I'm a middle-aged guy that will be going back to school starting this weekend (UCLA Extension). It just occurred to me that I might look ridiculous if I were to enter the lecture-hall carrying my spiral bound notebook and uni-ball rollers.

Do ANY college students at all these days take notes with regular paper and pen? Or is it pretty much 100% netbook/laptops these days?

The class I'm taking is an accelerated class that meets once a week from 8:30 - 4:30. For anyone that wanted to take notes with their netbook, what would you do about the battery life issue? Surely there aren't any electrical outlets for each student?? Or are there??

I take notes with the good old fashioned way: Pen and paper. I also try to avoid bringing my laptop to class because no matter how much I try it turns out to be a distraction. 90% of the kids on laptops are either on msn, reading manga or screwing around on facebook. There are exceptions though, my friend takes all his notes on his laptop including calculus (LaTeX)! I would recommend that you take your notebook and two pens :tucool:

I TA'd classes a couple of years ago, and most students took notes on pen and paper. A few used computers.

Don't worry about looking stupid. Use whatever works best for you.

Most use pen and paper. It's only in certain specialized majors at certain schools were you will find extensive use of laptops.

It's nice to be part of a forum where the people are so quick to help. Thanks for all the responses!!

I use paper. I might get a netbook soon though ;)

I graduated last year and always used paper for note-taking. The professors typically handed out paper and I kept a Binder for each course. I always brought my laptop so I could quickly email/upload assignments as necessary.

For anyone that wanted to take notes with their netbook, what would you do about the battery life issue? Surely there aren't any electrical outlets for each student?? Or are there??

It depends on the lecture hall. A few of the rooms I've been in have outlets for every seat. Most older buildings only have random ones near the aisles.

I've gone with pencil + paper for most lectures, but one of my recitations this semester "requires" (:confused:) a laptop. Usually classes/recitations like this just meet in computer labs.

When I was in grad school (recently), I used pen and paper for the time I was in classes. The classes were very mathematical and equation-heavy, so pen and paper notes made the most sense. Everyone else did the same thing. I don't think you'll stand out. :)

I graduated about a year ago, but i only used pen and paper. It made things a lot easier, especially when having to make notes involving graphs and equations. You just cant do that as quick on a computer as doing it by hand, plus i think its easier to sort through.

Having a computer in class is also risky! You can be tempted to just surf the net instead of paying attention to the lecture!

I always used a laptop...but on days when I forgot my laptop or battery died I had to use paper...

I noticed I took in a lot more during the lecture while writing down on the paper then just typing away...maybe because writing is slower and you have to look at the paper and write instead of just blindly typing whatever the teacher said....

Also it was easier for some classes to write...for example some formulas and other things you might have to use symbols and all that ...writing helps as you can just write the formula anyway u want and not have to worry about format

Oh...and the laptop also offers lots of distractions (pokerstars lol)

Hi, I'm a college prof and lots of my students are now about 50/50 paper/netbook.

Just a thought--I've noticed that many students who take notes with pen/paper do better than those with netbooks, but this is merely correlational and ancetodal. My best students develop a short-hand so that they can follow the "essence" of the conversation and then plug in technical formulas and other essentials into their notes later (many of them type up their notes after the lecture and reading materials).

Our classroom has plugs for every student (tiered classroom with individual desks), but I've noticed that a lot of classrooms are still "old style."

Good luck!

Pen and paper is fine. I'd say at most, 50% will be using a laptop. Most won't probably be using the laptop for notes, though. Expect a lot of twittering and facebooking going on around you. :lol:

I work in a school district and there are a few middle schools that supply a laptop to every student. Almost everything is done on the notebook and while I appreciate the boost in technology, the majority of the kids in those schools aren't able to write longhand very legibly anymore.

I work in a school district and there are a few middle schools that supply a laptop to every student. Almost everything is done on the notebook and while I appreciate the boost in technology, the majority of the kids in those schools aren't able to write longhand very legibly anymore.

I'm surprised that schools would do this. With all the distractions that a computer offers, I imagine that most of the kids will probably be surfing the net, playing games, chatting with friends, etc. etc. I can't see how this would facilitate learning.

Not to go on a rant or anything, but sometimes technology that is meant to assist with learning actually ends up hindering it. A friend of mine teaches stats at a university, and she is continually surprised at how many students can't do basic multiplication and division of single digit numbers without the use of a calculator.

I'm a middle-aged guy that will be going back to school starting this weekend (UCLA Extension). It just occurred to me that I might look ridiculous if I were to enter the lecture-hall carrying my spiral bound notebook and uni-ball rollers.

Do ANY college students at all these days take notes with regular paper and pen? Or is it pretty much 100% netbook/laptops these days?

The class I'm taking is an accelerated class that meets once a week from 8:30 - 4:30. For anyone that wanted to take notes with their netbook, what would you do about the battery life issue? Surely there aren't any electrical outlets for each student?? Or are there??

Students in my classes have no choice but paper notes. Laptops and any form of communication or electric device are forbidden in my classroom. (I teach at a law school.)

This is my 3rd academic year of banning them. I was the first to take the plunge, with the disapproval of my new Dean (though he was extremely gracious about it.)

Subsequently, every year, more and more faculty ban laptops now. Students repeatedly report that their performance has gone up -- one student noted that the only courses he got A's in were mine and another colleague who banned them as well the following year after me.

Many students have stopped using laptops even in classes that permit them after taking a course with me.

They did not realize how little they were learning from using laptops.

There were two main reasons: one, they had not idea how much they were distracted by their laptops -- email, surfing on line -- even without the internet, reading other things, looking at pictures, etc., etc. etc.

The other reason is one the students for the most part don;t understand -- though some have grasped it and all have benefited. The problem with laptops is that students tend to take down every word the professor has said. As flattering as that is in fact that is not how they learn. When taking notes by hand you have to be selective and think about what is the most important to jot down -- That process forces you to think about the material conceptually and that thinking is the critical part of the learning process in the classroom. Otherwise there would be no point in having classes. I could just record and transcribe my classes for one semester and then just pass out the transcription every year there after.

But it is in the interaction that students learn -- and part of that is figuring out what is the most important elements to warrant writing down.

And if anyone doubts how incredibly distracting the computer is -- just think about the recent airline flight that missed where ti was supposed to land by over 150 miles. Why? because the entire crew, including the captain and co-captain were so absorbed by their laptops that they missed when they were supposed to land.

Were they playing games or surfing the internet. No, they were looking at the new flight schedules and trying to figure out what their schedule was going to be. Ostensibly they were still focusing on work -- but in the meantime -- they had not idea how much time had passed.

And if a group of highly trained professionals, who have been doing their job for a decade or decades -- with the lives of 150 passengers are more in their care -- can't tear their eyes away from their laptop -- when they might have crash landed instead of just missing the city they were supposed to land in by 150 miles -- if these people can't under such circumstances -- what makes anyone think that a student can do it in a class on a day that he or she is tired or just doesn't fell like school - or even when he or she wants to pay attention in class.

Laptops in the classroom is like texting while driving. Nothing but disaster is ahead.

My 2 cents :D

I actually use a little of both.
At my college we have outlets at all of sets in our lecture halls, so thats nice. I know some students who have another battery they use in case the primary one fails.
I defiantly carry my pins and notebooks with me, I use these to work out problems the old fashion way,

On the point of the note taking, I enjoy the luxury of being able to type as fast as my professor is speaking. I, of course, won't type everything they say because that's pointless. The main thing I like about it is the ability to organize everything instantly. Maybe they stray off topic, or even relate two topics with each other.

I personally prefer using my laptop, but then again i'm a really focussed and dedicated person.

Most use pen and paper. It's only in certain specialized majors at certain schools were you will find extensive use of laptops.

:nod:

In Computer science, everyone uses paper and pencil. Marker board diagrams are much easier to represent on paper.

When taking notes by hand you have to be selective and think about what is the most important to jot down -- That process forces you to think about the material conceptually and that thinking is the critical part of the learning process in the classroom.

Kind of surprising that a group of students who are supposedly intelligent enough to make it into law school haven't figured this out.

It's usually half and half, depending on the Professor and how lenient they are regarding the use of Laptops. Though, you must take into consideration the curriculum at hand as well. It is a sign of the times though... just walk into the Atrium of any College Campus and 75% of the people you see there, young or old, are on a laptop, whether they use them in class or not.

When I was doing EMT-Basic training at the beginning of 2009, I had... let me think... a 9 hour class (too long :p) every Sunday. 50% of the day consisted of lecture, the other 50% of strictly hands on instruction with the Proctors. Now, no one in the class even considered bringing their laptops for the beginning of the day, but a lot of them wished they did. Since this was a condensed, faster paced class, the Professor, while an amazing teacher, breezed through everything that we were supposed to take down in about 20% the amount of time it took for us to get the first paragraph on paper. Still, no one justified the risk of taking in a laptop when the latter end of our day was strictly lab work.

Now I'm focusing on mostly Bio and Pre-Med malarchy and the laptop works freakin' wonders (well, all of the classes I take are online right now, but you get my point. :D). I probably won't use it nearly as much at the Community College I'm at right now, but you can be damn sure I will at a larger school.

Just find your happy medium. Absolutely everyone has something that works for them. I just picked the notebook because, simply, I type at least 1000% faster than I write freehand (maintaining a modicum of legibility, that is) and usually transition my paper notes to the computer anyway. Makes them easier to browse at the end of the day, and... I dunno... I feel depressingly pragmatic looking at paper notes for hours on end.

It's the same information, just different approaches. Good luck!

I used to take my laptop in to all my lectures to take notes but I realised I wasn't taking in the information the same - I was also constantly getting distracted by the internet. I'd tune out of something I thought was unimportant, load up Facebook and the next thing I knoow the lecturer has started something else and I'm totally lost.

Another reason why I switched back to pen and paper is caluclations. It's rather difficult to quickly do all your working out for calculations on a laptop and so it's just easier to use a pen. I'm doing a Computer Science degree so there's plenty of Maths about.

I used to take my laptop in to all my lectures to take notes but I realised I wasn't taking in the information the same - I was also constantly getting distracted by the internet. I'd tune out of something I thought was unimportant, load up Facebook and the next thing I knoow the lecturer has started something else and I'm totally lost.

Another reason why I switched back to pen and paper is caluclations. It's rather difficult to quickly do all your working out for calculations on a laptop and so it's just easier to use a pen. I'm doing a Computer Science degree so there's plenty of Maths about.

I am the same exact way. I always use my trusty pen and paper.

30 yrs old and auditing a Spanish class right now. Couldn't imagine trying to take notes on a computer. Can't match the speed and flexibility of pen and paper.