iPads as SmartBoards and Annotation Applications
Combining the ability to project an iPad/iPhone with annotative applications, allows
teachers and students to create a mobile SmartBoard. Notability and iAnnotate PDF
applications share similar annotative functionalities. Both Apps allow the user to import
and export PDF documents and photos to DropBox, as well as open or send PDF
documents by email. Voice files can be included to any annotation for a more personal
form of communication. They also include a number of additional features as described
in the App Store.
Notability can be purchased in the App Store for $4.99, and it has been on sale for $1.99
during January through March of 2013; iAnnotate PDF has been listed for $9.99. Since
Notability is much cheaper than iAnnotate PDF, my students and I have chosen to use
this application.
I have created guided notes for my classes over many years. Saved as PDF’s and stored
in Dropbox, I am able to import the guided notes and then create a new annotated note
through Notability. In class, vocabulary, definitions, and practice examples are explored
among students. Figures 1 and 2 shows screen captures of notes annotated in two of my
Mathematics for Teachers II sections during the Spring 2013 semester. Students used the
Geoboard application to create various trapezoids, took a screen capture, inserted their
picture into their guided notes, and annotated on top of their Geoboard picture (see figure
1). Later in class, students cut coffee filters and arranged them in a fashion to represent a
parallelogram to develop the area formula for any circle. Figure 2 shows photos of their
coffee filters taken with the iPad and inserted into their Notability notes. Annotations
directly on top of the pictures of the coffee filter allow students to label parts of the circle