Tablet Schools

[Pistol Pete]

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Was interested in hearing how folks feel about schools that have adopted the tablet technology. K-State appears to be sold on the tool and I have to admit, the thoughts of minimal book purchase, 1 tool that houses all notes, lectures, pictures, etc is very appealing. Our student ambassador mentioned on the tour there was even a "record" feature to document the professors voice presentation. At first glance, I was sold but in retrospect vets have been educated for decades without them and I'm sure there are those that learn better by writing and reviewing their own notes.

Everything else being equal between two schools would this type information system and technology format be the deciding factor for you?

PP

 

[twelvetigers]

I'll be getting one whenever I start. I think it'll be great for me, and I love the idea of saving paper too. Be aware that a few schools are not technology friendly (didn't someone say that about Texas?) so be sure to look into that. No point in having a tablet if the school doesn't want you having laptops in class.

 

[Skillet9886]

the thoughts of minimal book purchase,

Just to clarify, notes and coursepacks and things are on the tablet, but you still have to buy textbooks.

I think I would like the system they have at K-State. I do best writing things down, but can't always write fast enough to get everything in lectures. My tour guide said she uses the tablet in class and then rewrites her notes; that's probably what I would do.

I LOVE the search feature they were talking about on the tablet. I can't believe the program recognizes your handwriting and will search for that within the documents as well! Quite impressive. I have to buy a new computer before vet school regardless, so I will probably look into a tablet laptop. This laptop, sadly, is on its last leg.

 

[Pistol Pete]

but you still have to buy textbooks.

Our tourguide indicated she bought one $30 book(Anatomy, I think)as a first year vet student at K-State.

PP

 

[LVT2DVM]

.

 

[Skillet9886]

Hm, I may stand corrected. Someone asked on my tour if the textbooks were online, and the first year vet student leading us said emphatically "NO! No, I still have to buy textbooks." She indicated that it was still a pretty big expense.

 

[RazorDoc2010]

I've had a tablet since I started vet school, and I've loved it. It's nice to have every note I've taken since day 1 on there and it's so easy to go back and look up stuff with the search function someone brought up in an earlier post. It really depends on you though...some people learn better with paper, some learn better on the computer, and some learn better with a combo of both. I take all my notes on the computer, but then I rewrite my notes to highlight important points when I'm studying. This is what seems to work best for me. There are certain things (cases studies, for instance) that I prefer to do on paper, but I usually just end up copying them into my tablet later anyways.

 

[alliecat44]

At K-State, you do still have to buy textbooks. What textbooks you buy are up to you, just like at any vet school. So, someone could have gotten by with purchasing one anatomy book--though this sounds kind of extreme to me--but most of us did buy several books our first year. (There are a couple that I bought that I didn't use, but that's a different topic! 😀)

You do not have to purchase notepacks, but there is a "technology fee" on your tuition bill each semester.

 

[Pistol Pete]

RazorDoc,

Does Missouri make electronic copies of the lectures available? K-State apparently loads all material to the school issued tablet, so a 1st year student receives their tablet with the entire semester of lectures, pictures, diagrams,etc. That was the part that was very appealing to me as it seemed an easy way to reduce the pressure of getting detailed notes allowing the student focus more on lecturer and the material.

PP

 

[RazorDoc2010]

RazorDoc,

Does Missouri make electronic copies of the lectures available? K-State apparently loads all material to the school issued tablet, so a 1st year student receives their tablet with the entire semester of lectures, pictures, diagrams,etc. That was the part that was very appealing to me as it seemed an easy way to reduce the pressure of getting detailed notes allowing the student focus more on lecturer and the material.

PP

About 99% of our stuff is posted online well in advance of class on Blackboard. First semester Histo is a note packet from the bookstore and for some reason it wasn't available online (it may have changed this year, I'm not sure). You still have to take notes in class but usually anything that is "test material" is already in the powerpoints, notes, etc.

 

[researchvet]

I've had a tablet since I started vet school, and I've loved it. It's nice to have every note I've taken since day 1 on there and it's so easy to go back and look up stuff with the search function someone brought up in an earlier post. It really depends on you though...some people learn better with paper, some learn better on the computer, and some learn better with a combo of both. I take all my notes on the computer, but then I rewrite my notes to highlight important points when I'm studying. This is what seems to work best for me. There are certain things (cases studies, for instance) that I prefer to do on paper, but I usually just end up copying them into my tablet later anyways.

Do you use OneNote for note taking?

 

[sumstorm]

I don't know about tablets in vet school, but I can share my tablet experience as a field biologist/ethologist/zoologist.

I have owned a tablet since 2002. The technology has greatly improved. Tablets are excellent for those who prefer pen/paper, as that IS an option on a tablet....it can be treated like a paper notebook. The digitizer pen takes a bit to habituate to, but works very well. They are relatively light weight, and docking stations enable the use of larger monitors when at home.

What makes the tablet nicer for notes than a paper pad? searchability, convertability, multimedia note taking, compact size (one computer vs lots of note books), single source, easy back up of saved material (if you set up a replication drive), instant internet access in many place, convenient communication tool.

What are the 'sore' points? Just like any computer, you can crash, and in the middle of a class, that is horrifying. So I still carry a small notebook with me 'just in case' (in 7+ years I have only experienced 1 crash in class, and a total of 4 in circumstances that were inopportune and required the note pad back up. You need ot learn to save frequently, otherwise you may randomly lose a page of notes if you have to force close anything. The need for power. I have invested heavily in extended life batteries, but they still won't get you through a long day of use. Hard on the hands/wrists (small keyboards can irritate joints) so I also have a desktop set up with a dock and split keyboard, etc. Need to carry supplies for the laptop (screen cleaner, sd card/thumb drive (for me), extra digitizer pen. My current tablet also lacks an optical drive (its in the docking station.)

I also find that because I can capture far more with my tablet, I must be extra organized electronically. Random files or saving everything to documents won't cut it.

I plan on taking my tablet wherever I go. I haven't seen a lot of vets using them, but all of my medical doctors (when I lived in NY/NJ) used tablets for everything. No paper files. My husband is a computer expert in security work so I have some advantages in understanding the technology and its perks and limitations.

 

[LadyHitokiri]

Some (but not all) textbooks are now available in e-book format that can be downloaded into your tablet, so buying a traditional book may not be necessary, depending on your schools requirements.

ISU uses a tablet. The students seem to love it and the demo I got at my interview was pretty cool.

I know that ISU said we'd have access to virtual histology slides, and other things that utilize the tablet PC. That's pretty cool, because it is convenient and will aid in the learning experience.

 

[Mongooze]

I have actually been thinking about getting a tablet for quite some time now, so I'm glad this forum came up. Does anyone have any good recommendations for tablets they are using/have used that they really liked? What tablet models is KSU giving their students this year, or gave them last year? I'm trying to get some background info on the more popular brands (HP's touchsmart esp.) but would love some real-life feedback!

 

[pupsforseeing]

I have actually been thinking about getting a tablet for quite some time now, so I'm glad this forum came up. Does anyone have any good recommendations for tablets they are using/have used that they really liked? What tablet models is KSU giving their students this year, or gave them last year? I'm trying to get some background info on the more popular brands (HP's touchsmart esp.) but would love some real-life feedback!

i have an hp tc4200 and i love it. it is 4 years old this year, so it's done its time (got me through undergrad and has now survived a sketchy internet connection and copious amounts of dust and dirt in a third world country for 5 months!). in undergrad, i used it for note taking in just about all of my classes. depending on the class, i would either use it as a regular laptop or use the tablet function. when i used the tablet function, i would generally re-write my notes later in a spiral bound notebook. so, even though i was still using some paper, i found i used a whole lot less paper because i could condense as i rewrote and could write things more clearly because i had already heard it once. i like studying from paper notes, but it was really nice to have all the information in my computer for searching purposes.

i would get the newest version of this tablet (i can't remember what the newest one is called) in a heartbeat. i plan on getting another tablet for vet school and, depending on where i go (if there's a required model or not), i will try to get the hp. after having one, i can't imagine going back to a traditional laptop! it drives me nuts to use other peoples' now and not be able to spin around their screen and whip out my pen to add handwritten comments to whatever i'm reading 🙂

 

[VAgirl]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE my tablet for school. I know some people in my class are sick of them, there have been some problems with malfunctioning computers, etc. But I ADORE mine and am so glad that I made a school that was so computer/technology savvy and had the tablet PC thing going a top priority in my list of vet school requirements. Honestly. I'd write more about it but it's late. Maybe I'll rave more later. 🙂

 

[nyanko]

i would get the newest version of this tablet (i can't remember what the newest one is called) in a heartbeat. i plan on getting another tablet for vet school and, depending on where i go (if there's a required model or not), i will try to get the hp. after having one, i can't imagine going back to a traditional laptop! it drives me nuts to use other peoples' now and not be able to spin around their screen and whip out my pen to add handwritten comments to whatever i'm reading 🙂

I have the newer version of your tablet and I do love it, for what it's worth. I've acclimated very easily to using it to take notes in class and it is so much easier to cart around than a bunch of notebooks, it's ridiculous. 😀

 

[RazorDoc2010]

Do you use OneNote for note taking?

Yep, it's quite the handy little program.

 

[RazorDoc2010]

I have actually been thinking about getting a tablet for quite some time now, so I'm glad this forum came up. Does anyone have any good recommendations for tablets they are using/have used that they really liked? What tablet models is KSU giving their students this year, or gave them last year? I'm trying to get some background info on the more popular brands (HP's touchsmart esp.) but would love some real-life feedback!

I have a Lenovo X61. It's awesome.

 

[sumstorm]

I had a toshiba, which had the optical drive in the tablet, which was great, but a bit heavy (and older technology) so the screen writing wasn't as good. However, it worked well, held up for 4 years, including going out to sea in the north atlantic. I did pay extra for a 24 hour repair service with accident coverage, which I used 4 times (once for a soaked keyboard.) It was worth the extra cost.

When I was a year past the extended warranty on the Toshiba, I worried that the otpical drive was starting to go, and that it was just starting to show a lot of wear and tear (screen had some scratches- watch using the digitizer in gritty/dusty places without cleaning both the screen and digitizer first) and worn spots, almost all the keys lacked lettering due to typing, and a few other minor things were just off....so we retired it (may be sending it to a friend in undergrad) and purchased a new tablet.

The 2nd tablet is a Lenova (formerly IBM) X61 with Windows Vista. I use MS OneNote, Franklin Covey Plan Plus, several photo editing/publishing programs, Visio, Access, Zinio, and iMindMap, some of which are very intensive programs. I also have a docking station with optical drive and an alternate keyboard, trackball, and large screen.

 

[BobDog]

At Penn 99.9% of the lecture material is available online on our learn.vet website. The only exceptions so far have been professors who aren't into the digital age. There have only been 2 of these that I can think of. One of them is a paleontologist, so I guess he's a dinosaur who is fond of dinosaurs. He is actually really cool and an expert on triceratops, which if you ask me is the coolest dinosaur (he even got to name a member of the triceratops family) 😀. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Dodson

Anyway, I have a macbook and download all of the lectures and annotate them using a program called skim. My computer isn't a tablet, but it works really well for me. I find that I rarely need to draw anything, but I am always annotating figures that the professors show. I can do basic lines and boxes using the program, but I mostly just type my notes in boxes on the slides. I am certain that I can type WAY faster than I can write, so for me it works well.

But at Penn you can do it either way. You can use your computer (which about 15% of us do) or you can do it old-school style.

 

[CBRGrl]

I dont have one, but this thread has sparked my interest. Here's a good site to check out:
http://www.tabletpcreview.com/default.asp?newsID=1329

 

[Danaish72]

I've got the Lenovo x61. It's great, definitely built for utility unlike almost all the others (which have some obvious design flaws). My advice, spend the money on getting a good machine, you'll depend on it. The HPs are cheap and it shows (this coming front a long time HP customer) and a number of people in my class have been having issues with the toshibas. Also, you may want to consider buying these in the off season, prices seem to get jacked up in the summer when the companies know students are shopping.

 

[VAgirl]

I've got the Lenovo x61. It's great, definitely built for utility unlike almost all the others (which have some obvious design flaws). My advice, spend the money on getting a good machine, you'll depend on it. The HPs are cheap and it shows (this coming front a long time HP customer) and a number of people in my class have been having issues with the toshibas. Also, you may want to consider buying these in the off season, prices seem to get jacked up in the summer when the companies know students are shopping.

Some schools that require computers require a specific one, so you don't get a choice. We got a choice between a Toshiba tablet PC or a mac. Maybe an argument against schools that require certain computers. But on the other hand, those schools requiring computers might be the ones that provide more support for the integration of technology into education and the classroom. Personally, I wouldn't trade my computer (even with the flaws it does have) for the benefit of being at such a tech friendly school and being able to do 95% of my in-class work and studying on my computer. It's really so great.

Obviously, my comments aren't geared at comparing one tablet vs. another, just singing the praises of schools that are v. tech-friendly and work in such a way that maximizes the functionality of tablets (professors loading all slides and educational materials online, etc.).

 

[Neoformans]

hi, kind of unrelated, but I just tried out skim today, love it, thanks to whoever mentioned it, I've been looking for a program that does that kind of thing for a while

 

[alliecat44]

Completely off-topic, but Neoformans, I love your screen name. Crypto is like my favorite infectious agent of all time!!! 😍

 

[Neoformans]

hehe. thanks alliecat. I'm doing crypto research at the moment, mostly on the gattii strains though, I only have one neoformans strain I use in my studies 😀