, contact JW Gaberdiel (Gateway Community College) j.w.justin.gaberdiel@gatewaycc.edu