Do you bring your laptop to class/lecture?

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how many of you use your laptop, in nursing school, like it's goin' out of style ? :monkeydance:

i should start a nursing program in the next 3-6 months, and i'm debating over whether i should use my laptop or not. i will obviously bring a binder and writing utensils..but i'm wondering if i can keep more information in my laptop. i type 65+/wpm, so i'm thinking i may be able to get more information down. plus, it seems very organized.

what do you think? how did you go about taking notes and learning in your classes?

:smokin:

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Specializes in ICU.

I mainly printed out the powerpoint slides ahead of time & took notes on the margins of the slides.

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Specializes in Emergency Room.

Didn't use it and the noise would have been a bit much in our class I think. (keys clicking). I too wrote on the powerpoints.

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powerpoints? hmm. were these powerpoints given to you by your teacher?

that sounds like a smart idea.

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Specializes in Telemetry/IMC.

I, along with most of my class, brought my laptop to class. It's good to take notes on, and after a test or test review, you can put any information you think may be on a final into one word document. Our class also had our books on the computer via evolve and could highlight, write notes, etc. there instead of on a page. (another plus is that the writing is actually legible.)

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tell me about this "evolve" :). am i far behind in this day and age of

technology? lol :D

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Specializes in Med-Surg/Ortho, Telemetry.

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.

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Specializes in Telemetry/IMC.

It's a certain brand of book and in the book bundle that we bought, we also got access to our books online and on desktop. it was really nice. If you want to look @ their website, its http://www.evolve.elsevier.com I don't know what books you'll be using, but ours were available via this site. It also has activities and videos and NCLEX type questions for each chapter.

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Oh man, was this thread made for me! Let me just say that the laptop has revolutionized nursing school. First quarter I brought it, I was about 1 of 3 who took it to class. By the end of the quarter, I had convinced 6 people to purchase a MacBook (My fav!) and begin to bring them to class. I also type 70wpm and this allows for EXCELLENT notes. The perfect thing is that you can have your powerpoint on one side of the screen and word opened on the other and you can type on through! If you're interested in learning more about how Mac is greater than PC (esp for lecture) let me know! I've convinced many a people to convert!!

Best of luck!!!

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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. It's tiny (9" screen), light (2 lbs), connects to the internet and holds a 3 hour charge. I plan on upgrading the battery so theoretically I could get 10-13 hours out of it. I use it to take lecture notes, draw diagrams, update my calender, check e-mail on breaks, etc. It also has a built in microphone and camera so I could tape lectures if I wanted to.

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. Once I get the bigger battery, I plan on leaving my textbook and binder at home and just carrying the netbook. No more NS-backache!

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One of my professors said that studies show that students learn better if they do NOT use a laptop to take notes. In my classes, at least 1/2 the students took notes on their laptops. I, however, never did. I find that I learn the material better if I physically have to write the information down.

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Only if needed for special group work or projects. There was always the option to use the computer lab computers for stuff like that (plus my school's library will let you borrow laptops for a couple of hours at a time for free with your library card). Only a couple people in my class regularly brought theirs. I always just printed the powerpoints and wrote out notes on the margins by hand.

Whenever I brought my laptop to use during a regular lecture class I tended to "play" and not pay as much attention. Facebook, email, googling- all just too tempting for me! lol

I'm graduating with my BSN tomorrow, and it worked for me the whole time!

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