
Teacher's low-tech laptop hack to display handwritten notes for online class - miles
https://mothership.sg/2020/09/cd-zoom-hack-camera-teacher/
======
dchuk
My wife is a kindergarten teacher, and has been back at (virtual) teaching now
for 2 weeks. Whatever your political persuasion, it’s pretty mind blowing how
little the districts prepared for and invested in a virtual year. It’s not
exactly like this snuck up on them, we’ve been locked down for 6 months now.
You’d think they’d have decided on common software platforms, provided some
training for the teachers, something.

Luckily, my wife is fairly tech savvy so is hanging in there, but even just
general things like how to have an effective virtual planning meeting is just
not something she’s really ever had to do. So I’ve been trying to help her and
her coworkers, like recording a half hour video where I just explained all the
different capabilities of Zoom, and another where I explained Trello and
Google slides.

Just sad how the school administration’s plan boiled down to burying their
head in the sand and hoping it would all go away. Really bolsters the
narrative that they just don’t care about the teachers.

~~~
kbenson
> it’s pretty mind blowing how little the districts prepared for and invested
> in a virtual year.

I think you're underestimating the effect of poor direction from their
districts, and in turn poor direction to the districts from the state and
federal government on this.

Up until a month or so before the start of the school semester, we were still
receiving communications about "if we start with in-classroom learning". These
schools have set budgets, and large expenditures are planned and paid for over
years, and to be faced with a hard fork in the road choice over a summer about
whether to put all your eggs into distance learning (when many politicians
were vowing students would be in classrooms) or to try for a hybrid approach,
or to assume the politicians know what they're talking about and kids will all
be in class come late August/early September, it's not hard to see how this
situation could turn out as bad as it had.

Extreme circumstances require solid leadership. All it would have taken would
have been the President (or even someone high in the Department of Education
with the President's blessing, so it wasn't contradicted a day later) to say
"we're hoping students will be able to return to class come the start of
school, but we're allocating funds and directing districts to prepare for the
eventuality that it may not happen, either overall or in their locality." and
that clear signal that schools needed to prepare for this and would be
supported in doing so would have made all the difference.

This whole year has been a comedy of errors. Like so many of those, what
you're really seeing is just a tragedy.

~~~
cik
I can't agree here. Boards could have prepared (not spent) by splitting into
preparation teams for all three eventualities, producing a plan for each
scenario. In each case they could have gathered freely available resources
(Youtube videos, websites!) for the associated and chosen technology set. They
could have gathered and organized these items into something as free, and as
simple as a Microsoft Word document - something they already have. This
information could be passed upstream until such time that a decision was made.
For those boards that had summer education hours, the time could have been
allocated to familiarization with the learning materials and technologies.

I can heartily attest that even boards that were 100% planning on remote
learning in April (I'm looking at you TDSB, YRDSB, TCSB in Toronto area) did
literally none of this. How do I know - teachers all over the family, and my
own efforts to literally help a private school board do this. I'd also note
the private board spent zero dollars until the day before the first day of
school.

It costs money to purchase things. It costs time to train people. But when you
literally have the board "working" during the summer, and not on a curriculum,
this is really just an indictment of an inability to organize.

~~~
vorpalhex
Humans could have come together and agreed we would move entirely to clean
sources of power and be 80% of the way there.

That clearly hasn't happened either.

Surely you've been in a meeting room with more than about 5 people? All of
those people have conflicting viewpoints, theories about the situation, risk
analysis and so on.

Can you imagine being a board member who spent 30% of a school budget on
remote learning only to have in-class instruction all year?

Hindsight is 20/20\. School budgets are generally tight, their IT teams have
less-than-desired-bandwidth, and they've already had to handle costs and
challenges with the current situation such as getting mobile hotspots and
video conferencing solutions up. Remember that not all kids have laptops or
internet at home - and school IT gets to handle that situation too.

~~~
pessimizer
> Hindsight is 20/20.

Especially when predicting failure was inevitable after somebody has clearly
failed.

Citing a list of challenges (and renewable energy and imagination) is not a
proof that failure couldn't have been avoided, it's a version of the "it's all
so complicated, we can't say anything because we weren't there" trick. But the
fact is that plenty of people understood the challenges, which were not at all
new (what was new was the scale), and plenty of people were there (including
the person you replied to) and are telling you about the failures that they
saw.

~~~
vorpalhex
I have a family member who is in a school IT department. They spent all summer
preparing for remote learning.

Then they spent the last two weeks bulk flashing student laptops and ripping
apart streaming servers to restore normal in-person learning because the
governor put in a new order.

Anyone can predict that a failure will occur, predicting the specific mode of
failure is almost impossible.

------
seraphsf
My kids use an educational app series called Osmo, which comes with a
reflector like this for iPad (1). Field of view and distortion may be an
issue, but I bet a vendor could easily make something similar designed for
this use case.

It also looks like there are $6 clip-on mirrors (2) that would also do an
admirable job, perhaps with more stability and control than the pencil-
balancing trick.

(1) Osmo - Base for iPad
[https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07JNZ4J67/](https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07JNZ4J67/)

(2) Flexible 4" Clip On Mirror for Computer Monitor - Convex Desk Mirror to
See People Behind You - Perfect in Any Office Cubicle Environment
[https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B078NB3JV2/](https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B078NB3JV2/)

~~~
Cactus2018
Official app support for teachers:

[https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1502489790](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1502489790)

[https://www.playosmo.com/blog/introducing-osmo-
projector/](https://www.playosmo.com/blog/introducing-osmo-projector/)

[https://twitter.com/PlayOsmo/status/1241152565083090947](https://twitter.com/PlayOsmo/status/1241152565083090947)

------
Pfhreak
Clever. But also tragic. The poor teachers who have been caught in the middle
of all this really make me feel sad.

Teaching is already a rough gig, and being forced to improvise with limited to
no support from communities, schools, or governments.

~~~
notatoad
Being forced to improvise with limited support is a fairly normal situation
for teachers tbh.

~~~
thomasfortes
I had to buy pens for white boards even though I was volunteering to help
students prepare to university exams as a math/physics teacher, I wasn't
getting a single penny and I had to pay for minimal resources because they
were only available for free for the hired teachers.

I have nothing but a giant respect for teachers that are usually underpaid for
the giant importance that they carry on their shoulders, a good teacher can
help completely change the life of their students.

~~~
Symbiote
I know of teachers buying all sorts of stuff for school, or for specific
children.

Cheap sports shoes so the poor kid isn't left out after he lost his shoes but
can't afford new ones, pens etc for children who lose them and don't have
friends who will lend them one, tampons or sanitary towels for girls whose
parents refuse to accept she's growing up.

Example article on this:
[https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/nearly-1-in-10-school...](https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/nearly-1-in-10-school-
staff-are-bringing-in-food-tampons-and-pens-for-children-in-
need_uk_5bb499cce4b028e1fe393bd4?guccounter=1)

------
saeranv
She's getting a surprisingly high-quality reflection from that CD. I would
have thought a CD wouldn't have had enough specularity, or created too much
distortion to achieve that kind of quality.

The only downside appears to be that you have to angle the CD, in order to
reflect the keyboard plane into the webcam, which means the captured image can
only be viewed at an angle.

It'd be nice to have some live, post-processing to fix some issues like this.
You could apply a perspective transformation to rotate the image to a head-on
view, and maybe increase the contrast between black and white.

~~~
CydeWeys
It does make you wonder why not just use a small mirror. It might be a little
bit harder to suspend in place correctly depending on weight but it'll do the
job perfectly.

~~~
Balgair
The trick is that the CD/DVD acts as a _first surface_ mirror.

I just tried it with a bit of regular mirror (second surface) taped to bits of
an old lamp. It does not work well, as there are internal reflections and
glare from the glass fronting. You get slight double images too.

First surface mirrors can be made by taking apart kaleidoscopes and using the
mirrors in them. That or dissolving the protective backing to regular mirrors
with acetone. You can buy them outright as well, but they tend to be more
expensive (~$20 each).

A CD/DVD is much easier than the other options and I'd say that the hack is
even easier than a regular mirror.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_surface_mirror](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_surface_mirror)

~~~
CydeWeys
I just tried it with a freebie compact from a makeup store and a single piece
of tape (definitely simpler than these tape/pencil/coin shenanigans), and it
worked better than I've been able to get any CD to work while taking literally
less than a minute to set up properly. Proof:
[https://i.imgur.com/OF29Ci3.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/OF29Ci3.jpg)

I'm really struggling to see how the pencil/CD/coin solution is better. I
wouldn't be surprised if more teachers have compacts readily available than
CDs. I think the whole CD thing is going viral because it falls into the
"clever lifehack" bucket, i.e. it is optimized for hackiness virality while
not actually being the best/simplest solution to the problem. But a simple
compact taped to a laptop screen isn't as interesting of a "hack", and thus
doesn't go viral.

(Also -- conveniently -- the layer of glass/plastic on compacts is super thin,
basically just barely enough to prevent the aluminum or whatever from
oxidizing and from you getting the mirrored surface all fingerprinty, so it
doesn't seem to cause noticeable internal reflection problems. And it's
thinner than the layer of plastic on CDs, which are NOT first surface mirrors,
which is easily provable by scratching the bottom of the CD and noting that
you're scratching the plastic and not the reflective material directly.)

~~~
flycaliguy
It’s better because it’s a surprisingly universally applicable solution.

~~~
CydeWeys
Actually, I think my solution is more universally workable. You're
overestimating how many teachers will have suitably reflective CDs on hand and
underestimating how many will have small mirrors on hand.

------
killjoywashere
Reminds of the "hot pocket" Dr. Gillingham's surgical team developed in Iraq
for keeping air-evac'd patients warm: wrap patient in blanket, put blanket-
burrito-patient in a body bag with a hole cut out for their face. Battlefield
hypothermia cases went to 0 overnight.

[https://www.wemjournal.org/article/S1080-6032(17)30097-2/pdf](https://www.wemjournal.org/article/S1080-6032\(17\)30097-2/pdf)

------
superhuzza
I really like how her hack doesn't involve using another video feed, which
makes it a lot more accessible to anyone with a laptop.

One improvement I can see - maybe better to tape the pencil with the eraser
point up, so you're less likely to accidentally stab yourself with the pencil
if moving the laptop or CD?

~~~
rriepe
We could drastically cut costs with a nickel instead of a quarter.

~~~
tzs
2 pennies would be cheaper. Here are US coin weights, in grams:

    
    
      5.670 quarter
      2.268 dime
      5.000 nickel
      2.500 penny

------
kettleweek
This is similar to the solution I found for showing hands and face in a piano
lesson. I spent a long time trying to get two cameras working. First by
composing the video streams with ffmpeg or gstreamer and then by screen
sharing a application which showed a second video. But in all cases the
synchronisation was really bad.

Then I realised a mirror composes two images really well :)

Later I used transparent perspex with lighting (peppers ghost) as the mirror
so the laptop screen on the piano is visible.

It is described here:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4Qp8iHre9o&t=1s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4Qp8iHre9o&t=1s)

~~~
steverb
This is super useful. I have a daughter who is a piano performance major and I
spent ages getting a working two camera set up for her. I wish I had seen this
then (or better thought of it myself).

I expect her university will end up going fully remote again next semester, so
we will no doubt be putting this to use.

------
Symbiote
Another option is to use a mobile phone and whatever can work as a "tripod". I
used a large clothes peg and the lamp over my dining table.

There are apps that will stream the image from the phone to the computer, and
in Zoom it can be added as a second video feed. That means the class can see
the teacher's face as well as the paper.

I tried a few apps, but I don't remember which worked, or their names, except
for
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dev47apps....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dev47apps.droidcam&hl=en)

~~~
dddddaviddddd
I use this app over a USB connection. The phone (Pixel 3a) used to overheat
but I picked up a USB fan which keeps it cool. Only downside is no virtual
webcam driver on FreeBSD, so I boot to Windows for video chats.

~~~
Cthulhu_
How is a video streaming app making your phone overheat? Doesn't that phone
have specialized hardware for video processing?

~~~
dddddaviddddd
It would be interesting to compare against just taking a very long video.
Charging over USB (used for the connection) is probably a factor.

------
Karupan
_This_ is what real judaad [1] looks like! It blows my mind when people come
up with such ingenious solutions, only partly because I’ve never been able to.

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24459888](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24459888)

------
nym3r0s
While it is mind blowing how less we've invested in modernizing education, the
biggest barrier I've seen in recent times is - educating the educators.

For reference, I helped set up my high school with a <insert-suite-for-
education> for free and they were very happy as there were folks charging them
to get it set up. But next biggest problem I saw was - teachers who have been
using a blackboard all their life trying to do their best to teach with a
powerpoint presentation.

Problem is exacerbated when you throw in more variables like - flaky internet
connection, inconsistencies in UI all across, hardware failures, zoombombing
and a certain lack of features. Now do this in India - where the
student:teacher ratio is absolutely crazy.

Really goes to show how we should get the fundamentals right.

~~~
HumblyTossed
> Really goes to show how we should get the fundamentals right.

We did for a long time then everyone said that computers had to be used.

------
bentpins
Maybe I'm missing something but how is the image so clear? CDs don't have a
mirror like surface, they reflect light in unusual ways

~~~
simias
The rather shallow angle probably helps a lot. On top of that the camera
probably has some form of auto white balance which will counteract the tint
the CD will give to the image.

Here's a quick proof of concept using a random CD and my phone's camera:
[https://svkt.org/~simias/up/20200914-000627_psx-cd-
reflectio...](https://svkt.org/~simias/up/20200914-000627_psx-cd-
reflection.jpeg)

Note that the color of the reflection is not much different from a normal
picture (visible at the bottom). For added difficulty I used an original
PlayStation disc, that's dyed black:
[https://svkt.org/~simias/up/20200914-000836_psx-
cd.jpeg](https://svkt.org/~simias/up/20200914-000836_psx-cd.jpeg)

~~~
jeffbee
It's very HN that we've been trolled into debating the irrefutable, widely-
known, totally obvious fact that a CD reflects light.

~~~
bentpins
Didn't mean to come across as a troll, this is how I remember CDs, with
rainbow diffraction.
[https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=cd](https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=cd)

~~~
simias
I think at such shallow angles it's the plastic surface that becomes
reflective, not the metal layer with the pits and grooves. Hence the lack of
diffraction (and hence why it works with my black PSX disc).

~~~
kevin_thibedeau
She's using a CD-RW with blue/purple dye. The reflection is definitely coming
off the surface.

------
gibolt
Amazing how creative people can be when faced with little resources and an
important problem. This is one of the few pieces of content that is truly able
to wow me.

Now it needs to go viral for all the other teachers. Maybe a site will emerge
from this where teachers can share best practices, and everyone can benefit
from some of the creations.

------
logane
You can use the same trick to make a touch screen for any laptop with a
webcam!
[https://github.com/bijection/sistine](https://github.com/bijection/sistine)

The mirror system isn't quite as macgyvered though :)

------
ChrisMarshallNY
I like the hack. Kudos to that teacher.

Reminds me of the “space pen” urban myth.

[https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-
fiction-n...](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-nasa-
spen/)

------
f2000
My wife is a 2d grade teacher. She brought home her lumens ladybug that she
used with her Promethean board in the classroom. However, the lag was
terrible, her 2012 macbook pro just couldn't handle it. Our solution was to
re-purpose an old ipad along with reflector teacher
[https://www.airsquirrels.com/reflector/teacher](https://www.airsquirrels.com/reflector/teacher)
($17.99). Yeah, just in case you're curious - my wife teaches for a SF Bay
Area school district where I suppose they can afford lots of stuff except a
refresh of eight year old laptops.

~~~
Cthulhu_
They could literally go to Apple's doorstep and ask for sponsorship; I'm sure
Apple can use it in one of their saccharine marketing videos.

------
ivan_ah
Another option (although requires more tech) is to use the camera from a
mobile phone connected to the computer via USB. Requires app + USB cable +
"drivers" installed on the host computer.

My teacher friend recommended DroidCamX (paid) but the drivers are windows
only so I wasn't able to use that.

I instead tested with Iriun [https://iriun.com/](https://iriun.com/) and it
worked OK with my newer phone (the older phone I wanted to use had trouble
with autofocus... though maybe that's because of the way I have it suspended
from a desk lamp).

It lags a little, but overall usable.

~~~
tootie
Can't you also just join the Zoom/Meet/Whatev from your phone?

~~~
ivan_ah
Yes for a live call that would probably be the easiest.

The USB camera use case is to send "table top" video input into OBS, mix with
other sources, and record the lesson for offline async viewing (flipped
classroom).

------
supernova87a
I wonder if a DVD versus a CD produces better or worse diffraction/distracting
artifacts in the image? or maybe it doesn't even matter given the resolution
of the camera.

------
joezydeco
My kid has an Osmo kit that did the same trick with a little mirrors that fit
an iPad perfectly:

[https://www.playosmo.com](https://www.playosmo.com)

~~~
Cactus2018
Official app for students\teachers
[https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1502489790](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1502489790)

------
monksy
Theres got to be tons of sellers/makers in shenzhen that are either laughing
or dismayed over the lack of tooling for our teachers in response to this.

------
jasoneckert
What I find the most striking about this hack is that by doing it, the teacher
is indirectly modeling clever problem solving techniques to the class.

------
phreack
I applaud the inventive of being able to solve a problem with the tools and
knowledge at hand but I must say it hit me like a blow to see that one key
component to a low tech hack was a MacBook, one of the most expensive laptops
out there.

My teachers all have laptops with cameras that don't reach even half of that
kind of crispness of image sadly.

------
mrfusion
Wouldn’t the text be a mirror image (backwards)

~~~
virtuous_signal
I had the same question (and tried it with my webcam app and a handheld mirror
just to make sure I wasn't crazy) but I see another commenter has mentioned
Zoom's feature.

------
Tade0
My friend is a teacher and uses an application that turns his phone into a
webcam.

He puts the device on a shelf with the camera facing down.

------
josefrichter
Fascinating how the article has “how it works” explanation, despite showing
the picture right above that.

~~~
mxuribe
For a nation that so unwisely overspends on other foolish things, and not
enough nor intelligently on education, thus leaving school districts lacking
in the basics - which require teachers to hack their way through
classes...yes, i can imagine the author(s) might assume that such an audience
might need extra help in understanding.

Disclaimer: I'm an American and while i'm often proud of my country, i
acknowledge how awful our collective priorities have become with education in
general suffering from it...and at the risk of sounding political
(apologies)...Neither of the 2 major political parties seems to have the
answer. <sigh>

~~~
armagon
I realize politics is frowned on here, and there is much I'd like to say yet
won't, but do take a look at
[https://articlesofunity.org/](https://articlesofunity.org/).

~~~
mxuribe
Interesting, I've never heard of this; thanks for sharing!

------
baby
That’s why I think the iPad pro has so much potential to replace laptops for a
lot of people.

~~~
Cthulhu_
If only they were affordable. You can get a good enough laptop for $300, an
ipad pro is thrice that, more if you need the keyboard / stand to go with it.

~~~
jwr
The basic iPad is $329. It is a modern fast computer that has everything
built-in. The only things you need to add is a keyboard and/or a stand/case.

Apple hardware is no longer expensive these days — I mean, they will let you
spend as much as you want and take your money, but their lineup starts quite
low and provides excellent value for the money.

~~~
srtjstjsj
Basic ipad hits it limits pretty quickly in multitasking use cases and the
screen real estate is half that of a laptop.

~~~
baby
are we still comparing that to a 300$ laptop?

------
dpedu
This is such a simple hack. It's basically equivalent to the classroom
transparency overhead projectors of the past. You could 3d print a similar
device with a USB webcam and a proper mirror for pennies. Is there a market
for this?

~~~
bryanrasmussen
Yes, there is a market for things that do this - it's the projector market, so
if people don't have the money to enter the projector market they use hacks
like this one - examples

[https://hackaday.com/2014/03/13/make-an-hd-projector-for-
nex...](https://hackaday.com/2014/03/13/make-an-hd-projector-for-next-to-
nothing/) [https://www.instructables.com/id/Convert-a-40-years-old-
DIA-...](https://www.instructables.com/id/Convert-a-40-years-old-DIA-slide-
projector-to-a-De/)

first couple of hits for me when googling "convert old olverhead projector"

So market wise maybe there is a hacky way that allows you to get a cheap
reasonably efficient projector thaat would make these hacks irrelevant,
without naturally pushing to solve the problems of the projector market and
thus pushing the product to have a projector type price. I certainly wish I
could think up something that fell in that niche.

------
futhey
There is a "Phone Periscope" I use, that you can buy on Amazon / eBay for a
few dollars, that might be useful if you need something like this:
[https://www.amazon.com/s?k=phone+periscope](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=phone+periscope)

Some have a little magnet so it can be detached and re-attached quickly.

We use it to make a phone-based people counter. Recently found out that in
China they're marketed as phone attachments to take pervy, upskirt photos of
girls without getting caught.

------
dade_
Cool, but they could have just spent less money on a Windows laptop with a
stylus and touch screen. I use my stylus extensively at work, but many
employers still have their users on machines without them. Such a shame.

I don’t understand why Apple keeps holding back the Mac platform, but I
finally had to give up. I love my iPad for what it is great at, but gave up on
Mac eight years ago. This reminds me of the black and white Mac Classics with
tiny screens in school, when everyone had colour PCs that cost less.

------
blackrock
Clever. Now someone from China needs to make a plastic mirror reflection mount
device to put on top of your laptop camera.

~~~
miles
[https://www.ipevo.com/products/mirror-
cam](https://www.ipevo.com/products/mirror-cam)

~~~
srtjstjsj
Need a periscope version so it doesn't awkward cram onto the keyboard.

------
PretzelFisch
In our district some teachers were trying to do this until my wife reminded
them they can run webex on their cell phone... Sad the district spent a lot of
time and money on owl webcams to follow the presenter but nothing to cover the
basic class room ops.

------
einpoklum
This is quite impressive, but - to nitpick a bit - doesn't this setup get
messed up by the keyboard being pressed due to pressure on the writing pad,
and the focus going to some other window, or menu, or something?

------
monksy
I was pointed to this by Naomi Wu:

This maybe something that local hacker spaces could pump out:

[https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4588215](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4588215)

------
fma
I happened to have a HD Webcam from years ago. I plugged that into my wife's
laptop, use the default windows Webcam software...And then share screen.

I rigged up a stand so she can slide papers in and out.

------
peterwwillis
_This_ is what I think of when I think "innovation": a different perspective.
Not lost in the weeds of details, but a thousand miles above them.

------
amai
Better wait until Apple Mirror is available which does the same, but in a
beautiful aluminium finish and just costs $99.

------
golergka
Wouldn't writing on that transfer the pressure through the notebook to the
keyboard? How would you avoid random key presses?

~~~
miles
Hardware solution: plastic tray over the keys.

Software solution: Keyboard Cleaner
[http://jan.prima.de/~jan/plok/archives/48-Keyboard-
Cleaner.h...](http://jan.prima.de/~jan/plok/archives/48-Keyboard-Cleaner.html)

~~~
jvm_
Hardware solution: $1 plastic cutting board

------
ajuc
You can also connect your phone to your laptop through usb or wifi and use it
as a camera positioning it however you like.

------
psankar
[https://twitter.com/yadav_monica/status/1292047281676382210](https://twitter.com/yadav_monica/status/1292047281676382210)
is another instance where a teacher from India used a smartphone and a
refrigerator tray for sharing hand-written notes. I believe that this would
give more clarity than the surface area of the CD.

------
analog31
It solves two problems at once: Letting the document lay flat, and mirror-
imaging the camera.

------
bjarneh
> A pencil (a pen should also work fine)

That's a detailed explanation :-)

------
jetru
Literally gonna do this for "System Design" interviews

~~~
ComodoHacker
Now with it on HN front page you have to think up something different.

------
bronzecarnage
This is classic jugaad. Well done, and to great effect!

------
pkphilip
That's an absolutely brilliant hack! wow!

------
mirekrusin
Who said people don't use CD-ROMs?

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eddhead
She should have just got a Surface device, or a million other laptop SKUs with
pen support that are cheaper than the MacBook she's using.

~~~
dddbbb
That model Macbook is 4-8 years old. This is a pretty useless and
condescending comment.

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nicexe
Sure, this works, but a cheap USB webcam would have been a far better solution
than writing on top of your keyboard

~~~
ivvve
What makes it a better solution? Albeit a bit "life hack"-y, this is something
that requires no technical skill or support, and is easily assembled from
household items, so very little outlay.

I don't think I'd concede that webcams are a better solution, when thinking as
an underfunded body such as a school district who may have to provide support
for potentially thousands of these webcams to work for all their teachers.

Furthermore, I don't think this is something that we should hold the
individual teacher responsible for: teaching is already a full time job, and
workers should not have to buy their own equipment to do their job with,
something that already happens too much in that field.

I did also think the writing on the keyboard might prove problematic, but also
the teacher could theoretically remove the notepad and place it back if they
wished. It's a relatively "open" technique.

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nix23
Presented by Disney and Apple ;)

But from where do they have those round mirrors i ask? What is it?

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brazzy
I wonder how long it will take Apple to offer this as a product for $99 and
come up with a clever way to make the makeshift version to stop working.

Not a common enough use case for them to bother, I guess. But if it were we
all know they totally would.

~~~
ComodoHacker
Not Apple, but for accessory (esp. webcam) vendors virtual classes surge is
definitely an opportunity.

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bashwizard
Jesus christ. Just get a cheap wacom tablet.

~~~
chris-orgmenta
This would come across as extremely tone deaf from teachers that are on low
salaries, paying out of pocket already for student tools and consumables.

There are quite a few posts in this thread where 'check your privilege'
applies.

