Fields of Study

Originally Posted by EGC7

I'm a history professor; I teach mostly undergrad courses. Some of my motivation in purchaing the EE was the ability go 'paperless.' I wanted students to submit pdfs instead of physical copies. My plan was to read and grade them on the e-reader side.

Technically, it's possible. It works. But it is far from elegant. Landscape mode would help immensely. Writing comments on the 'regular sized' format of a pdf means that commetns end up HUGE relative to the typed text. The obvious solution is to zoom in before writing comments. Thus, my chicken scratch is smaller relative to the text. But once I save that file, all of the margins are gone; the paper that the student gets back looks as of they typed right to the edge of the page.

Also if I FAIL to zoom in before writing my first comments, I'm stuck.. Once the first comment has been entered, you can't resize. (Well, you can, but if you switch back into commenting mode, the e-reader automatically goes back to whatever size you began in...)

As I said, it all technically works, it's just not smooth.

For the time being, I'm back with the laptop, typing comments into Acrobat Pro. I still WANT to be able to use my EE, but I'm not optimistic that it will ever live up to my expectations.

From what I understand (from Tech support) these issues will be fixed relatively soon. Please don't give up on the EE yet... I certainly haven't!

Originally Posted by cheyennedonna

I am majoring in education, this is my last semester in a community collage - I get my AA next month. I use the journal for notes and also do class assignments and math homework on it; then I email the saved PDF to the teacher. This semester I am taking a 2D design class so I also use it for my initial design sketches as I work out the project design.

That's so cool! What great uses!

I teach calculus as a grad student for a class of about 75 students. I don't force them to turn in PDFs, but rather scan their homeworks using a top-feed scanner in our dept office. As long as they don't turn in crumpled up or torn papers it's actually a pretty fast process, about 15 minutes (and if they turn in unscannable papers I dock points off their grade). But reality is, turning back their papers every class, rather than just sending them back electronically on Bboard, would waste roughly the same amount of time. Also, it allows them to get their papers back the same night they're turned in, so they can ask questions at the next class, and prevents anyone from cheating by adding work to the paper after it's handed in.

The key with annotation is (obviously) to write neatly and small. I did have to invest in a longer stylus to write legibly, which irked me, but you get used to it.

As far as applications I'd like to see, I could definitely use 3-d plotting apps (recently found good 2-d apps, but 3-d is needed) and for them to fix the myriad problems with the Projector app so I can plot on one screen and do math on the other. Unfortunately, the way our projector in my classroom is set up, as soon as you activate it you lose nearly all the board space because the screen comes down automatically, so I've resorted to switching between Maple and LyX on my laptop to do plots vs. typing in math, which is not really an acceptable solution.

Originally Posted by Chubulor

I could definitely use 3-d plotting apps

I searched and found the free "3D Plotter" (http://mobile.butterscotch.com/previ...198/3D-Plotter) which might be what you're looking for, although I couldn't find any APK outside the Google Market. You'd need an Android phone, therefore, to get the APK and transfer it to your eDGe. The author's website appears to be http://3dplotter.speedymarks.com/ which doesn't mention Android, but shows the identical UI. You could always use the "Contact" link at the bottom and have the author email you the APK.

Thanks Chubulor.

Originally Posted by borisb

I searched and found the free "3D Plotter" (http://mobile.butterscotch.com/previ...198/3D-Plotter) which might be what you're looking for, although I couldn't find any APK outside the Google Market. You'd need an Android phone, therefore, to get the APK and transfer it to your eDGe. The author's website appears to be http://3dplotter.speedymarks.com/ which doesn't mention Android, but shows the identical UI. You could always use the "Contact" link at the bottom and have the author email you the APK.

Thanks, but those plots look terrible. No axes, probably can't rotate, no wireframes. Back to the strategy of writing one for myself, which I should have time for sometime before 2035.

I teach economics at the college level. I require my students to send me their papers digitally. I don't require pdf because I can convert the file if they don't. I use the annotate feature to mark up their papers just like a piece of paper and email it back to them when I'm done. For longer term projects, having that record of what you told them to do on their last draft is incredibly helpful.

I have also used the projector to write and draw during class and have the class notes available for students. There are some issues with the projector app but I know they are working on those issues.

Also, someone mentioned having issues with staying organized with the tags. I use my syllabus and attach all the related files. This is a much easier way to keep track of everything for one class, in addition to the tags.

Originally Posted by lisa031825

I teach economics at the college level. I require my students to send me their papers digitally. I don't require pdf because I can convert the file if they don't. I use the annotate feature to mark up their papers just like a piece of paper and email it back to them when I'm done. For longer term projects, having that record of what you told them to do on their last draft is incredibly helpful.

I have also used the projector to write and draw during class and have the class notes available for students. There are some issues with the projector app but I know they are working on those issues.

Also, someone mentioned having issues with staying organized with the tags. I use my syllabus and attach all the related files. This is a much easier way to keep track of everything for one class, in addition to the tags.

I had not thought of using it to grade papers. I only thought about using it to research and edit my own papers.

I'm using it to grade papers, also, and find it very easy to use!

Originally Posted by lisa031825

Also, someone mentioned having issues with staying organized with the tags. I use my syllabus and attach all the related files. This is a much easier way to keep track of everything for one class, in addition to the tags.

Great advice, I will try this, thanks!