First Use in Class

Here are my thoughts from the first time I tried teaching from the surface, using it in place of the document camera.  It plugged into the vga cable (with the supplied adaptor) without any issues, although the screen on the surface became letterboxed, which meant you lost a fair bit of the already small screen real estate (not as much space for writing).  I didn’t have time to experiment with different orientations or the hdmi adaptor (no hdmi support in the theatre I tried but I know some other theatres are different).

 Writing on the screen was quite a different tactile experience but I could write at my usual size and legibly.  Apparently some stylus brands offer interchangable hard and soft tips which may gave an experience closer to writing on paper.

 I didn’t have a chance to install any special software before class so just used the standard built-in pdf reader (a.k.a modern reader).  It appeared to support pdf annotation and worked really well during the lecture but turned out to have several fatal flaws (which fortunately only reared their head post lecture rather than in front of students!)

- if you shut off the display without saving your work you lose everything (i.e. if the device goes to sleep all the annotations disappear).

- if you save your work and then re-open the document it is rendered unreadable on modern reader (but is still fine on other pdf viewers such as acrobat

- the file sizes are very large

While the modern reader app is not suitable in its current form (they may resolve the bugs in the future, especially as the annotation issue is a known problem) there are a myriad of other pdf annotation products, so I feel hopeful that something appropriate exists.  The problem is not with the stylus, rather with the software.

 I installed and briefly tried bluebeam revu (a relatively expensive solution) to see what a top of the line product would look like.  It supported pressure sensitivity nicely but I have only had a few minutes to play with it so far.

Also it remains to be seen whether I can set it up using virtual terminal to allow roving.  I tried annotating while walking around in the corridor and was able to do so, so assuming a connection could be established to the e-lectern over wifi then it would be possible to move around the room while annotating (which is my aim).  When holding the surface in the hand you notice that it is much less pleasant to hold than an ipad.  It runs very hot and is quite heavy.  It is still  possible to carry it around though.

Memory

The 64GB version is nowhere near big enough if you plan on using the Surface as a laptop replacement (although it might be ok for use as a tablet).  Part of the reason 64GB is not enough, is that you lose more than 30 GB of that just on the OS.  You can gain back around 6-7GB by moving the restore partition to USB but even so, that doesn't leave you with much room.  I recommend going for the 128GB version of the Surface Pro, plus as much additional memory as possible in the form of an SDXC card.  I've got the largest possible SDXC card (currently 64GB), which gives you a total of around 164GB of usable space (although I'm not sure if the SDXC card will have speed issues and whether you can install applications to it - I'm planning on just using it for data).  If you need more storage space then grab a 1 or 2 TB external drive, such as the seagate passport or similar (usb 3, powered off the port and portable so you can easily take it with you).

 

I currently have all the apps installed that I use on a day to day basis (including Office and Matlab which both take up a bit of space).  I've still got over 50 GB free on the internal memory but 10GB of that will disappear when I bring the rest of my data over from my laptop.

 

 

I/O devices

Keyboards

 

The virtual keyboard is similar to the iPad’s.  The physical keyboard is surprisingly usable (I have the black keyboard model, which offers some key action, as opposed to the thinner touch only model).

 

Despite the small action, the black keyboard (which also functions as a protective case) is very close to full size keyboard, which means touch typing is much easier than on the virtual keyboard.  The only real issue was that using cursor keys is a pain, as they have squashed the up and down keys into the space of one key.  This means for fast data entry (such as exam mark processing) a full size external keyboard is better (and also more ergonomic).  On the plus side the trackpad that comes as part of the keyboard is of surprisingly good quality, which means you can get away without plugging in a mouse and still navigate easily.

I tested the Surface with my apple bluetooth keyboard, which tended to work well most of the time, although occasionally a keypress would result in multiple letters coming through.

 

I typically use an external keyboard via my Targus USB 3 docking station.  This works perfectly.

 Stylus

 

I was very impressed with the stylus, it worked well with no problems and allowed for writing at the same resolution I use on paper (plus the rubber mode on the other end was very handy).  It supports pressure sensitivity too (if the app does).  It was very nice how when the stylus was close to the screen it cut off the touch input so you could lean your hand against the screen.  Best stylus input I’ve ever seen and just what I was looking for on that front. I’m not sure how robust the included stylus would be over long term use.  If it dies I'll look for other compatible options, although I would want one with the eraser on the end.

The hand-writing recognition built into windows 8 was extremely good (no problems reading my writing whatsoever, although I don’t rely heavily on cursive letters).  You could easily use handwriting as a viable input mode with this device (and it was nice how you could configure the virtual keyboard to default to handwriting input mode, meaning hand-writing could be used to input text into any application whatsoever).

 

Touch Screen

Easy to use, although unlike the iPad not all applications are optimised for touch, which was a real pain when you didn’t have the keyboard docked.  Definitely worth using apps that are touch optimised when possible (e.g. IE was far easy to use than chrome, since it has been optimised for touch).  Interestingly when I used splashtop to set up my ipad as a second display, I could happily use touch on that as well to control the cursor position.  When using an external 24” monitor I found I was still using touch sometimes, particularly to navigate around through some of the windows 8 stuff (e.g. closing a charm app can be done quickly by swiping a finger from the top to the bottom of the screen), so you want to set up the surface so it can be easily accessed. 

 

Mouse

 

I hooked up a wired mouse with no problems.  For lecturing I just plug a usb mouse straight into the usb port and when in my office I run the mouse through the Targus docking station.   When travelling a bluetooth mouse could be a good option, so that you don’t tie up the one usb port.  Alternatively a small portable USB hub would allow you to plug in a mouse and a few other things. 

 

Display Thoughts

I am now in possession of a shiny new 128GB model of the Surface.  Here are my initial thoughts with regards to the display.  For reference purposes, the current devices I use include a Dell Precision M4400 (with matt screen) a first generation iPad and a macbook.  I am NOT a fan of shiny, reflective screens and much prefer a matt screen.

The Surface screen is not as easy on the eyes as the iPad, although it doesn’t have any noticeable flicker and the resolution is very good. It does not work well for outside use (glare is a problem as the screen is very reflective). , If you don't have reflective light sources it works very well indeed and due to the letter box format it is a pleasure to use for wide screen video (cue watching a feature length film in a darkened room).  I tested the video by watching Oblivion in SD.  I still need to try an HD video to see whether there is any noticeable difference when watching high def material on the tiny screen.  Although I really like the small, portable nature of the surface, I do find myself wishing for a slightly larger display, something the size of an A4 piece of paper would be about right for me.

VGA

VGA support is critical for me, as this is still the only option in many lecture theatres (although HDMI cables are becoming more common).

When hooking up the surface to a VGA cable you need to make sure you have the right adapter (mini-display port to VGA).  Microsoft sell a Surface Pro specific vga adapter, NOT to be confused with the adaptor for the surface RT.  The first time I went to hook up my Surface Pro in a lecturer theatre I discovered I had been supplied with the RT adapter, which isn't compatible (the RT uses a different display port).  There are third party adapters available, so you don't have to go with the Microsoft one (although it does look nice and reduces the chances of putting in the adapter the wrong way around).

The surface connected fine to my 24” dell external monitor using a third party vga adaptor and the MS specific one.  It also connected fine to a lecture theatre projector using both a third party and MS vga adaptor. 

DVI

In my office I work with two external monitors connected to my Surface, both via DVI.  One is connected directly to the mini-display port via a third party adapter (you can also get a MS specific one) and the other is connected via a DVI cable to the Targus USB 3 powered docking station (an essential accessory in my opinion - more on this in another post).  Connecting directly via the mini-display adapter seems to be pretty much fool proof.

Configuring the docking station took a little work (more on that later).  I've now done it twice, first for the evaluation model and then on my personal one. 

On the evaluation model things initially worked well but then I passed it on to someone else and when it came back, I ended up with a flickering problem when trying to connect via the docking station.  I think something screwy was going on with the drivers but I had to return the evaluation model before I could resolve the problem.  This flickering issue hasn't occurred on my personal Surface, so it remains a mystery as to what caused it and how it could be fixed.

Now that I have my personal Surface configured (with display drivers for the docking station installed) it seems to handle reconnecting to the display plugged into the adapter reasonably well, although sometimes I need to power the docking station on and off to pick up the display.

In theory it is possible to drive three external monitors (two via the docking station and one via the mini-display output port). Since I haven't got three monitors, I haven't tried this though.

I usually work with my laptop and an external monitor set up to extend (side by side).  This

mode is not so natural for the surface because of the screen size disparity.  Instead it works far better having the external monitors set up above the surface screen, allowing easy access to the touch screen.  Curently I have them configured in a triangle,with the two external monitor side by side and the surface in the middle below them.  This places the Surface close enough to use as an input device and I can drag between all three displays.

 

iPad as an external monitor

When I was out and about I found myself wishing I had some more screen real estate, so I used the splashtop app to set up my iPad as a second monitor and that worked great.  You'll need to install splashtop on your Surface and your iPad.  If you happen to have an iPad this gives you a portable option for extending your display (which if you have an iPad case that doubles as a stand looks very nifty.

Scaling Issues

One area where windows 8 is a little frustrating is in the scaling of icons and the like.   The Surface has a very high res screen but the dimensions are small, which can make icons and text hard to read (and even harder to navigate using your finger).  To get around this you can scale icons/text to be 125% or 150% of usual size, however the external monitors look better if using 100% scaling rather than 125% or 150%.  Unfortunately this presents a problem when using external monitors as the scaling is universally applied to all displays and to make matters worse to change the scaling you need to log out, so it is not convenient to toggle this setting.  Some apps (e.g. chrome) allow zooming of text.  A better fix may be to disable display scaling on high dpi based on a per app basis, as described here:

 

http://www.lboetech.com/2013/03/31/chrome-is-blurred-in-windows-8/

 

Aside: to do this right click on the google chrome icon, from properties select the compatibility tab check “disable display scaling on high DPI settings”  This seems to help a bit, although still not a brilliant solution. 

You can zoom in some apps although zooming in google chrome while editing docs does weird things to the cursor location (this is a known chrome issue).  If you don't zoom in, you have to have pretty good eye sight to use the default text size when sitting back from the screen.

I tend to use firefox and chrome for browsing but on the Surface IE is the way to go, as it does a much better job of supporting touch screen browsing.

Initial Evaluation

 

After playing with the 64GB version of the surface pro for a couple of days, I was very impressed with the possibilities it presented.  Here's a brief summary of my initial thoughts.

 

The surface pro appears to provide the necessary stylus resolution to be able to use it as a presentation tool in lectures, replacing the use of pen and paper on the document camera.

 
There is also every possibility that the surface pro could be used as a replacement laptop/workstation for people who are not “power users” (i.e. those who are not running software that requires a very fast CPU, large amounts of RAM, large hard drive or a fast graphics card).  Within those caveats it seems to be a capable machine with a relatively speedy processor that ran Windows 8 smoothly.

In order to maximise productivity and function as a workstation quite a few peripherals need to be factored into the purchasing equation (e.g. external monitor(s), keyboard/case, full size external keyboard, mouse, external portable hard drive, 64 GB SDXC card, docking station, display adaptors etc).  With these peripherals it would be a productive workstation that can also function as a tablet and an ultrabook, making it a very flexible machine indeed.  I can see myself using it in all three modes often.

Origins

I am a teaching fellow at the University of Auckland, where I teach large undergraduate classes within the faculty of Engineering.  I am always on the look out for tools which will allow deep learning and a strong level of engagement to occur within classes, even if there are over 500 students in the room.  Tablet technology is developing at a rapid rate and I believe there is the possibility to use tablets devices as an extremely effective teaching tool. 

 

I am particularly interested in using tablets to replace the use of the document camera, which is my current lecturing tool of choice.  My students have a strong preference for seeing problems worked by hand, which the document camera allows, but this comes at the cost of being tied to the lectern (and presents other workflow issues as well; during the lecture I need to remember to keep the paper in frame, in focus and oriented correctly while post lecture I have to scan all my notes to pdf before uploading them). 

 

I would like to promote more engagement within lectures by being able to move around the theatre, while working through problems by hand.   A wireless tablet equipped with the right infrastructure could allow this to be done.  I want a tool that will allow roaming and support high resolution writing (with the hope that it could also run the Engineering software packages we use in teaching).  I've had some success using Doceri on the iPad but writing on the iPad (even with a stylus) is a bit like lecturing using a crayon.  There is also no way of running packages like Matlab.

 

I am now trialing a Microsoft Surface Pro  and the initial results look very promising, although further work is required to find the right mix of hardware and software.  This blog will outline my experiences with the surface as I investigate ways of using it to teach and promote deep learning.