How often would it be great to have a laptop in class?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>I’m going to be entering a university in the spring after I get my AS degree and I will be going for a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering. I’ll have a desktop at my apartment but I probably will be living off campus, a good 20 minute walk/short drive. Have there been times you’ve really had a laptop come in handy? I know there were a couple times even at my community college where I was in a mad rush to get home and use my computer then get back before class. I don’t want to deal with that anymore.</p>

<p>Opinions? Thanks!</p>

2

<p>any time i was tired and falling asleep</p>

<p>laptop (netbook, actually) kept me awake =p</p>

3

<p>I wouldn’t bring a laptop unless I need to take excessive notes. The 50-60hz flicker rate on the screen would probably make me more likely to fall a sleep, so a digital recorder will do for me.</p>

4

<p>The more useful time to use a laptop is when you want to work on a group project but don’t want to sit in a computer lab. If you would rather use a group study room at a library, or a coffee house or something else, a laptop comes in great handy. That was really the only time I wished I had one.</p>

5

<p>

Ditto. There were countless times when I wanted to do work away from my room and away from a computer lab.</p>

6

<p>In class? Almost never. It’s more of a distraction than anything.</p>

7

<p>Never carried my laptop to class. I always used the computer lab for work on campus. It was a small engineering program and always plenty of computers available. I was at a larger campus for two years and it was very hard to get work done in some of the labs.</p>

8

<p>I’ve never found a laptop (or recording device) to be all that useful for taking notes or anything else in a typical lecture-style course. I can type around 100 word per minute, but the extra speed gained from typing notes as opposed to writing them isn’t worth it:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>When you’re forced to write something quickly, it is important to condense the information and pick out only the significant bits. This forces you to use your brain and actively process what’s being presented. It’s not too hard to copy down most of what you hear by typing/recording, but then it’s far easier to zone out and disengage from the discussion.</p></li>
<li><p>Drawing diagrams is always easier on paper. You can also compress lots of words into diagrams.</p></li>
<li><p>As others have mentioned, computers can be a distraction. There’s really no reason to show up for a lecture if you’re going to surf the web - just sleep in!</p></li>
</ol>

<p>This was my experience at least, and I studied computer science as an undergrad. There were only a few instances where having a laptop was useful to me:</p>

<p>-Presentation / seminar purposes
-Showing programs I wrote instead of simply describing them
-Testing algorithms and ideas when needed
-Having access to documents or files</p>

<p>I got by the first 3 years without a laptop just fine. The only reason I bought one was for the first reason.</p>

9

<p>From what I’ve seen in my CS classes, having a laptop in class is useful approximately none.zero x 10^never percent of the time.</p>

10

<p>as a ChemE I have never used a laptop during any of my classes, trying to record notes would be a nightmare. The only time I bring a laptop with me to campus is if I need to run process simulation software or something like that if I know the computer lab is gonna be packed</p>

11

<p>For classes? Never.</p>

<p>For group project sessions? Sometimes.</p>

<p>If you want internet access for surfing, mail or such, why don’t you buy one of those very portable netbooks, which can be had for about $200 and then leave your “real” computer at home.</p>

12

<p>You don’t need it. People (myself included) almost always just use it to the surf the web during boring lectures.</p>

13

<p>I use my laptop in class because it is a tablet pc, and so its my notebook and also my book for two of my classes. but The laptop mode of it, I never use, that one would result in procrastination lol</p>

14

<p>What would be most helpful is an apartment really close to the campus.</p>

15

<p>Take it with you if you live far from class and you want to get something done in the library or something, I wouldn’t ever take it out of my backpack while in class though.</p>

16

<p>Great for playing flash games… </p>

<p>Other than that, it’s handy when you don’t want to work in a computer lab, but it’s not especially useful for Engineering majors.</p>

<p>Engineering majors have to generally draw out a lot of diagrams, circuits, trusses, etc., which is generally faster to do on paper, unless you have some software for your specific application.</p>

17

<p>Leave it at home.</p>

<p>A laptop won’t help you in engineering classes, where you will be using specialized symbols, drawings, notations and diagrams. Even if you do bring it with you chances are that it won’t have the software you might need for your classes (MATLAB, Mathematica, etc). I find that using the engineering computer labs are much more efficient since they have the software and you’ll be near other students so you can collaborate on projects/HW/etc.</p>