What the heck is a graphics tablet ???

Is a Graphics Tablet what my wife needs ?

She visits local businesses, and teaches the employees. Currently she brings a laptop and projects her PowerPoint presentations on a white screen. The rooms can be small with no whiteboard, so she struggles with a flip-chart easel to handwrite key notes for the class to see. This is cumbersome.

If she had a USB graphics tablet, could she remain seated the whole time and ...
(a) Annotate directly over her displayed PowerPoint slides with notes, encircling words, drawing arrows, etc?
(b) Use it like a virtual whiteboard to, for example, write concepts/lessons on the tablet, and have them be projected on the screen? Does she do this with PowerPoint or some other software?

In short, I'm ignorant on graphic tablets. Any help appreciated. Thanks.

Enjoy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digitizing_tablet

And she may want to consider a tablet Pc which is bascially a laptop that has a screen that serves as a tablet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablet_pc

Wacom makes some great tablets - they may have one in the $$ range your looking for if you don't want to spend a lot of money.

A tablet PC could do this. If supported by software a graphics tablet should be able to accomplish this as well.

I would think that a tablet Pc would be the way to go espically if his wife is traveling and carrying around her pc alot.

Some graphics tablet can be farily delicate and pricey. I think most people who use them don't typically travel with them much. A tablet pc on teh other hand is made for travel and more robust. Its also cheaper then buying a laptop and tablet seperately.