Laptop to class?

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Specializes in NICU.

Do you take your laptop to classes? Is it encouraged or discouraged by professors?

Thanks!

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Our professors don't care either way. I honestly believe it depends on how well you are able to pay attention. Some people in my class take notes on their laptop and have no problem paying attention, but others can't keep themselves off facebook or searching the web. That is honestly why I do not bring my laptop because I know deep down I will be too tempted to start looking on other pages.

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I teach in a state university BSN program and am in a PhD program as a student. I use my laptop in class as a student when we are viewing PowerPoint presentations because I like to add notes directly to the PowerPoint file. When we are having a class discussion, I don't usually have the laptop open. I think viewing internet sites other than to look up references that come up in the discussion is distracting to both myself and my neighbors in class and could be irritating to the professor.

As an instructor, I don't keep track of what my students are doing online, but there is a lot of content in the lecture that either is not in the book specifically or possibly not emphasized in the book. I think that visiting other sites during class is somewhat a waste of your class time and could be annoying to your neighbors. Also some of my fellow faculty members ban laptops because of the number of students who are spending the time on facebook and IM sites. I guess, I would agree with the previous poster. If you will be tempted to be on other sites, don't use the laptop in class. If you are using it to enhance your understanding of the material, go ahead and use it. Nursing school is difficult for most students, so give yourself the best chance of success in mastering all the content that is presented during your lectures. Even if the content is the same as the book, the advantage of paying attention during lecture is mastery of the content and less time needed to spend on studying the same content out of class.

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I take a netbook to classes. This is a great way to keep all my notes paperless. Also, I installed the dropbox software, so all my notes are immediately synchronized with my computer at home. And I can login from anywhere and read them.

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I take my laptop to every class. None of our professors forbid laptops, but some do have rules for the types of notes we take. Some professors do not allow video or audio recordings to be made during their lectures, and will only allow you to type notes; some professors, on the other hand, don't care if you type your notes, make an audio recording, or make a video of them. I think that using my laptop to take notes is much faster, and much easier, than writing my notes by hand. I type far faster than I write, and I can always read what I've typed on screen. I don't have to worry about keeping up with the instructor's pace, ensuring that my writing is legible, or any of the other problems you run into when writing notes by hand. For those who can't type quickly and efficiently, or those who have limited computer skills, using a laptop may not be the best idea.

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I took notes on my netbook directly in to our powerpoints and in OneNote when there were no powerpoints. With the volume of powerpoints, it was great to cut down on the paper I needed and EVERYTHING from nursing school is in one convenient place. Made studying easier and I can type and pay attention better than I can handwrite and pay attention it turns out. I missed the memory boost I got from handwriting notes, but I think I would have missed too much if I'd done that so in the end I came out ahead with typing notes.

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check out "in first bsn class" thread. :icon_roll

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Specializes in NICU.

Thanks all. I type much faster than I write so I am glad to hear most professors do not mind a laptop because I think it would really benefit me. Also it will be nice to also keep my notes in one easy, organized location.

As far as the internet goes, I don't ever get online during a class, just like I don't keep my phone on during class. It's rude and distracting.

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I take my Netbook to class every day as well, its easier then printing out the power points before class (sometimes they don't even post the powerpoints until the morning of the class) that way i can make my notes on the power points and just print them out later...

Also our teachers are fine with recording the lectures, so I also bring a recorder to every class, sometimes when you have multiple nursing classes and since I have to take A&PII with those classes, it just makes life easier when my brain goes off on another tangent during those 4 hours lectures...

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Specializes in LTC/Rehab.
check out "in first bsn class" thread. :icon_roll

i just read that thread. wow at mattrn. he/she(sorry, i don't know!) summed it real nice.

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