Laptop for Taking Notes in Class

[yellowjack]

Does anyone here successfully use their laptop for taking notes in a class? For those that do, what program are you in & do you use anything other than MS word?

The reasons I am considering this are as follows:

1) I end up rewriting a lot of my notes anyway after class to learn the material (by summarizing) and I'm a nit.
2) I'm not always able to write down every word a professor says, and this bugs me.
3) Oftentimes I'm writing down notes but have a lot of trouble listening and comprehending to what is being said. I type fast.
4) Playing poker during breaks.
5) Datamining when using desktop at home during peak hours (if this is even practical).

[Dave D]

Microsoft has a program that's part of office suite called "onennote". They pretty much got it down, except their spell checker sucks.

In law school probably 70% of my class takes notes on their laptop, and thats probably a low number. I never saw it in undergrad though.

Bringing your laptop can be really distracting though, AIM/internet/poker will distract you.

I'm not sure why 1. is a reason to consider using your laptop, rewriting your notes helps you learn it (that's what I do).

[Dan.]

[ QUOTE ]

Bringing your laptop can be really distracting though, AIM/internet/poker will distract you.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a big reason I don't bring it, coupled with the fact that I'm an econ and math major and it just wouldn't be that practical.

By and large there are way fewer people with laptops in class than I would've thought prior to coming to college.

[traz]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Bringing your laptop can be really distracting though, AIM/internet/poker will distract you.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a big reason I don't bring it, coupled with the fact that I'm an econ and math major and it just wouldn't be that practical.

By and large there are way fewer people with laptops in class than I would've thought prior to coming to college.

[/ QUOTE ]

When I didn't bring my laptop I wouldn't take ANY notes, because writing sucks and typing doesn't. I'd mostly just play with my cell phone.

Now that I DO bring my laptop, I mostly get distracted by msn and 2p2, but every now and then I catch something important and get it down. So it ends up being more useful anyways :P

[MelchyBeau]

consider a Tablet PC. You can write on the screen if you want, or use the keyboard. It would be very difficult for me to take notes on a normal laptop because I am in grad school for math, and I can't just type what the teacher is saying, too many pictures, and then the subscripts and superscripts and funny symbols, ugh.
I write my notes out on engineering paper or on a legal pad, then I rewrite them in a hardback book. I just look for journals in bookstores. Usually I can find them for less than 5 bucks. Its nice cause i know that my notes will stay in good shape for a while to come, and I seem to have to review my notes even after my class is over, for different classes.

Thinkpad Tablet PC Link

[yellowjack]

[ QUOTE ]
Microsoft has a program that's part of office suite called "onennote". They pretty much got it down, except their spell checker sucks.

In law school probably 70% of my class takes notes on their laptop, and thats probably a low number. I never saw it in undergrad though.

Bringing your laptop can be really distracting though, AIM/internet/poker will distract you.

I'm not sure why 1. is a reason to consider using your laptop, rewriting your notes helps you learn it (that's what I do).

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll look into that, appreciate it. I neglected to mention that 1) is a reason because I would redo the notes on laptop by reformatting, etc. after class. The only difference is that it would take less time. This past term, it took about 8-10 hours per week.



[ QUOTE ]
consider a Tablet PC. You can write on the screen if you want, or use the keyboard. It would be very difficult for me to take notes on a normal laptop because I am in grad school for math, and I can't just type what the teacher is saying, too many pictures, and then the subscripts and superscripts and funny symbols, ugh.
I write my notes out on engineering paper or on a legal pad, then I rewrite them in a hardback book. I just look for journals in bookstores. Usually I can find them for less than 5 bucks. Its nice cause i know that my notes will stay in good shape for a while to come, and I seem to have to review my notes even after my class is over, for different classes.

Thinkpad Tablet PC Link

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the link - I've seen it on campus exactly once. Would you say if that it weren't for all the greek letters and sub/superscripts, you would use the keyboard entirely?

I like the use of the engineering paper - completely forgot about those computation pads.

I was hoping someone would mention LaTeX, freeware available to write in that was specifically made for mathematicians, statisticians, etc. I guess it's not that mainstream.

Official Site
Wiki

One of my friends a few years ago used this entirely in a differential equations class. He was very proficient in typing and managed to keep up in class, but it also helped that he was very smart. If I did get a laptop, I don't see it being difficult to get a handle on it within a week.

This is going to sound a bit absurd but I am majoring in statistics and getting a minor in economics. I thought more people would be using LaTeX, at least 2p2ers.

[MelchyBeau]

i don't use my laptop for taking notes at all. even if it weren't for the odd symbols (not just greek letters, I am well past that point) I would still use regular old pen and paper. My focus is graph theory, and as you might guess, it helps to draw pictures to understand what is going on.

I would say for your math classes, stick to pen and paper

[The Big Easy]

90% of law school students take notes on their laptop (myself included). But I strongly suggest disabling your internet access while you are in class because it is a huge distraction.

[damaniac]

[ QUOTE ]
90% of law school students take notes on their laptop (myself included). But I strongly suggest disabling your internet access while you are in class because it is a huge distraction.

[/ QUOTE ]

They do that for us here, but then I have all these darn emulator games. I will say that class is a very useful time to level up on old NES RPG's like Dragon Warrior. Not really distracting and a good time to get through a monotonous task at the same time.

[crovax4444]

I'm typing this up in class right now. The laptop keeps me entertained, otherwise I'd fall asleep.

Getting a small amt of information >> being asleep and learning nothing.

I'm a psychology major, so I don't have any crazy equations or weird notations that I need to use. I still keep a notebook on me just in case.

Crovax