Do you bring your laptop to class/lecture?

Di Deanna · Jun 12, 2009

wow, i didn't expect this thread to get so many replies!

thank you nurse-pals .

i have a few options to weight out now..i suppose :nurse:

Scooter321 · Jun 12, 2009

I got my laptop (Tablet PC) a year into the nursing program because I wanted to be a little more organized (I would misplace my lecture notes occasionally and my binder was just a mess). It also saved a ton of paper and ink. I would go through 1-3 ink cartridges a month. Quite a few people in my class used laptops during lectures and no one really minded the key clicking.
One thing I would recommend to everyone is Microsoft's OneNote program, combined with PP2One (Google it) which converted Powerpoints into OneNote so you could easily type notes on it. Here's a screenshot of what it would look like. As you can see, I have notebooks divided by class and lectures are separated by pages.

I didn't have much luck Googling for PP2One, unfortunately. All the links I came up with seem to be dead. I wonder if it is really necessary though. I have OneNote (just starting to get to know it before starting NS in the fall), and with Office 2007 you can "print" or send PP presentations to OneNote and make whatever notes you like, search them, etc. Does PP2One do something extra, or is it just for the earlier version of OneNote that didn't have the capability of displaying PP documents?

I love your screenshot, by the way. It looks like you have it all so well organized. I might just have to steal your ideas.

Scooter321 · Jun 12, 2009

I have a 17" laptop that I use at home, but I have just started using a netbook in my Microbiology class and I'm loving it....

I could have written this! I'm a medical transcriptionist (so type faster than I can write) who works from home on a 17" laptop. It weighs about a ton, and it is so full of work anyway (I teach MT also and have all my students' work on it) so I just treated myself to a 2-pound netbook for school.

The downside is that the screen is smaller than a regular laptop, so it would be difficult to view power points and a document or a webpage at the same time, but you could have them both open and just flip back and forth. .....

Mine has a 10" screen, so still pretty small, and the battery life is somewhere between 4-1/2 (realistically) hours and 6 hours (claimed). I can't wait to start using it in school, and I have been playing with OneNote and putting some great web pages (nursing, of course) into the program. I'm such a nerd. :typing

mkblakley07 · Jun 13, 2009

Did that link for evolve work? I couldn't get it to, but my pc is a giant piece of work. If you want to look at that site and it didn't work, just google evolve and it comes up as the first result.

mybrowneyedgirl, BSN, RN · Jun 13, 2009

CocoBella - our Powerpoints were provided by our instructor. I did go home and type up notes for each test to study from. I think it depends on your school if a lot of people use laptops. Noone used them at mine.

Evolve was a website that was included with the purchase of a couple of my nursing books (Psych and Med/Surg). http://evolve.elsevier.com/productPages/s_1170.html This is my link. I don't know if it would work for you.

Good luck with everything.

starzburst · Jun 13, 2009

Does PP2One do something extra, or is it just for the earlier version of OneNote that didn't have the capability of displaying PP documents?
I love your screenshot, by the way. It looks like you have it all so well organized. I might just have to steal your ideas.

Printing to OneNote also works, but I like how PP2One formats it. I've tried printing it straight to OneNote and I'd spend extra time just fixing it to the way I want so I was happy when I found a program that did it perfectly. Looked through my computer and I still had the program, so I attached it.

PP2One_2007_beta1.zip

r0b0tafflicti0n · Jun 13, 2009

Hmmm. I've been thinking about doing this as well. My laptop (I have the old MacBook Pro) is so heavy though; I'm going to wait and see if we need to carry any of our books around too!

Scooter321 · Jun 13, 2009

Printing to OneNote also works, but I like how PP2One formats it.... Looked through my computer and I still had the program, so I attached it.

Thank you SO much--that's really kind of you. I will definitely use this. :rcgtku:

melmarie23, MSN, RN · Jun 13, 2009

most of my classmates and I bring our laptops to class. I dont find it distracting at all and no one else has complained of the clicking noise. In fact I dont think I've ever once noticed the clicking of other people's typing.

gillytook · Jun 13, 2009

I took my laptop to classes the last two semesters. It saved alot of time on organizing my notes. It took my notes right on the power points in the section below, then went home and added charts and extra pictures. I also had a PDA for clinical. I bought all my resource books in electronic form from Skyscape so I got the PC version free with the PDA version. That way with the weight of just my laptop, I had all my power points and notes, the text if the were online, a drug guide, lab resource, and nursing diagnosis book. I was the go-to person in class for information.

swirlything · Jun 13, 2009

I will tell you that I find other people using the internet during class to be very distracting. There were, in fact, times when there was internet Media within my view during class. Media, games, chatting, lots of facebook; many students who brought laptops were not getting everything they could from the lectures.

Scooter321 · Jun 13, 2009

I will tell you that I find other people using the internet during class to be very distracting. There were, in fact, times when there was internet Media within my view during class. Media, games, chatting, lots of facebook; many students who brought laptops were not getting everything they could from the lectures.

I can only speak for myself of course, but there's no way I would be browsing the internet, playing games or chatting while in class. Media? Really? I'm speechless. :omy: