Wacom Intuos have been introduced in a school to make classes more fun and creative

Yoana Simeonova, a software designer working in Bulgaria, introduced Wacom Intuos in a school to make children's IT classes more fun.

Wacom team members (employees) are driven by strong individual motivations and passion and work on projects outside the scope of their work. Their thoughts and projects provide hints to explore the potential for Wacom's vision of "Lifelong Ink" and they spur on our Social Initiatives. Wacom values the thoughts of its team members, and it offers programs that support individual projects.

Yoana Simeonova, is as a software designer at an office in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Yoana is also one of the team members using this support program. Through conversations with her son, she came up with the idea of making children's IT classes more fun and creative. Her project introduced 8 Wacom Intuos in classes, making children smile.

Why did you want to introduce Wacom Intuos in a school?

I got the idea through conversations with my son, who is in the 2nd grade. He got very interested in new IT technologies and tools while taking IT classes at school, which is why I suggested to the principal and the other teachers at his school that Wacom's pen tablets be introduced as a new educational tool. In December 2018, 8 Wacom Intuos S were introduced at my son's school through the company's program that supports individual projects. My colleagues Antony Jekov, Dobromir Balabanov, and Daniel Schongen helped setup the pen tablets and install drivers. The app "Bamboo Paper," which we had developed, was also introduced at the same time so that the children could immediately start drawing with Wacom Intuos.

What were the children's reactions to the Wacom Intuos?

They were very excited. Their eyes gleamed when they saw the new tools. They immediately started drawing with the pen tablets. Time passed in the blink of an eye, and some of them still wanted to continue drawing. Though they were familiar with touch panel tablets, they were unaware of tablets that could be drawn on with a pen. They were amazed by how the lines they drew on the tablet were displayed on the PC screen in real time. Surprised, they said, "It's like magic!".

What were the reactions of the teachers?

We received words of gratitude. The principal knew about Wacom products, as he was in charge of technology innovations at the school. When I asked him about introducing Wacom Intuos, he welcomed it. Many of the teachers had never used pen tablets before, but they seemed to able to use them intuitively after just a simple lecture. Plans were to use the pen tablets in the 2nd grade IT class, but ideas have spread among teachers, such as using them in drawing classes and in other grades as well.