<p>Do any of your or your kids have a Tablet PC?
I am curious to know what you have and how you like it - my daughter - an entering college freshman - just bought an HP Tablet.</p>
<p>When my nephew started his senior year in high school, I started looking into getting him a small laptop in the belief that note-taking using pencil and paper was a so Nineteenth Century. I was a product of the pencil and legal pad/IBM Selectric generation. While in graduate school, the first desktop computers came to the market and word processing software changed everything. Being able to delete words and sentences and the ability to copy and paste paragraphs in a document consigned the typewriter and White-out to the trash bin of history. </p>
<p>When laptops appeared, I believed that portability and word processing software would doom the pencil and notebook. I got my nephew a used Toshiba sub-notebook laptop (10 ½” screen and only 2 ½ lbs.) and a tethered optical mouse that glowed red. He took the laptop to school and his friends were all over the mouse and wondered if he could play games on it. And note-taking? Not so much… Could I have been wrong? </p>
<p>I discovered CC back in 2004 and asked students about pencil and paper note-taking vs. using a laptop. The results were mixed, with most students still using pencil and paper. Some were starting to use their laptops for note-taking, but found it limiting when faced with math and science courses. The same question has re-appeared every year since. If you go to the College life section of CC (page 2), the same question is still being debated. Only now, the Tablet PC has entered the fray. With the ability to write directly on the screen and capturing and organizing your notes using OneNote, the landscape has changed dramatically.</p>
<p>Tablet PCs came out in 2002. They were expensive and the handwriting recognition software was still a bit buggy. By 2004, the second generation Tablets appeared and I argued that my nephew should be sent to college with the Toshiba M200. No one has regretted that decision. He takes notes just as he would using pencil and paper. Only now, he can search through his notes and link them together via a keyword or phrase. He can add hyper-linked content to his notes from the Internet. With OneNote, he can capture his lecture using the software’s audio (and video) recording software. At the beginning of a lecture, he turns on the audio recorder and starts taking notes. At important lecture points, he can drop a time-stamp icon to his notes and can play back that portion of the lecture back at his dorm room. Even if he missed a point, all he has to do is search the audio for a word or phrase and OneNote will try to find all occurrences (the audio portion is indexed). Something you can’t do using a digital recorder…If you have a webcam, you could capture the lecture with both video and sound (subject to the professor’s approval of course). It’s kind of over-kill, but you could do it.</p>
<p>The ability of OneNote to create all kinds of links (handwritten notes, pictures from handouts or the web, sound or music or hyper-links) makes it an incredible tool for students. Anything a teacher writes or draws on the blackboard can be duplicated on a Tablet PC. </p>
<p>It is a technology that needs some practice getting used to…If you don’t have OneNote from Microsoft, you need to get it. Once installed, you need to practice using it. Let me suggest you let your daughter learn to use it over the summer by watching TV. Have her watch any of the Sunday morning talk shows. Start OneNote and the audio recorder feature and have her take notes about what is being said by some politico. Listen to the audio recorded in OneNote to hear how well it works. You may want to get an external microphone. With her set of notes, get creative. Go to the internet to look up points made in the interview. Paste links to those notes. Capture a picture of the interviewee and paste it into your notes. The ability to capture Internet and multi-media content to your notes brings them alive. Some students are visual learners. A Tablet PC lets you find pictures, charts, graphs and sounds and paste them directly into your class notes. </p>
<p>Taking math classes? Use Mathjournal from Xthink. You can write out the math problem onto your Tablet PC and click on the solution button. </p>
<p>Learning any of the following languages: Japanese, Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified), Korean, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese (Brazil). A Tablet PC allows the user to write or take notes in these languages. And all of it is searchable. Record a language lesson and you can hear a particular word or phrase from that lecture.</p>
<p>There are lots to like about Tablet PCs.</p>
<p>Thank you very much - this was far more information than I expected!</p>
<p>She did mention One Note and has only played with it for a few minutes - for not being a “computer geek” she is very proficient and has literally grown up using a PC. She has always been comfortable and uses the computer for many things - I am sure she will be experimenting with One Note.
I had heard of One Note but didn’t really realized what it did.</p>
<p>She is going to be a Medical Technology major - I can see lots of applications since she will be taking lots of Chemistry, Biology, Anatomy and Physiology and Statistics. </p>
<p>Incidentally, her tablet is a HP and was not more expensive than the Toshiba lap top her sister bought last summer - under $1000. Of course she has to get some accessories and that will add up!
I am sure she will have fun practicing this summer!
Thanks again!</p>
<p>I always write my notes on paper. Something about it just helps me memorize things better. Probably because I have bad handwriting and by having to read things multiple times it sinks it a bit more 
With laptop everything is crisp and clear and it’s easier for me to start skimming and by the end I can’t remember anything from the middle.</p>
<p>But it varies completely from person to person. My roommate didn’t use a single notebook all year because all of her notes are on her computer.</p>
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<p>Thant sounds wonderful. What program would allow that?
Could anyone suggest a tablet PC for a computer graphics artist (for use with her Photoshop)? She currently has a Vacom Intuous tablet, and we looked at Cintiq, but that’s too much money for just a monitor.</p>
<p>Re BunsenBurner:</p>
<p>The Tablet PC language pack (already installed when you buy the Tablet) supports all these languages. Both OneNote and MS Journal can be set up to use any of those supported languages from the tools bar. With the audio recorder on to record a language session, each spoken word is indexed. Say you’re studying French and your instructor uses the word “chateau”. You can search on “chateau” and hear that part of the audio recording where “chateau” is used. If you’re an international student in any of these supported languages, you can use your Tablet PC to take notes in your native tongue. There is also specialized software that recognizes 28 languages (from Albanian to Turkish). See: </p>
<p>[28-lingual</a> handwriting recognition for Tablet PC : Tablet PC : Handango](<a href=“http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=1&jid=35925FA8D9124329C261F6F91FBCD6AD&platformId=15&N=96840%2096835&R=169393&productId=169393&detailTab=description]28-lingual”>http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=1&jid=35925FA8D9124329C261F6F91FBCD6AD&platformId=15&N=96840%2096835&R=169393&productId=169393&detailTab=description)</p>
<p>Cintiq: You don’t have $2500 plus the cost of a PC? A Tablet PC can be used if it supports the Wacom standard for pen recognition. You will need the latest device driver software for this to work.</p>
<p>See: [Tablet</a> PC - Software](<a href=“http://www.wacom.com/tabletpc/driver.cfm]Tablet”>http://www.wacom.com/tabletpc/driver.cfm)</p>
<p>There have been problems in the past between Photoshop and Tablet PCs with recognizing the pen and pen pressure sensitivity. The new driver should solve this problem. Note: not all Tablet PCs use the Wacom digitizer system. I understand that some systems use the Logitech digitizer and are incompatible. You’ll have to do some homework…</p>
<p>Justamomof4: Tablet PCs are making inroads into the way medical information is collected. The big news in healthcare is going paperless to cut costs. My mother had a serious operation a few years ago and the nurse that came to the house for follow- up (The Michigan Traveling Nurses Association) was armed with a HP Tablet PC. According to my mother’s nurse, all the nurses were using Tablets to capture patient information. </p>
<p>As for her science classes, a regular laptop is all but useless. It’s a different story with a Tablet PC. A number of websites sell e-books on a whole range of subjects. Handago.com has a large selection of Tablet PC friendly e-books on anatomy and biochemistry. The Tablet PC advantage? You download the e-book to your Tablet PC. Open up the text and you can write notes to yourself in the margins. Better yet, select the “highlighter” function from your tool bar and select your favorite color. You can use your stylus as a highlighter and mark up the text (just like you would in a textbook). If you highlight a sentence or passage incorrectly, just hit “undo” and the highlighting is gone. And the e-text is searchable. </p>
<p>See: [Human</a> Anatomy and Physiology from MobileReference (Tablet/Notebook PC) : Tablet PC : Handango](<a href=“http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp;jsessionid=8911FBA482DE07161FF7BF40C8FEB4C4?siteId=1&jid=35925FA8D9124329C261F6F91FBCD6AD&platformId=15&N=96840&R=188003&productId=188003]Human”>http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp;jsessionid=8911FBA482DE07161FF7BF40C8FEB4C4?siteId=1&jid=35925FA8D9124329C261F6F91FBCD6AD&platformId=15&N=96840&R=188003&productId=188003)</p>
<p>Wow, thank you, michuncle!</p>
<p>Forget the tablet; check this: [url=<a href=“http://www.livescribe.com/smartpen/index.html]Livescribe”>http://www.livescribe.com/smartpen/index.html]Livescribe</a> :: Never Miss A Word<a href=“$200%20and%20it%20fits%20in%20a%20pocket%20or%20purse”>/url</a>.</p>
<p>Cool! Have you used it? Do you like it? It looks like a neat tool for note-taking, but how could it work for a digital artist - I do not see that it is Photoshop compatible. I think one flaw is the ergonomics of the pen - it is too thick for a comfortable grip, but it can be easily changed, I hope. Another disadvantage is that it needs special dot paper, and a single notebook is $5 vs $.50 for a regular one (may be that’s why the pen is only $200?).</p>
<p>if you need other than the above languages- mac os x provides keyboard symbols for the following languages
[Your</a> Multilingual Mac](<a href=“http://homepage.mac.com/thgewecke/mlingos9.html#intro]Your”>http://homepage.mac.com/thgewecke/mlingos9.html#intro)</p>
<p>BunsenBurner, I just found out about the Livescribe pen, so I haven’t used it – but I think I’m going to get one & I’m asking my kids if they want them. I don’t think its geared so much for serious artwork, as opposed to sketching – I think the idea is that you can write down fewer notes but have them all keyed to a lecture, meeting, or your own dictation. So instead of trying to copy down every word said in a lecture, you are going to take fewer notes (using less paper). They plan to release a program later on that will let users print their own paper – the reason for the special paper is that the pen isn’t really reading the ink, but rather is keyed to the specific position and pattern of microdots on the paper --so its really a spatial connection, not a visual one, for the user. So yeah, $5 is a lot to pay for a spiral notebook - but I figure that with the pen, less writing would be better in any case – a lot more can go on a single page. </p>
<p>Personally, I prefer to write with thicker pens, so I don’t thing the size will bother me. It does need to have room for the inner workings. The point is that for $150 (the price of the 1 gig pen) you’ve got a tool that can be taken every where with the student, rather than lugging around a laptop all day.</p>
<p>Thank you, calmom. I’m thinking about buying one for my husband, who often doodles his ideas on random pieces of paper. That way, he can actually describe his designs and download everything into his PC (yep, he’s scanned napkins! :D) As far as pen design, I do not care if it is thick, but I’d prefer it to be soft to touch (rubbery) and contoured, like the Intuous stylus.</p>