Laptops in Uni

Posted from TSR Mobile

Is it necessary to have a laptop at university that last all day for classes?

No. Only thing I take to lectures is pen and paper.

Couldnt live without mine. I know people who have laptops, but print the lecture slides off an annotate them - and i did that for the first day but decided I simply couldnt do it. I made all my notes on my macbook, and backed it up on my external hard drive, in lectures and from textbooks (VERY VERY IMPORTANT)

Fast forward to the end of term. My friend is lugging around a folder the size of the encyclopaedia brittanica, messy, creased up lecture notes and slides, and a ludicrously heavy bulky folder.

I had all of my stuff I ever needed on my macbook air. Loads up in seconds, search for your document you need, its open. 10 seconds flat.

Its your choice, but I couldnt live without my computer.

Thank you! That is such a good point, having to find what you need to read up on and things must be ridiculous with so much paper, let alone carrying it around as well.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Couldnt live without mine. I know people who have laptops, but print the lecture slides off an annotate them - and i did that for the first day but decided I simply couldnt do it. I made all my notes on my macbook, and backed it up on my external hard drive, in lectures and from textbooks (VERY VERY IMPORTANT)

Fast forward to the end of term. My friend is lugging around a folder the size of the encyclopaedia brittanica, messy, creased up lecture notes and slides, and a ludicrously heavy bulky folder.

I had all of my stuff I ever needed on my macbook air. Loads up in seconds, search for your document you need, its open. 10 seconds flat.

Its your choice, but I couldnt live without my computer.

Theres more plus reasons, assume the lecturer you are having changes the lecture at the last minute, or adds a lecture after youve left your accomodation that you havent printed off? With my laptop, I can open up safari, download it and im away..

others who dont, end up scribbling notes down on the wrong lecture slides / random pieces of paper. It all ends in a mess.....

Also, for revision, its much easier to use a computer. You can pull up specific pieces of work without having to trawl through your folder to find the lecture you think you are looking for, and then trawl through your own notes to find it. Thats before even starting revising.....

When I revise, I make notes off the powerpoint. (My revision notes are a mess, i dont keep them, they are just quick scribbles I can look over every now and again)
It saves you rewriting out your notes too

Also, assume your bag gets stolen, or your lose it, or someone spills coffee on it? Thats all your notes ruined in seconds. With a computer and backed up notes, (its worse to lose) but easier to claim on insurance, and you havent instantly and permanently lost hundreds of hours of work.


(I honestly cannot recommend it enough - try both, but i find taking notes on a computer SIGNIFICANTLY easier, the ability to pull up anything instantly is veyr helpful too. Also, if theres a topic you dont understand, or a term the teacher uses in lecture - online dictionaries are there to help..)

lol.

I do agree though. A good audio recorder and audio notetaker is probably superior though.

- Record lecture
- Upload and match slides to audio. Add your own notes for each segment.
- Search by audio/slide/or notes.

That's a brilliant idea!

Posted from TSR Mobile

Yeah, you have definitely won me over! It seems like a much better idea than writing everything down. I like how you give an example of coffee, I'm guessing I'm going to need a hell of a lot of them to get my work done.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Note it won't be the cheapest option.A good audio recorder can cost £100-200, and the software is 50-100 (though you might be able to 'borrow' or pirate it or whatever ) What it will allow you to do is focus on actually listening to your lectures, and just pressing a button to add a segment at each new slide etc! Then you can get home to the pc/laptop and sort it out.

I'm sure the money would be worth it, its definitely something I will look at doing, thank you very much

Posted from TSR Mobile

http://www.sonocent.com/en/the_software/audio_notetaker - Take a look at that then, will explain
And something like: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Olympus-LS-3-Pocket-PCM-Recorder/dp/B005AGNP8I/ for the recorder!

no probs