Without a doubt, one of my least favorite things to do when teaching with technology is try to
draw with a mouse or a trackpad. My handwriting already looks like chicken scratch, try to write
with a mouse, and it's barely legible. I might be able to squeeze out one or two math problems,
but try to write anything of substantial length, forget it. The solution? One of my favorite pieces
of hardware, a pen tablet. Of course, there are many pen tablets on the market today,
and in this video, I'll be reviewing one of the most affordable ones, the One by Wacom.
Hey everybody I'm Sam Kary with New EdTech Classroom, and on this channel, we show you
everything you need to know about teaching with technology. Full disclosure, Wacom did
send me this pen tablet to review, and I do plan to give you my honest assessment of the product
in this video. There are some things I like about this pen tablet and other things that I
don't. And by the end of this video, I'll help you figure out whether or not the One by Wacom
would be a good choice for you. First of all, it's important to note that there are actually
two Wacom pen tablets with very similar names. There's the One by Wacom that I'll be talking
about in this video that costs about $60. And then there's also a product called a Wacom One,
which is a much more expensive pen tablet coming in at $400. Now, before I get into
the review of the One by Wacom, let's just talk for a moment about why you would even
want to consider teaching with a pen tablet. I'm personally not all that much of a gadgets
guy. I don't run out and get brand new products whenever they're released, but I do appreciate
when technology helps us do something that would be very difficult to do without it. And to me,
I think a pen tablet is almost an essential tool when you're teaching with technology,
just because it allows you to write naturally when you're trying to write or draw on a computer,
as though you are writing with a pen. Just based on the comments that I get on digital whiteboard
videos in particular, I know that the annoyance of having to write with a mouse or a trackpad can be
a significant barrier to being able to take full advantage of the different programs that are out
there. And I actually think that it's these small problems and annoyances that end up acting as
barriers and prevent us from fully embracing technology in education. Clear away the annoyance
of having to draw with a mouse or a trackpad, and suddenly you can write freely all over a digital
whiteboard. You can mark up webpages to draw students' attention to different text features,
you can highlight key words when presenting your slides to hold students' attention,
and you can annotate directly on top of PDFs to make them interactive. And that's just the tip
of the iceberg. Alright now that we've established that a pen tablet is an essential tool, let's get
into the One by Wacom. I already mentioned the relatively low cost, but another benefit of the
One by Wacom is that it is one of the only pen tablets, in fact it was the first pen tablet,
to be compatible with a Chromebook. So this particular pen tablet is useful,
not just for teachers, but also students. And at eight by five and a half inches, this pen tablet
is small and portable, so it would be ideal if you're looking for a tablet that you can just
easily throw in your bag, transport from class to class, and also bring home and then back to school
again. The stylus is light and easy to handle, and it just feels like I'm holding a regular old
pen in my hand. And compare that to something like the Apple Pencil, which is significantly heavier,
and in my opinion, does not feel nearly as natural to write with. I'm certainly not
trying to knock the iPad or the Apple Pencil, but I do have to say that when I'm writing,
I prefer to have this lighter stylus in my hand. Another thing I like about the stylus is that the
tip is pressure sensitive. To take full advantage of this, you will have to use software that allows
you to set the stylus to Pressure Sensitive. But if you can do that, it's going to give you even
more control over the way your drawings and sketches appear when you're using the stylus.
And even if I'm using software that doesn't have pressure sensitivity, I still just like
the way that the tip of the stylus feels when I'm writing on the tablet. Another pro of this stylus
is that it does not have a battery, so it does not require a charge. Compare that to an Apple Pencil,
which does require a charge, and the fact that it requires a charge means that it's often uncharged
and I can't use it, like I actually can't right now. Now in the Wacom desktop center, you can
assign different actions to the two buttons on the stylus. If you gave one Click and the other
Right Click, the pen tablet could effectively be used as a mouse replacement. That being said you
can still, of course, use your mouse if you would prefer. I personally find that due to my relative
inexperience using a pen tablet, that I often end up clicking on the keys when I don't mean to, when
I'm just trying to draw, and then I end up pulling up the right click menu. So because of that,
I've opted to just disable the keys. With the settings disabled, that just allows me
to draw freely without having to worry about accidentally pressing one of the buttons,
and I usually just shift my hand over to the mouse with my stylus still in my hand, when I need to
use it. That being said, you should explore the different ways that you can customize your pen,
and as I've become more comfortable using mine, I definitely find myself using my mouse less and
less, and just using my pen tablet. Another plus is that you can use the One by Wacom with any
app or platform, and as long as it has a native draw tool, you'll be able to draw. For example,
if you're using a digital whiteboard like Google Jamboard, all you need to do is select the draw
tool, pick up the pen and then start writing. It is important that the pen tablet doesn't
give you a draw tool unless a program actually has one. So if you want to be able to do things
like draw all over a webpage or annotate Google Slides, you're going to need to get a third party
extension like Annotate.net. I think a tool like Annotate.net, which lets you draw pretty much on
anything on a Chrome web browser, and a pen tablet makes for a pretty powerful combination, because
you can pretty much just draw on anything you want. The One by Wacom does also come with some
free trials of edtech software, like Pear Deck, Kami, Explain Everything, and Limnu, each of which
will be significantly enhanced when you're able to write on the digital whiteboards with a stylus. I
personally use Limnu for professional development workshops, and now that I have a pen tablet, there
is no way I would ever consider not using it. All right, now let's look at how well the One by Wacom
actually works. Using the One by Wacom definitely takes a few tries to get the hang of, and don't be
surprised if you plug it in and it doesn't work exactly the way that you want it to work and
you get a little bit frustrated. There is a little bit of a learning curve. I will say, however, that
once you use it several times, it becomes just as intuitive as any other tool like your trackpad,
and your keyboard, and your mouse. To start, when you're setting it up you want to put the label on
the right hand side, and then you want to make sure that your tablet is center aligned with the
screen so that you can orient your hand motion with what is actually happening on your computer
screen. You always want to start by tapping the top left-hand side of the tablet to calibrate it,
and that's going to help you also be able to make sure you're drawing where you want to be drawing
on your screen. Even when you aren't drawing, if you just hover over the screen, it's going to
show up like a mouse cursor, and it does function exactly like a mouse if you left those features
on For example, you can click and drag objects, toggle between website tabs, and pull up the right
click menu. When drawing, keep in mind that using more frequent strokes does tend to be
a little bit more accurate than trying to do long singular ones. And you might also want to keep one
hand on the keyboard when you're using your pen tablet, so that you can quickly undo an action,
rather than needing to reach for the undo or the eraser tool. The extent to which you like the One
by Wacom might depend on the size of your computer screen. My main computer has a 27 inch screen,
so when I'm trying to use the small One by Wacom to sketch all over my big computer monitor,
I do have to say that the relative difference in size makes it feel like I'm writing in a pretty
confined space. Oftentimes that translates to me running out of space on my physical pen tablet
when I actually have additional space on my digital whiteboard. So because of the size
difference, and also the fact that I'm writing on the pen tablet, as opposed to just writing
directly on a screen, sometimes my drawings and sketches end up in places where I did not
necessarily want them to go. I will say that I've gotten significantly more accustomed to using the
One by Wacom, and I really don't have any of these issues anymore. However, when given the choice,
I do personally prefer to use the much larger Wacom One. The Wacom One allows me to draw
directly on the screen, and because of that, it is far more accurate than the One by Wacom, but
it's also almost $350 more than the One by Wacom, so that's something to take into consideration. So
should you consider getting a One by Wacom? Given how much of an upgrade it is to write fluidly and
freely with a pen tablet, as opposed to trying to write with a mouse or a trackpad, I would say that
anyone who teaches with technology can absolutely make use of a pen tablet. And if you're looking
for a pen tablet that's small and portable, that's compatible with a Chromebook, and that's
relatively affordable, then you can't go wrong with the One by Wacom. But if you're looking to
set up a more permanent station and you also think that you would use a digital whiteboard a lot,
say, for example, if you teach math, then I would consider getting something like the Wacom One. If
you are interested in checking out the One by Wacom or the Wacom One, then check out
the links in the video description. Those are affiliate links, so if you ended up buying one,
New EdTech Classroom, weill get a small commission, so that's one way you can show your
support for the work that we do on this channel. Thanks so much and I'll see you in the next video!