Notebooks vs laptops

Discussion in 'General Discussions' started by tinycities, Jul 7, 2008.

  1. tinycities

    tinycities Level II

    Joined:
    Jul 30, 2007
    Messages:
    252
    Likes Received:
    0
    I'm heading to university this fall (no more neopets for me!) and I was just wondering, is it better to take notes by hand or on a laptop. This is not really a touchy topic so I didn't want to post it in the Debate section.

    I think I may learn better if I take notes by hand (summarizing, etc) and it would be way easier to draw diagrams and stuff but there are such programs such as Microsoft OneNote that make note-taking on the computer easier. My parents want me to do it by hand but they are very old-fashioned. But most of my friends are going to use laptops and type their notes up.

    Anyone in this situation what do you think?
     
  2. Cheeto

    Cheeto Level IV

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2007
    Messages:
    1,082
    Likes Received:
    22
    Definately a laptop.
    You can also get a laptop with hand writing features and a touch screen.
    I think they have those.
     
  3. danman

    danman Level I

    Joined:
    Jul 3, 2008
    Messages:
    75
    Likes Received:
    4
    i'm going to college too this fall. it kinda depends on the school you go to, i don't think i'm allowed to turn in any papers (all online) plus most of the teachers put thier notes online. also if you have the laptop you can do both, some classes are gonna be alot of diagraming, and i would hate to type in spanish or type out math problems.

    or what you could do is print out the teachers notes before class, read them alittle and then write notes to yourself on it.

    where are you going, i'm going to that excellent southern school that doesn't look silly by clapping our arms together (university of georgia)
     
  4. skuld

    skuld Level I

    Joined:
    May 23, 2008
    Messages:
    132
    Likes Received:
    4
    Location:
    Charlotte NC USA
    I would go laptop. Even if it isn't for taking notes in class the freedom to take it to a library, or just get out of your dorm/apt when things get crazy will be a huge bonus. Student housing is always noisy. Hell there was an Arbys that actually had open wireless. Roast beef sandwiches are great study aids :)
     
  5. kickpunchhao

    kickpunchhao Level I

    Joined:
    Jul 7, 2008
    Messages:
    45
    Likes Received:
    0
    Laptops....
    record lectures
    play neopets between lectures
    take picture of diagrams
    It makes life much easier
     
  6. domini212

    domini212 Level III

    Joined:
    Jun 30, 2008
    Messages:
    454
    Likes Received:
    7
    as long as your not gonna do heavy gaming you should be fine.
     
  7. christinemarie

    christinemarie Level II

    Joined:
    Apr 19, 2007
    Messages:
    304
    Likes Received:
    0
    aha, laptops all the way. your hand is going to get killed if you try to keep up with the professor by hand. just type up really sloppy, summarized notes and the lesson is going on and refine them later.
     
  8. cardenal

    cardenal Level III

    Joined:
    Nov 6, 2006
    Messages:
    421
    Likes Received:
    1
    Location:
    South Africa
    In college right now, and trust me, a laptop is much better.
    you'll never keep up with the lecturer if you take notes by hand. I've tried. One of the fastest writers in my year, and I can't write down everything, and the bits I do right down are super messy and kind of incomplete.
    Having a laptop makes life much easier, provided you're an efficient typer.

    My ex couldn't type for shit, so it was easier for her to take notes by hand.

    but I assume you're pretty good at typing?
     
  9. tinycities

    tinycities Level II

    Joined:
    Jul 30, 2007
    Messages:
    252
    Likes Received:
    0
    Oh wow that's really helpful! Well I am a fast typer and I was actually going to get a laptop as well as a monitor and normal keyboard cause I hate using the laptop's tiny keyboard.

    That way I can use it in my res like a regular computer and bring it to class when i need to. I'm taking math and bio, chem so diagrams and equations will be easier to do by hand but you never know when you need the laptop :)

    I'm in Canada, McMaster University. (so excited!)
     
  10. Charlie

    Charlie Level IV

    Joined:
    Dec 28, 2006
    Messages:
    2,097
    Likes Received:
    52

    >_> BOOOOOOOOO GO GATORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!


    Ahem... I've already finished my first year of College at University of Florida (WOOOT). I mainly took notes by hand. I found out that if I brought my laptop to class I would just surf the internet >_> maybe thats just me. So all I brought to class was a notebook and a pen. Though I can type faster on a laptop, I would get too distracted with it so I stuck to a pen and notepad. But again, its just me. I used my laptop for papers and such but I left it back in my room.

    PS. I didn't write down everything, the thing in college (with me at least) is that I try to grasp the main ideas, so instead of just aimlessly copying down unnecessary info, your learning the good material and writing it down.
     
  11. osok69

    osok69 Level II

    Joined:
    Feb 9, 2007
    Messages:
    358
    Likes Received:
    0
    i would reccomend laptop its much easier to take notes on and you can pull up your notes while your typing a paper. Also, its much easier to organize them.

    (colorado state university)
     
  12. ds76

    ds76 Level I

    Joined:
    May 27, 2008
    Messages:
    82
    Likes Received:
    1
    Laptops, so much more flexibility with notes, easily editable and storable. Far the better option
     
  13. Zer0

    Zer0 Level IV

    Joined:
    Mar 2, 2008
    Messages:
    3,037
    Likes Received:
    180
    Location:
    Home sweet home
    I would take notes by hand and then type them up when you get back from class. When you're note-taking in class, you don't have a lot of time to digest the info. Writing down the info and then typing it up lets you review your notes and makes it stick a while longer.
     
  14. corrykid

    corrykid Level I

    Joined:
    Jan 14, 2007
    Messages:
    123
    Likes Received:
    0
    Neither, get a desktop, doods.
     
  15. lareii

    lareii Newbie

    Joined:
    Jul 16, 2008
    Messages:
    31
    Likes Received:
    0
    Laptops.

    one with easy to type keyboard.
     
  16. angelsgalore

    angelsgalore Level I

    Joined:
    Aug 6, 2008
    Messages:
    53
    Likes Received:
    0
    I believe that technology gadgets make our life much easier... So I'll go with the laptop. And besides its not to late to learn something new. There are software that you could use to organize your notes...
     
  17. snowfangpup

    snowfangpup Newbie

    Joined:
    Sep 23, 2007
    Messages:
    30
    Likes Received:
    0
    yea i would go with a laptop too...i cant really give any examples why they r better cuz everyone here has kind of done that already :D
     
  18. JennD

    JennD Level I

    Joined:
    Aug 1, 2008
    Messages:
    78
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Texas
    Laptop definately, you can save all your notes, and not have 345879345+ papers laying around to organize.

    UGA? Awesome, Go dawgs! I was born and raised in Georgia. Bit boring though.
     
  19. yeng

    yeng Level III

    Joined:
    Nov 2, 2006
    Messages:
    485
    Likes Received:
    1
    its better if you have a laptop just record it then play.. or if you have a 80 WPM you can type what the prof has said :D
     
  20. Icegoten

    Icegoten Level III

    Joined:
    Aug 14, 2008
    Messages:
    460
    Likes Received:
    8
    A laptop would be best for you position. You can get the kind that flips around and you can write on the screen.