School: Voice Recorders, Laptops, PDAs

[HarveyW]

Hey Everyone,

Im heading back to school this summer and need your expertise.

When I go back Ill probably need a voice recorder or something to help me keep track of all those lectures.

I cant seem to decide on whether to get a:

Voice Recorder - small, portable, less expensive, less likely to get stolen

The Olympus WS-200S is what I was thinking of getting

PDAs - more features, more expensive, very likely to get stolen

Maybe a Dell PDA

Laptop - no voice recorder, heavy, expensive, more efficient since it can carry ALOT of information, convenient.

This is very expensive so if someone can tell me an extraordinary reason to justify this purchase Im all ears.

I am hoping you guys share some of your experiences and maybe that will help me in making my decision.

Thank you in advance.

[john widow]

camcorder :) record everything that goes on in class

[lkn4deals]

why do you think a PDA is likely to get stolen? do you leave your things unattented? and if you do, whatever you have is likely to get stolen...

[Jon Lai]

why do you think a PDA is likely to get stolen? do you leave your things unattented? and if you do, whatever you have is likely to get stolen...

Agree, wouldn't a laptop be more easily stolen than a PDA? Plus, I'm pretty sure a lot of guys at school will have a PDA or a laptop at least, or both. When everyone has one, it's less likely to get stolen.

[lkn4deals]

you can record with your PDA from your seat...you don't have to put it up at the front of the class...as well, depending on your budget (and needs), a PDA with a portable wireless keyboard may be more than good enough for what you're looking for since you'll be able to type out notes as well as record lectures...

[doodling]

i have a recorder (panasonic rr-us050 digital recorder) but i never use it to record lectures, only when i have to conduct interviews. n lemme tell you transcribing is a pain in the butt, also, realistically would you actually want to sit through a lecture, twice?

i would recommend a laptop, if you are like most people, we type faster than we can write (that and i can barely read my own writing by the end of class). further, you can take it to library, cafe, where ever to do work.

a pda might work too (with an external keyboard maybe?) but i do not have experience in that.

i wouldnt worry too much about your belongings getting stolen, i would just be careful not to leave things unattended.

[jerryhung]

don't need PDA or recorder

laptop - must
write fast - must
go to lectures - eh, must?

[doodling]

don't need PDA or recorder

laptop - must
write fast - must
go to lectures - eh, must?

add:

a study budy that takes and shares good notes when you miss class - must!

[pebbles10]

it really depends what type of courses you are taking.
if you are taking history it would be helpful to have a voice recorder.
if you are taking something like economics or stats, it wouldn't make sense to have a voice recorder since the graphs or examples will most likely be done on the board or overhead sheets.

a laptop is great to have, but it's not absolutely necessary. i don't even use my laptop for taking notes in most of my courses. it's easier to draw graphs by hand.

i also used a voice recorder for my history lectures in first year, but i found that it was EXTREMELY time consuming to listen to the lectures again...w/ all the background noise (e.g. ppl talking/sneezing/coughing, papers rustling), it's sometimes hard to make out what the prof is saying.

[snplow]

To be quite honest, you don't need any of those. I have a Dell Axim x30 with WiFi and while it is an interesting toy for university, you really don't end up using it for academic purposes in the end.

My axim is able to record lectures, but I've never used that feature, nor have I found the recorder to be very useful anyways.

[Zero]

Meh who needs all that. Paper + Pen is all you need.

I don't know about you guys, but generally reading notes afterwards you are going to want a hard copy, so you are going to print it out on paper anyways. Unless you have really bad chicken scratch, I don't see much benefit in typing it out. Diagrams are way easier to draw on paper! (But then again I don't have a laptop. I'd probably just end up playing games or surfing the web like the other ppl I see.)


As for the voice recorder, who wants to listen to boring lectures twice. If you're not gonna take notes the first time through, what's the chance you are actually gonna go listen to it again? Unless you are really that dedicated.

[Jon Lai]

Meh who needs all that. Paper + Pen is all you need.

I don't know about you guys, but generally reading notes afterwards you are going to want a hard copy, so you are going to print it out on paper anyways. Unless you have really bad chicken scratch, I don't see much benefit in typing it out. Diagrams are way easier to draw on paper! (But then again I don't have a laptop. I'd probably just end up playing games or surfing the web like the other ppl I see.)


As for the voice recorder, who wants to listen to boring lectures twice. If you're not gonna take notes the first time through, what's the chance you are actually gonna go listen to it again? Unless you are really that dedicated.

Except typing is faster than writing. I type 80+ wpm, can you write that fast?

[Explode]

It seems your really afraid someone will steal your stuff

[Zero]

Except typing is faster than writing. I type 80+ wpm, can you write that fast?
Probably not, I'm pretty sure I can type faster than I write as well. But all that matters is if you can take down the important information. Laptop probably has some benefits, but it isn't really necessary, least not for me anyways.

[gamer123]

imo for notetaking typing wins, while graphs/charts/diagrams pen/paper win

[Babo]

Except typing is faster than writing. I type 80+ wpm, can you write that fast?

It all depends on the courses you are taking.
Tried a laptop for first year of university (life sciences@UofT) and found it to be useless for Calc, Physics, and Chemistry. It's a lot easier to print out the lectures notes and just add to them.

I'd say Pen + Paper is all you need unless you're taking a lot of humanities courses.

[B0000rt]

/\
True, History courses too.

Man, I should've borrowed someone's Notebook for the lectures. After the lectures, I found myself writing about 3 pages (single sided), and I write pretty small too, about 15 words per line.

(I'm 4th year Engineering student)

History elective = bad mistake, I've never read more for a course in my 4 years at university :(