Using wacom tablet for lecture

[waspahh33]

So i just purchased a wacom bamboo pen tablet with high hope of compatibility and ease of use. I am curious if anyone else has purchased one of these or anything similar and if they can share their thoughts of how it has helped them in school. Particularly, what programs, etc have you found it useful?

Thanks!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Mattabet]

I've got a Wacom. I feel like it would be a little too clunky for lecture use, I liked to take my notes directly on the slide handouts. Bringing a pen and a binder is easier than bringing computer and USB peripherals.

That said, when I use it to draw, I use Corel Essentials.

 

[SirGecko]

I had a tablet during my last year and a half of undergraduate (engineering major) and loved it for taking notes. Engineering notes involve a lot of math and diagrams that just aren't as easy to produce without a stylus. The ability to then do searching of my handwritten notes and keep them all organized in one place with all my assignments as well was awesome.

That said I don't think the system translated very well to medical school. I just never found taking notes to be as essential as it was in engineering. In engineering if you miss class or cannot find your class notes you are pretty much screwed. The first two years of med school could be learned entirely without class or notes if you like to learn that way. Usually the material is either in the note set they give you, on a slide or explained pretty well in a book somewhere. Mostly I found myself making review sheets while preparing for tests. For that I just wrote them on regular old paper because I didn't really need to make a database as I went along and didn't have assignments to compile. Plus if you want to use a computer typing is just fine for most of medicine and it is faster.

 

[seelee]

I had a tablet during my last year and a half of undergraduate (engineering major) and loved it for taking notes. Engineering notes involve a lot of math and diagrams that just aren't as easy to produce without a stylus. The ability to then do searching of my handwritten notes and keep them all organized in one place with all my assignments as well was awesome.

That said I don't think the system translated very well to medical school. I just never found taking notes to be as essential as it was in engineering. In engineering if you miss class or cannot find your class notes you are pretty much screwed. The first two years of med school could be learned entirely without class or notes if you like to learn that way. Usually the material is either in the note set they give you, on a slide or explained pretty well in a book somewhere. Mostly I found myself making review sheets while preparing for tests. For that I just wrote them on regular old paper because I didn't really need to make a database as I went along and didn't have assignments to compile. Plus if you want to use a computer typing is just fine for most of medicine and it is faster.

They tell everyone in our school to buy tablets. By the end of the first semester nobody is using the tablet feature. Writing on a screen can't beat writing on paper and like a previous poster said, there is not a lot of mass note taking in med lectures and what is taken can be typed in the margins of a pdf easier than it can be written on a tablet.

 

[theWUbear]

My Lenovo Laptop/Tablet hybrid has wacom integrated into the system, and I used it to keep the slides on my computer and write on the slides, keeping everything digital (during my SMP med school classes). Worked fantastic

 

[Brent8927]

I used the small Wacom Intuos4 tablet and I absolutely loved it. It's more expensive than the Bamboo, but I also use it for Photoshop since I'm also a photographer. A big difference is that the "pen" has an "eraser"--you can erase just like as with a pencil. I can't emphasize how useful that is... The tablet also feels to be of substantially better quality, in my opinion.

I think whether or not a tablet is good for you just depends on your style. I really hate typing notes, and I dislike not being able to circle/point to certains words/structures on the powerpoint slide, so the tablet was extremely helpful, as well as fun to use, for me. I used the tablet everyday, for every lecture, after I bought it. I noticed a lot of people bought tablets during neuroscience, when we got around to the heavy neuroantomy stuff. But then most of them stopped using tablets once pathology started.

The tablet sits perfectly on top of a 13 inch Macbook pro, so the whole setup was compact for me. Combined with Curio, a software program, you can't go wrong! (If you have a PC, OneNote is the popular program for use with a tablet). I just save my ppt as a pdf, import the file into Curio, and leave a really wide margin so I can take notes, and I'm ready to go.

Personally, I prefer to write my notes on paper, using a pencil. But I spent a lot of money in biochem printing notes out, so I started using my computer to save money, as well as to have access to all my notes at all times. If you're similar and also prefer writing out your notes, then you might be one of the few who would enjoy/benefit from using a tablet. Otherwise, it'll probably only be of benefit for anatomy, neuroanatomy, etc.