Posted on 20 August 2011 at 13:23h

Sometimes we have students in our classes who struggle to see the writing on the board. I thought it might be an idea to share my desktop with them via skype so that they'd get a copy of the notes on their laptop which they could zoom in on. This solution is not very good. The students can't scroll the notes and also can't click any hyperlinks. Here is a solution that I devised this morning.

• Set your notebook file so that it auto exports on changing page (an option under timesaved in the file menu). Set to export your notes as pdf to a web server such as your schools intranet.
• The student views this file using a web browser such as firefox. In this way the file can be viewed without locking it. That means that you can keep exporting the file while it is being viewed.
• As you work on the board use the next page arrows to quickly export your notes whenever you make a change(you have to go to next page and then back again but it only takes a second).
• The student then refreshes the page to view changes. By downloading an add on firefox can actually be set to refresh automatically.

Having played with this method I have discovered one problem. When the student refreshes the screen they go back to page 1. I haven't found a solution in firefox yet but there is an alternative. Instead of exporting the notes to a web server they can be exported to a shared folder such as a folder on the schools network. The student then uses a PDF reader such as SUMATRA to open the file. This open the file but doesn't lock it so every time you export it refreshes. This solution is also a bit quicker as it doesn't rely on the internet.

I have also discovered that for some students white writing on a black background is easier to see. This isn't a problem with windows 7 where the screen magnifier gives the option to display negative.