Laptop use in class

redout

What is the general consesnus on this. Is it normal practice for students to take notes via laptops nowadays or is it still paper and pen ?

public_enemy

Depends on the lecturer, most of the time laptops are fine but sometimes you'll be told to put it away.

I've rarely seen anyone actually take notes when they've had a laptop out in class though.

Tiroskan

Yeah, I dunno what it's like for others, but I know for physics, where there's a lot of diagrams in the notes as well, you're usually better off with a paper and pen. And if someone has a laptop out they're probably playing games on it or something.

Einstein?

You can do anything in a lecture hall as long as you don't disturb the lecturer and/or students around you.

artanevilla

I've always enjoyed watching the youtube videos of someone in front of me using a laptop.

Benny Lava

Last year a lecturer prevented people from going on the internet during lectures because he claimed they were going on inappropriate sites. These claims were true as I was sitting behind the guy who was going on them.

It's perfectly normal to use a laptop for taking notes, as long as you don't have a few internet tabs running at the same time for non-academic purposes!

face1990

It depends on the lecturer really. Most of them are fine with laptops, but there are a few who insist (with good reason) that laptops are put away. Of course it then depends on whether they bother to enforce their own rules!

But if someone has a disability or difficulty with writing then they'll always be allowed to use one.

phasers

I had one lecturer last semester who wouldn't let people use laptops at all, strangely his lectures were pretty empty by the end of the year

Noodleworm

I prefer to use my laptop to take notes in class as my handwriting is terrible and I type faster than I write.

Out of the people who do take notes its still more paper and pen than laptops.
The people just browsing on laptops during class are pretty annoying in my opinion, usually because I find it really hard to ignore when their on facebook, going through every photo, describing them in detail to their friend.

phasers

I must admit I browse sometimes, usually whenever a mature student raises their hand to ask a question :cool:

Hauk

No bites.

GLaDOS

Never use laptop myself, I'd get distracted too easily. Most notes are online anyway, so any I take usually brief. Nearly all people in my classes use paper and pen, though we've a lot of diagrams.

fun

I've never been told to put away a laptop. I use mine all the time in lectures. Maybe if you're some sort of business student they wouldn't like it.

phasers

fun wrote: »

I've never been told to put away a laptop. I use mine all the time in lectures. Maybe if you're some sort of business student they wouldn't like it.

Why specifically business students, out of curiosity?

andrew163

A fair few CA lecturers do it.

fun

phasers wrote: »

Why specifically business students, out of curiosity?

I've never encountered it in any of the Engineering/CA lectures I've had, but perhaps I should rephrase:

Maybe if you're some sort of $student_from_different_faculty they wouldn't like it.

StiLL-TrAiNinG

fun wrote: »

I've never encountered it in any of the Engineering/CA lectures I've had, but perhaps I should rephrase:

Maybe if you're some sort of $student_from_different_faculty they wouldn't like it.

I believe the term you're looking for is "elitism" :P

irish_boy90

I do recall one guy who used to sit at the very front off the room and play some sort of mole game on his laptop, as much as I wanted to pay attention to the lecturer I always ended up just watching him play his game.

Pen and paper may not be the neatest or fastest way for me to take notes but if I took my laptop in I wouldn't even have notes.

phasers

I'm the opposite! If I use pen and paper I end up doodling, the laptop keeps my attention more.

Shiny

I just download the notes in advance whenever I can and fill in all the extra information around them with a pen as the topic is being discussed in the lecture.

I find this results in less additional paper, relevant notes to the relevant sections, very little gets lost etc...

If a full page of notes has to be taken, then I just write it on the back
of the printed page etc...

This is simply not possible with a normal laptop, perhaps with a tablet but
almost no one has one of those.

I used a laptop in class a few times and found it to be incredibly distracting.