Who uses laptops at uni?
Technical support and purchasing advice for laptops, netbooks, tablets, and e-readers - from Chromebooks and MacBooks, to iPads and Kindles.
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Who uses laptops at uni?Hi
I am going to be starting uni and was wondering when do people use their laptops.
For those of you at uni right now, how many use it in lectures or even bring it to uni often?Last edited by ...mo...; 31-07-2012 at 17:19. -
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Re: Who uses laptops at uni?If you're living at home, then you almost certainly won't need one. As far as I'm aware, few people take them into lectures to take notes (the clacking of the keyboard can be irritating) and pen and notepad/handouts is fine for note-taking; you certainly won't be the only one. There will be computers in the library and possibly a computer room in your department if you want to stay and do some work.
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Re: Who uses laptops at uni?Thanks for that.(Original post by Philbert)
If you're living at home, then you almost certainly won't need one. As far as I'm aware, few people take them into lectures to take notes (the clacking of the keyboard can be irritating) and pen and notepad/handouts is fine for note-taking; you certainly won't be the only one. There will be computers in the library and possibly a computer room in your department if you want to stay and do some work.
Instead should I think about buying a netbook instead? -
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Unlike the American sitcoms you won't see many people using laptops during lectures. Good old pen and paper is the way to go. Many lecturers provide hand outs or links to online resources for you to refer to after class.
You may find a laptop useful during busy times when the library may be full or just noisy, but you're unlikely to get a strong Wi-Fi signal from the uni if you don't have a dongle. Personally I wouldn't bother (I won't be taking mine) and enjoy your spare time at uni before heading home to write the essays. -
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Re: Who uses laptops at uni?Do you take it from halls to the uni it self or are you living at home? How far are you taking it?(Original post by KevM)
Unlike the American sitcoms you won't see many people using laptops during lectures. Good old pen and paper is the way to go. Many lecturers provide hand outs or links to online resources for you to refer to after class.
You may find a laptop useful during busy times when the library may be full or just noisy, but you're unlikely to get a strong Wi-Fi signal from the uni if you don't have a dongle. Personally I wouldn't bother (I won't be taking mine) and enjoy your spare time at uni before heading home to write the essays. -
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Re: Who uses laptops at uni?What have you currently got(Original post by cfizzle)
I use it in lectures most of the time (easy to corroborate notes with powerpoints, etc) and is so much faster (if you're a fast typer). I'd say in my lectures, about 15% of people use a laptop. As for the tippy tappy noise - I bought a silicone key protector which muffles the tip taps by tonnes. Just in case your'e worried about that. Only cost a few quid
I use my laptop in the library all the time cause the computers are a bit slow for my liking and I cannot use Windows for the life of me
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Re: Who uses laptops at uni?LOL. Besides messing around what else do you?(Original post by PinkyPurply)
I was planning on taking mine to Uni but not for lectures.
I'd be bored stiff without having a laptop to mess about on
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I'm starting my first year in Sept, but this will be my second time at Uni, and I didn't bother taking one in first time around (from halls). This time I'll be traveling just under 2 hours each way from home and I was thinking it might be useful to have it for the train journeys, but as I'm not going to be using it during the day, I'm considering getting a mini bluetooth keyboard and typing notes up onto my android phone for transferring to my laptop at home. That way I'll have something portable and computerised. A netbook with notepad might be a good idea, but I can't afford to buy something else.(Original post by ...mo...)
Do you take it from halls to the uni it self or are you living at home? How far are you taking it? -
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Re: Who uses laptops at uni?This.(Original post by spanishguy)
Never in lectures, only in halls/flat or library plus on the bloody long train journeys home at the end of term!
I'd struggle to do my course without it to be honest. -
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Re: Who uses laptops at uni?My laptop is too chunky and slow to be able to take into a lecture. Plenty of people bring Macbooks and, to a lesser extend, iPads. I use pen and paper, or go to the writer's lounge with a memory stick/iPod and type essays on the iMacs there or even go home and do it on my laptop there.
I can see the appeal of iPads at uni, being able to fit something half as wide as a laptop and as thick as a notepad into your bag while being able to start it up like an iPod and use it in a second. Easy to walk around with in your hand and even submit work by uploading while being able to juggle with your Facebook needs.
The problem is that I don't think we're quite at the stage where we need digital, touch-screen notepads. For me it's just going to a lecture, I can easily write things down and use computers in the uni or use my own one back at home.
The flaw with this opinion is that when would we be 'needing' iPads to take notes at lectures? The only thing I can think of is so you can carry around your entire dissertation, media theory essays and 60 page script on a small thin, delicate, expensive, device with a popular brand and a huge second hand resale value. Oh wait.
That said, there is a Final Draft app coming to iPad, along with Celtx already on it, so perhaps I dare say several people will start using it.Last edited by Snagprophet; 25-07-2012 at 02:46. -
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Re: Who uses laptops at uni?So are you deciding between(Original post by KevM)
I'm starting my first year in Sept, but this will be my second time at Uni, and I didn't bother taking one in first time around (from halls). This time I'll be traveling just under 2 hours each way from home and I was thinking it might be useful to have it for the train journeys, but as I'm not going to be using it during the day, I'm considering getting a mini bluetooth keyboard and typing notes up onto my android phone for transferring to my laptop at home. That way I'll have something portable and computerised. A netbook with notepad might be a good idea, but I can't afford to buy something else.
Having a laptop and keeping it at home. At uni you will use the library?
or
Buying a netbook, but then why would you need a notepad? -
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Re: Who uses laptops at uni?I rarely took my laptop up to uni. I never used in in lectures and it was very rare that someone did. I got by fine with paper and pen and then making a note of any of the slides that I might want to have a copy of and printing them off at home. We got handouts in many of the lectures anyway. Plus I could not be bothered to take it up to uni as it was just one more extra thing to carry.
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Re: Who uses laptops at uni?Oops, when I said netbook with notepad I meant a notepad type app. I can write some shorthand so taking notes during a lecture isn't a problem, it's more transcribing them to make my notes more useful for later use that I'm thinking I could put the long train journey to use.(Original post by ...mo...)
So are you deciding between
Having a laptop and keeping it at home. At uni you will use the library?
or
Buying a netbook, but then why would you need a notepad?
Another option I might consider is a 10inch tablet with usb keyboard, but as with anything I'll have to see if I can get the funds together. -
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Re: Who uses laptops at uni?I'm doing economics which involves a lot of diagrams, so will I need it a lectures do you think?(Original post by zenb)
Depends on the course you're doing. Lecture heavy courses might not warrant a real need for one at all, and on the other end of the scale design/architecture students probably couldn't live without one.
