Last year, the real question on everybody's lips was whether to embrace the turtleback or go for an off the shoulder bag / tote. The ultimate showdown of 2009 looks instead at merits of taking paper or a laptop to class.
I will first start by saying that I have, for most of my university career (thus far), have been a paper person. This should be clarified with the fact that I study Arts, and that very few people in Arts take laptops to class - although this number is increasing. I enjoy the smoothness of a pen on paper, and the ability to doodle over my notes when / if I become distracted in a lecture. However, at the beginning of this semester, I decided to see what it was like taking my laptop to class... and it's a remarkably different learning experience - for me, at least.
FOR PAPER, AGAINST LAPTOP
Laptop kids in lectures where people mostly bring paper are annoying. They insist on sitting near a powerpoint, they tap loudly and constantly throughout a lecture which succeeds in distracting everyone else, and also makes most other people nervous about what they are missing out in a lecture. Really, what is the lecturer saying that is so type-worthy? Taking notes in a lecture pad or on loose leaf paper for a binder is quieter, and it also compels you to listen closely to what is being said - you have to really figure out for yourself what is noteworthy and what isn't. There is the added bonus of being able to doodle, and it is usually a lot quicker to jot down diagrams. If you leave your notepad on a bus, sure it's annoying but it's not as if you have left over $1000 worth of technology lying around. And paper never runs out of battery.
FOR LAPTOP, AGAINST PAPER
We are in the 21st century - why are we still using paper? What a waste! It is much neater to use a laptop in class. Less rubbish in the long run, and it's just so much easier to organise your thoughts with a quick cut + paste, rather than having to splurge everything out on paper and try to decipher it a few weeks down when you're trying to revise. If you're studying something like Law, you'd be foolish to not bring a laptop to class - the lecturers speak so fast, and give you so much information in a short space of time, that the only way to manage it is by virtually touch typing it all. People who like doodling in their notepads still have that option with newer word processing programs, and laptops are accessible to virtually anyone these days - just go to office works and check out their collection of itsy bitsy teeny weeny pcs, or the hit up Dick Smith / the Apple Shop for laptops with long lasting battery life - so you'd never have to worry about running out of battery in class! On top of this, it's just so much CLEANER. You don't have to scrounge around for different notepads everyday - you just have your one laptop, and that's it.
As someone who is currently trialling the laptop side of things - after years of paper - the jury is still out for me. What do you think? Do you like paper, or prefer plastic?
Comments
Definitely paper for lectures and tutorials. The only time I bring a laptop is when I'm in the last stages of an assignment due soon, when I don't have the luxury of time to wait around for a computer and then set up everything to do my work.
What gets me about laptoppers in arts lectures is that whenever I look down or over at them (they're always clearly in line of sight), they only seem to have written what was on the lecturer's powerpoint. And really, it seems such a pointless exercise. On the upside, if the lecturer went through a slide too quickly and you need to quickly recall a phrase that you didn't write down, you can just look over to any laptopper. Or...you could just go home and download the powerpoint presentation which will be uploaded anyway.
Posted by: Pristine | August 6, 2009 02:52 AM