Why we built a blackboard into DuckyHelper

TL;DR:

• DuckyHelper works it out with you on a blackboard when pointing at your screen is not enough.

• Diagrams are drawn step by step while it explains out loud.

• It paces the board one step at a time so you can follow.

Drawing on your screen works well when the answer is somewhere on the page. But a lot of what people need help with is not on the page at all. It is a chain of reasoning, a diagram that does not exist yet, or a method. For those, we gave DuckyHelper a blackboard.

Pointing versus working it out

There are two kinds of help. In the first, you have a thing in front of you and need to know what part of it matters: which line is wrong, which button to press. Circling and arrows are the right tool. In the second, you need to understand how something works or how to get from a question to an answer. Nothing on your screen can be circled to explain that.

A teacher at a whiteboard is the picture we had in mind. They start from a blank surface and build the explanation in front of you, so that you see how each part follows from the one before. That is what the blackboard is for.

What happens on the blackboard

When a question calls for it, DuckyHelper opens a blackboard and works it out with you. It talks while it draws, so you hear the reasoning as you watch the picture or the working appear. You are not handed a finished diagram to decode; you watch it get built.

This applies across subjects. A math problem is written out line by line. A concept in science becomes a diagram with labels. A process becomes a sequence of boxes you can follow from start to end.

Pacing: one step at a time

The hardest part of explaining is going at the right speed. Too fast, and the board is full before you have understood the first line. We want DuckyHelper to put down one step, say why it is there, and only then move on. If you want to slow it down, you can ask it to go back or explain a step again.

We write more about that goal in teaching one step at a time. The blackboard is the place where that pacing is easiest to see, because you can watch each step appear.

Diagrams drawn, not pasted

The pictures on the board are drawn as they are explained. They are not stock images dropped in from somewhere. A drawn diagram can include exactly the parts the explanation needs and leave out everything else, and it can be built in the order you need to see it. We talk more about this choice in diagrams drawn, not pasted.

When to use it

• You want to understand why a method works, not only get an answer.

• You are stuck partway through a problem and want to see the next step worked out.

• You need a picture of how something fits together.

If you only need to find something on your screen, a drawing on the screen is enough and the board is not needed. The lighter tool is the right one when it does the job.

A small example

Say you ask, "why does the area of a triangle have a one half in it?" There is nothing on your screen to circle. On the blackboard, DuckyHelper can draw a rectangle, split it with a diagonal into two equal triangles, and say that each triangle is half of the rectangle. You see the one half appear from the picture, instead of being handed it as a rule.

That is the kind of idea the blackboard is for: an explanation that is a sequence of drawn moves. Each move is small, each one is said out loud, and the whole thing hangs together by the end.

Why a blackboard and not a document

We could have returned a block of text with a picture beside it. But a finished page hides the order of the thinking, and the order is the lesson. On the board you see what comes first, what depends on what, and where the answer finally lands. And you can ask a question about any one step on its own.

What this means for you

Ask the way you would ask a person: "Can you walk me through how this works?" If a worked explanation will help, you will see the blackboard open and hear DuckyHelper talk you through it. The app is available for Mac, Windows and Linux, and you can try it for 10 minutes without a card.