From Slide Rules to Cyberspace

[KF6GPE]

(06-08-2024 08:55 PM)dm319 Wrote:  When I did my first degree laptops were very unusual in the lecture halls, even though many students had them in their dorm. When I went back to doing a bioinformatics course 15 years later I thought I would use my laptop for note taking. It surprised me how distracting the laptop was, and definitely detracted from my ability to concentrate.

In my last year in undergrad as a math major, I was one of the first people to get a Powerbook 100. It made for a great note taking device --- it didn't take me long to get the hang of Word's Equation Writer or whatever it was called, and battery life would carry me through a lecture.

In graduate school recently, I tried using a laptop for note taking (granted, not for math, but at seminary).

It was an absolute disaster.

The difference, I think, can be summarized in one word:

WiFi.

Perhaps add three more words:

multi-tasking operating systems.

I ended up getting a Remarkable tablet for seminary and have not looked back. Even now that I've graduated it gets almost as much use as my tablet or laptop. PDFs, etc., etc all go on it, and I read it in the evenings instead of on my iPad.