Most teachers admit that online teaching is not as satisfying as teaching in classrooms, one of the prime reasons being that they cannot express themselves freely while explaining concepts. Writing and drawing on the board is an integral part of teaching and removing this live element from classes, in a way sucks the life out of teaching. The other being that the students esp. the teenagers are refusing to interact in online classes and prefer to remain mute.

The easiest method adopted by teachers in the attempt to align with the online teaching is to use Power Point presentations, but they can become monotonous after a while. And when it becomes cumbersome to make the ppts, teachers take a direct picture from the textbook and put it up for teaching. Again not effective. Having a live element is essential to make the classes engaging and effective esp. when there are diagrams, derivations and graphs are involved. Some teachers are trying to add the live element by the use of whiteboard; but here considerable amount of time gets wasted in trying to focus the camera onto the board and the writing is often not clear enough.

To solve this problem, the teachers who are willing to spend some money to make their classes more effective have invested in digital writing pads and I too joined the bandwagon. I used it for my online classes and they are amazing !!

I bought the VEIKK A15 Pro Drawing Tablet (10×6 Inch) with battery-free stylus. It came with additional nibs and a glove to enable frictionless writing. I connected it to my MacBook Air and also downloaded the Sketchbook app. It’s fantastic 😘

I was so excited about using it; it was a new learning for me and the fact that you can write your thoughts and draw while explaining stuff makes teaching incredibly fun !!

It takes a bit of practice to become comfortable in writing with the stylus. But it’s additive and those who have a creative vein, the diagrams and drawings you can make, the colours and pen tips you can choose make it an absolute delight.

We have a touch screen iPad at home and my first thought was to get an Apple pencil for the writing. But our iPad is not compatible with the Apple pencil and getting a new iPad + Pencil was an expensive proposition; while this writing pad is a relatively cheaper and effective option.

Teaching is fun and satisfying but you need the tools to keep up with the changing times!

Till next post, take care !!