Study with your tablet as a second screen for your Mac

More screen helps, a little, and most when you juggle

In a Microsoft Research study from 2003, 15 office workers did multi-window tasks on a 15-inch screen and on a very wide one. They finished about 9% faster on the wide screen, and 14 of the 15 preferred it. At Georgia Tech, students and university staff finished an interrupted planning task faster with two monitors than with one.

Both studies are small, and neither ran a real course. The useful part is why it helps: switching between tasks has a cost of its own. Decades of lab work show each switch makes you a little slower and more error-prone, and preparing for it reduces the cost without removing it. Fewer swaps between slides and notes means fewer of those moments.

Keep the second screen for study, not for chat

A screen can also cost you. In a 2013 study with undergraduates, students who multitasked on a laptop during a lecture scored 11 percentage points lower on a test. Students who merely sat where they could see a classmate multitasking scored 17 points lower. So give the tablet one job: the slides, the paper or the past exam, and leave messages off it.

Handwriting is a choice, not a magic trick Pro

You may have heard that handwritten notes beat typed ones. That came from a 2014 study, but two later replications, one in 2019 and one in 2021, found no consistent advantage. What you do with your notes seems to matter more than the tool.

If you think better with a pen, for equations, diagrams or arrows between ideas, Pro lets you write on your Mac through the tablet with the S Pen, with pressure and palm rejection.

Set it up before your next session

1. Install both apps

   Download Wing Display for Mac and click Start in the menu bar. Then install the Android tablet app.

2. Tap Connect

   On the same Wi-Fi, your Mac appears in the tablet app. Tap Connect, and click Allow on your Mac the first time. On campus Wi-Fi that keeps devices apart, use the tablet's hotspot instead.

3. Drag your reading across

   Put the slides or the paper on the tablet and your notes on the Mac. Arrange the two in System Settings → Displays.

What it costs

The Mac app and the second screen over Wi-Fi or your tablet's hotspot are free to use. Pro adds the pen, touch and a USB connection: $2.99 a month or $24.99 a year in US dollars, through Google Play, with 14 days free for first-time subscribers. Compare the plans.

Questions