Back when I went to school...

In prepping for class I was just reflecting on what it was like when I went to college and how things have changed since then. In particular, I was thinking about the prof's presentation and subsequent availability of the notes. So, back when I went to school, the profs used an overhead projector during lecture. Remember those? Some of them were equipped with a roll of translucent film that the prof would scroll over the projector. Whatever they wrote (using non-permanent markers) was of course projected for us to copy down. For some classes the A/V department (SFU had a good one) collected these rolls and photocopied them, making the prof's scribbles available to students. Which was particularly handy when one would regretably, ahem, miss class. You know, due to illness or for some other compelling reason.

Fast forward 20+ years. We basically have now come full circle and offer the same convenience, except that now it is (finally!) fully electronic. Instead of an overhead projector, we now use digital projectors, like you'd use for projecting PowerPoint presentations, movies, etc. To this I plug in my laptop. Instead of writing on translucent film, I write on the laptop screen (it's a tablet PC). Using Microsoft's OneNote, whatever I write shows up on the projection screen. Instead of non-permanent markers, I can change the color/style of the virtual pen. Having just upgraded my Windows Office applications to the 2007 version, I noticed that it is now possible to export the notes to PDF format. So now acting as my own A/V office/scribe, I just save my notes and post them on my class web page.