Tablet for School?

[MMiz]

A decade ago I laughed at my EMT partner that spent thousands of dollars for a "tablet" computer. It was a laptop that could be folded into a tablet and it had rudimentary touchscreen capabilities.

Today I would be lost without my iPad with cell phone service. I rely on it for notes, directions, communication, and pretty much everything that I used a computer for in the past.

Is a tablet computer a good investment for EMT/paramedic school?

 

[OnceAnEMT]

There are some grade schools (mostly elementary schools, surprisingly) here in Texas that are really testing that question, just because nowadays an iPhone is second nature to the average 1st grader. That said, I think it really depends on preferable learning style. Do you need a computer to get through school? Yes, I will strongly argue for that. Homework, research, CE, communication, all of it is much easier with a laptop/tablet at home. Now, do you need to bring that to class? If you plan on taking notes on it, by all means. I know lecturers who welcome it, who tell you to sit in the front and/or the back, and who tell you to get out. But the way I see it, if you are taking notes and being a good student and that method works for you, go for it. If you are not mature enough to stay focused on what you are doing, then technology in the classroom is not for you. That said, to this day I still use pen and spiral for my note taking. I do this because it keeps me focused because I have to keep up, but it also allows me to customize my notes on the fly, and simply because it works for me.

No one in my EMT class 2 years ago used a laptop in class, but that's not to say it wouldn't have been acceptable. Everyone has their own style of learning, and I would argue that one of the hardest but most important things about high school is finding your study habits before you get to post secondary schooling.

 

[Anjel]

A lot of schools around here are now giving their students iPads which is included in the cost of tuition. They do all of their books and testing on it.

I used mine a lot during school. I think it comes down to personal preference, learning styles, and how comfortable with technology you are.

 

[Ewok Jerky]

I prefer a full keyboard for note taking. I also found Microsoft OneNote to be the best note taking app, even though I hate that company.

 

[Akulahawk]

Microsoft OneNote to be the best note taking app

I had much the same experience. Since my laptop computer version of OneNote couldn't deal with the home computer version (64 bit vs 32 bit systems, both Win7) I had to use remote desktop to my home computer to take notes on OneNote and make it all synchronize nicely for a while. Later, when the professors all had their stuff on PowerPoint, I just took notes on PP and used DropBox to store the files so everything stayed up to date, regardless of which computer I was using to work with the files.

 

[Carlos Danger]

I'm lukewarm to tablets in general. They are cool tech, but the niche they fill seems pretty small - and getting smaller, as phones get larger.

Tablets are great for reading and web browsing, but you can do that on your laptop or your phone, and phones are way more portable, and laptops are generally still way better for any real work that involves a lot of typing, like real internet research, typing papers, taking lots of notes, consolidating notes, any type of editing or file combining, etc.

I did use an iPad in grad school for reading and studying. I had all my textbooks and notes on it, and I also burned the powerpoints from class to PDF files and transferred those to the iPad via Dropbox. So in theory, all I needed to read or study for class was my iPad. In reality though, I found myself using my Macbook Air more much than the iPad. It's just easier to take and edit notes on, to make study outlines on, to look things up online on.

For note taking in class or while reading, the best system I found was just opening a word document in my Dropbox folder on my laptop and taking notes there. Then I could look at it and edit it later in Dropbox from any device. Much simpler to me than Evernote or OneNote or any of the others.

There were several people in my class who started out taking notes on their tablet.....by halfway through the first semester though, they had all either started bringing their laptops to class, or had spent money on a keyboard for their tablet......

For me, I'd put the money towards a nice compact laptop, if you don't already have one. A tablet can be nice to have, but it's just gravy if you already have a good computer and a good smartphone.

 

[gnosis]

I use a note 8 for pretty much everything, and I love it. It has handwriting recognition and is great for drawing diagrams and such. I don't take a large amount of notes, so it works out great. Great educational tool, and easy to move around and use.

I also had to get an ipad for school, just for the one app they decided to use. Not a fan at all.