Laptops in the Classroom?

[Sqwunk]

...or you could write the notes in class, then go home and type them up all neat and organized and OCD-like, and you'll have already gone over the material twice.

My hand writing isn't very legible after the first sentence, it just slowly deteriorates into a sloppy mess.

However I also don't have a laptop, so I generally just choose not to take any notes.

[Pikarya]

tablet + pen and write your notes down on it. Show that bitch technology is greater than life.

[kyod]

A laptop isn't necessary in a journalism classes. The only time I ever used mine in my major was in a History class, and even then it wasn't really necessary.

You can only take so many notes on what a lede, fact graf, or news article styles are. The rest is just examples and you writing articles.

When a class did have writing requirements, our classroom was already outfitted with computers.

Too much QQing.

[Kerberoz]

My hand writing isn't very legible after the first sentence, it just slowly deteriorates into a sloppy mess.

Even better; you'll have to do so much research that you'll master the subject at hand just deciphering and filling in the blanks in your notes, and then won't even need to study them.

[Cephius]

The "arguments against" in this thread are awful and completely miss the point made in the OP.

We understand you don't need a laptop to effectively take notes during class. We understand you probably don't need a laptop in English 101. Yes, they can be distracting if you're a fucking 4 year old and don't understand that you're paying thousands of dollars to take something out of the class. The point is, they are effective learning tools and a device more and more people are comfortable using. I guarantee you in 20 years 99 out of every 100 students in a standard class will have some form of computer with them. To ban them from a class simply because they're an electronic device and may be a distraction is stupid. If someone feels more comfortable taking notes with a computer why should they be denied that right?

[synistar]

Don't even know what that is, and i'm 100% sure you can.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ra...teroneCOSY.png

Nothing as complex as this, but definitely a tablet PC for this sucker. Had to take notes on this topic and the professor grossly simplified it.

Now drawing portions of this picture: http://i308.wikispaces.com/file/view...metabolism.jpg was a pain, especially when you have to know what bonds enzymes are attacking.

[Cephius]

The distraction argument is such horseshit. Classes are boring, if you have trouble paying attention that's a you problem. Things in a normal lecture hall more distracting than someone playing solitaire on a computer:

- The chick in the 2nd row with a low cut tank top, hell any chick who looks halfway decent and is wearing skimpy clothing
- The notepad in front of you, FUCK MUST DOODLE
- The one-way mirror behind the professor, I wonder if anyone back there is watching us?
- The clock
- The various things written on your desk by past students and the urge to add to them
- Your friend sitting next to you

[rog]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ra...teroneCOSY.png

Nothing as complex as this, but definitely a tablet PC for this sucker. Had to take notes on this topic and the professor grossly simplified it.

Now drawing portions of this picture: http://i308.wikispaces.com/file/view...metabolism.jpg was a pain, especially when you have to know what bonds enzymes are attacking.

First link doesn't work, the second is clearly not done by hand, so your point is null.

[Korietsu]

Your school sucks. I did my programming homework during the lecture for that class one semester. I also use my laptop to view the slides that the professor is going over or to view the textbook during lecture class. Why carry about 4 textbooks when I have them all on my laptop?

Actually, considering that Raytheon, TI, Boeing, Northrop-Grumman, Intel, HP, Motorola, Alcatel - Lucent, Qualcomm, Ericsson, ATT, Verizon, RIM, Cisco etc all have people coming in and lecturing on a regular basis, get the majority of their new blood from there, and have seniors coming in to design new products for them as part of the classwork, I don't think there's much of a problem.

The distraction argument is such horseshit. Classes are boring, if you have trouble paying attention that's a you problem. Things in a normal lecture hall more distracting than someone playing solitaire on a computer:

- The chick in the 2nd row with a low cut tank top, hell any chick who looks halfway decent and is wearing skimpy clothing
- The notepad in front of you, FUCK MUST DOODLE
- The one-way mirror behind the professor, I wonder if anyone back there is watching us?
- The clock
- The various things written on your desk by past students and the urge to add to them
- Your friend sitting next to you

Actually, I find other people fucking with their laptops playing WoW etc much more distracting than any of the other things that occur in my classes, because if I miss something its normally a big chunk of a grade on something. The only thing that's even remotely worse is phones going off in class.

[rog]

Because people only play solitaire.

We already went over this: allow macbooks only, since they can't play any games.

[rog]

They might as well allow PS3's too then.

Makes sense to me.

[Antithesis]

There is a significant amount of people in this thread suffering from Old Timer's syndrome. Just like many of the professors in colleges.

[Slapper]

Now drawing portions of this picture: http://i308.wikispaces.com/file/view...metabolism.jpg was a pain, especially when you have to know what bonds enzymes are attacking.

Glycolysis fuck yea

In my experience, using a laptop in class is more of a disservice than helpful for taking notes. Then again, I was a Biochem major and the people who used laptops in a science class ended up failing the class. Especially in classes like OChem where you drew molecules and arrows all day.

On the flip side, I once had a Physical professor who taught the fucking class using power point which annoyed the shit outta me. Thats like trying to teach a calc class using power point.

[Sqwunk]

My accounting professor uses slides for every class he teaches. you would think this isn't a problem in an accounting department, unless he doesn't believe in graphs or using any equations harder than basic algebra. Honestly would be better off teaching using lecture notes, not the pre-made slides that come with the book.

[kyod]

When I would present in class, nothing would be more distracting then having some kid tap-tap-tap on the keyboard, clearly not paying attention to anything I said. I imagine professors feel the same way. It's disrespectful. Yeah, the asshole next to him is staring out into space or down a girl's tube top, but I can't hear him and the only way I notice it is if I keep looking at him. Even if I'm not looking at you, I can hear your tap-tap-tap on the keyboard. If the kid is on AIM or FB chat with his friends, then it is constant.

As a student, nothing would annoy me more than being stuck next to a kid doing that in a class I was really interested in. Yeah, you might take your major or this class as a joke and be bored out of your mind, but don't annoy the shit out of me when I'm trying to pay attention. Sure, people will chat with their neighbor if they're bored, but why add another distraction? It's also a lot easier to call out people talking with each other than it is to get the kid AIM chatting to stop.

Sure, you might be the studious person taking copious notes. But the other 10 people with laptops aren't.

Unless you have hardcore carpal tunnel where writing for a few minutes makes your hand seize up, it shouldn't be a big deal. We took notes before without laptops, we can take them without them for one class.

I'm not some anti-laptop nazi, I used mine to take notes in certain classes. But if an instructor said no laptops it didn't bother me. In fact, I was a lot more engaged in classes where I wasn't using my laptop. The most memorable and valuable classes of my college career were ones without using my laptop.

YMMV etc..

[Korietsu]

There is a significant amount of people in this thread suffering from Old Timer's syndrome. Just like many of the professors in colleges.

There's a significant amount of us who have to know what the fuck we're doing for real in our degrees, not just flying by with business or economics. One of my professors last year had to deny someone a PHD because they couldn't properly explain an implementation they used from a first year class as part of their defense. All because he couldn't remember a carry look ahead adder implementation or how it differed from ripple, and the gains and losses of using one over the other, which were not critical to the core to his dissertation.

[Cream Soda]

Laptop saved my ass in Bio II.

Teacher had gay notes w/ blanks in them that you had to fill out like half of each slide on your own. Could type 70 wpm and finish that shit quick. Then when he changes the slide, I heard everyone else bitching they weren't ready for the slide to be switched and he was like oh well, we ahve to cover all this material.

[Diamicles]

There is a significant amount of people in this thread suffering from Old Timer's syndrome. Just like many of the professors in colleges.

nah son

becoming reliant on computers to do work makes you another mindless drone in the workforce, good luck keeping a job not being able to think without a computer in front of you

It's not that I think there's a really substantial reason to not use a lap top, but dropping a class over the ordeal is fairly retarded.

this also, but then again he's been to like 5 colleges already so you can see where this is going

[Milkster]

That's what you get for going to Oakland Seno. All I have to say...

[Acturus]

Talked with Prof. She said "Nope!" Dropped the class.

Oh, that easy? Was it an elective? Or are there multiple professors that teach the same course?