[x61t] Taking notes in class. (Pic)

[wmli]

Hi!

I'm thinking of getting a x61 tablet for my graduate studies. But I'm a little worried that I won't be able to make as detailed and fast notes as I do now on paper.

I would like feedback from students who regularly use their tablet in class, well others can answer too! =) So, please look at the picture below and tell me if I you can write in such way with your pen.

US:

EU:



Thanks!

Johan
Gothenburg, Sweden

MOD EDIT: Picture warning added.

[highland1024]

I'm not a student, but I have used the screen writing several times in the last two weeks -- mainly to draw the electrical circuits and equations.

You can do everything on tablet as easy as you do on the paper, plus you can duplicate, such as equation

[wmli]

highland1024: So you're mainly using it for making figures and equations rather than text? I PMed someone and he still uses paper because of the

...tactile feedback of writing with pencils...

but it's ok for you? I guess it's very personal but hey...



Is this a typical letter size?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nMIiThtvNQ
http://www.tabletpcreview.com/assets/3376.jpg

Hmm it's hard to justify the extra $700 if I still must use pen & paper for longer (>10 rows) theorems, definitions and quotes etc.

[dfumento]

Check out these sites:
http://studenttabletpc.com/
http://tabletpcstudent.wordpress.com/

[ducky2802]

Im a student and I do my homeworks on the tablet because I want a copy, but I generally use notebooks for notes. Reason being is I find it easier to take a few small books to class and have everything organized for reading like a book (Im sure future generations will wonder what those are). I still like the book idea of page turning and everything and cant really get used to the idea of reading my notes back on a tablet.

BUT, I do commend that the tablet can take notes just as easily and quickly as the regular piece of paper. The sxga+ also prints out on screen almost exactly the same size as a standard sheet of paper.

[wmli]

Appreciate your answers! I'll look into those sites.

Tanks!

[highland1024]

I'm a lecturer who leave the responsibility of note taking to students.

In fact, I'm expecting to use the text writing function when I'm in meetings. Typing is pretty noicy in this case.

[BB]

Wmli:

I am a university professor, and am taking part in a pilot project with tablets at my university.

Personally, I use my X60T for
taking notes in meetings (as another poster said, it is much more discrete),
correcting student papers (I am in a foreign language, so need to make lots of small notes on papers) and
taking notes for my research.

The tablet is great for all three functions. But does that make it great enough to justify the extra expense? You have to decide.

In our pilot group, the feedback we have from students indicates that those in the "hard" sciences seem to be most satisfied with a tablet pc for note taking.

In the humanities, note taking is done in a different way, and to tell you the truth, we have few students in the humanities at the moment with enough experience with tablets.

Note that the students who use tablets the most for taking notes report that it took them all over a year to really begin to see the full benefits of the tablet platform--the learning curve for the most interesting and useful software is fairly steep. On the other hand, once they get to see what they can do, they become real zealots.

I would imagine that your experience will depend in part on your subjects, but also on your general ability to work with computers.

I would suggest that you find a friend with a tablet, ask you to show you how they work, and try it out a bit before you buy, bearing in mind that the learning curve for the useful software is far steeper than a couple of hours of play.

You can ink very well in Word (the only reason I ever touch Word....), but for organizing your notes, you must try a program like OneNote or one of its competitors, like Blackboard Backpack.

And just a bit of personal experience:
I find the x60T with the extended battery a bit too heavy for comfort (I used an x31 previously), but the extended battery is a must, if you want to last through more than one lecture.
the handwriting recognition has never worked for me, but I have exceptionally bad handwriting. Your mileage will vary.
Finally, the worst part of the experience for me is Windows Vista. while all will tell you that it inks better, it has been such a source of frustration to me that I am seriously tempted to buy a Mac for my next personal computer, and if I can find a way to get the techs at my university to allow me to downgrade to XP on the tablet, I will.

Finally, look at the Student Tablet PC blog (http://studenttabletpc.com/) It is a great resource for you.

Let us here at the forum know what you decide to do, and how the tablet works out.

bb

[ryan00davis]

sorry for the late response, but in case you're still interested, here is my 2 cents (i own an X61T):

im a graduate mechanical engineering student at ucla, so i see plenty of complex equations and diagrams that just cant be done in a timely manner during class with a keyboard. i kind of switch back and fourth between paper and tablet.

benefits of tablet:
print PDFs/powerpoints to one note to take notes directly on top of presentations.
copy and pasting certain sections of notes, this is much more useful than you might originally think. profs like to reuse diagrams and just erase certain pieces and add things on the board, so if you're on the tablet, you can just copy and paste your diagram and then reuse without having to start from scratch.
less friction. many people may say they dont like the feel because it doesnt feel like pencil and paper, but i think this is a good thing. it may be a little thing but if you're taking a lot of notes at a good pace your hand can get a little tired, on the tablet there is less friction so it's easier on your hand and when you get used to it, it can be a bit faster to write.
multiple copies of notes, easily print to pdf and send notes to your friends who missed class. you dont have to worry about a prof giving hw back before a test, etc.
built in light. this isnt obvious at first but a lot of times professors will turn down lights for powerpoints, instead of struggling to see what you're writing on paper, you have the built in backlight of the screen.
always having calculator/software at your fingertips (go to ticalc.org to get a ti89 for your computer)

disadvantages of tablet:
all normal negatives of computers: boot time, stability, etc.
it can be weird when people look at you in class like you're using some new extremely expensive technology that they've never seen before.
browsing notes can be somewhat awkward, but if you print them it's the same thing. having said this, you can search notes which is a nice plus.
battery time if you're taking a lot of classes in one day (i own 2 batteries so this isnt a problem for me, btw, i think a second battery is the best purchase you can make for your computer).
sometimes poorly calibrated pen can be annoying. when drawing some detailed diagrams, of if you write small, the pen/screen interface can be off by a couple millimeters which can get annoying. you can recalibrate, but it's never perfect for me. this can be corrected by zooming in a little bit and writing bigger.

anyways, hope this helps
-Ryan

[snots]

"sometimes poorly calibrated pen can be annoying. when drawing some detailed diagrams, of if you write small, the pen/screen interface can be off by a couple millimeters which can get annoying. you can recalibrate, but it's never perfect for me. this can be corrected by zooming in a little bit and writing bigger. "

Thanks for the detailed info. What I am wondering about is the thing I quoted.

How small do yo have to write to cause the millimeter offset? There is super small (cheat-sheet making small), and then there is the regular "small" (ie the size you would write on a college-ruled looseleaf).

Can you relate it to the size of writing you would write for a standard college-ruled looseleaf?


Thanks!

[ryan00davis]

i definitely feel like i need to write bigger than i do on regular paper, but i tend to write pretty small on regular paper. if you have onenote you can PM me with your email address and i can send you some of my notebooks.

i also find myself writing bigger because i dont have to worry about paper (i always find myself writing small on paper because i dont like flipping through pages).

the size thing is not an issue for me MOST of the time, but on occasion it is pretty annoying, especially with some diagrams. if you're really worried about it, i recommend going to a best buy or something to try them out, im guessing that most tablets are similar in this calibration. i should also note that i do have the touchscreen version. so that may have something to do with it since it has the pressure sensitive thing on top of the screen, i dont know.

one benefit i forgot to mention is that you can add "paper" in the middle of notes, so if you want to go back and add to a section, you can just click a button and drag in your new space. so add that to the benefits section.

[snots]

Adding in the middle is pretty cool. The real value I want is the ability to have infinitely many notebooks all in one, and all able to be referenced at any time! I often find myself studying, and wishing I had the notes from 3 years ago on-hand, or that I wish I had my 1st notebook of the semester on-hand.. etc

I often find myself scribbling notes on different notepads only to lose track of them all. Its quite annoying!

Its also great because all the resources you used for the class can be integrated in with your notes. Most of my classes have lecture notes in PDF format; hw's in PDF, etc.

I suppose you can argue that you don't need a tablet to do what I just mentioned; all you need is a scanner. This is true, but who really has the time to write then scan? No-way!


Oh yeah, I just thought of something. If you write bigger you can just lasso-select your text and shrink it down in OneNote? If so, that's viable too if you end up with a page of text 2-sizes too large.

[Trekk69]

I've continued to use mine for taking notes, whether its inking on powerpoint slides sent to Onenote, or simply editing handouts in word.
It has been great, saved me getting a printer and all the associated ink and paper costs. Now when I need to print something off, which is rare, I will just borrow a friends printer!

[wmli]

Thanks for the replies guys!

I've been without my old computer for quite some time now and sure I miss it but perhaps less than I thought I would.

But I've come to the conclusion that I really can't justify the money, approx. $2,800. I'm thinking of traveling to the US this summer instead, rent a car and drive across, since the dollar is so low. Maybe I'll buy one and smuggle it on the plane home...

But I'm following these two threads...
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=60522
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=60601

[radioactif]

I see you're studying science.

I own a TabletPC, a HP 2710p, and used it once for physics (in fact, i forgot my notebook).

It's amazing how fast you can draw. When everyone needs a ruler and time, you don't need anything to get your plan in 3 dimension for that tricky central force . On the other hand, you will have to struggle between Word equation writer (btw, it'es really comfortable) and OneNote to have clean equations.

I really think that if OneNote had a powerful equation writer, I would have been 100% in for throwing away my notebooks.

For maths, it's quite different, unless you define some handy shortcuts for quantifiers.

[Trekk69]

I'm also a science student, and it saves loads on ink, when the prof gives you 50 full-colour powerpoint slides, and your able just to ink right on them!

[crashnburn]

I'm also a science student, and it saves loads on ink, when the prof gives you 50 full-colour powerpoint slides, and your able just to ink right on them!

It wouldve been nice if I couldve done that.

[ronan_zj]

anyone can post a copy of the note taken from tablet?

[syeo]

I take notes in all my classes with the tablet. I use one note so I have a notebook for each of my subjects. I only carry my laptop and one folder to school each day. One charge will last me through 3 of my 1:15 hour classes...with spare change. The one note program is extremely useful, in any situation. I've attached notes from the following classes, biology, physics, and organic chemistry. Pretty much covers note taking from the simplest form, to equation, to drawing molecules.

Wait how do you upload files on this forum? I published me notes as html files. Anyone?

[Capslock]

Not sure whether the following can be of any help. But I still would like to share my deep satisfaction with the X61T with you and others.

I am for sure not a computer expert. I bought the tablet because I love the increased possibilities to input Chinese characters and not so much because I am a big fan of tablets or Thinkpads.

After all I honestly do not regret paying the 3700 USD for the package. If I look at the things in the same price range I bought lately, there is only very few which provided me with that much joy. And, there are only three things which I almost use 7 out of 7 days a week--the m. phone, the watch and the notebook.


I agree with others that you need around 4GB RAM to support a relatively fast running Vista (Vista should be better than XP for tablets). Rather spend more to get a better screen (better screen makes writing easier). Also I think it is absolutely necessary to buy the 8 cell battery. You will also want to buy some additional software which increases the range of application and the level of convenience using the tablet function. Lastly, getting the screen clean is a bit of a headache.

Other than that, everyone loves it. Especially kids like to play with it a lot (you can save any painting they did and keep it for them). Of course it is great for business use too (especially commenting on others input is so much faster).

It may not be that much of a help for taking notes in class, but I tell you there is only my wife who I love more.

[Trekk69]

anyone can post a copy of the note taken from tablet?

I'll try, if you want I can show you one of my 'inked on powerpoint slides'?

[ronan_zj]

anyone can post a copy of the note taken from tablet?

I'll try, if you want I can show you one of my 'inked on powerpoint slides'?

that will be great.

thank you , trekk69

[Trekk69]

@ronan_zj
I think the pic will be larger than the limit, pm me your email and I'll send it as an attachment

[Trekk69]

Check your mail, hopefully you can see whats happening, and the great benefit I find with inking on science notes in class!

[ronan_zj]

Check your mail, hopefully you can see whats happening, and the great benefit I find with inking on science notes in class!

thanks for the email, wow, is that bio class?
i am wondering if tablet can handle massive engineering notes with diagrams coz i have to bring 4 notebooks everyday with me, plus my T60.... and my back hurts

[Trekk69]

Oh ya, it can easily handle large colorful drawings, etc.
Last year, I had full color slides of the human brain and organs, and was able to ink on them all in clear detail. And it did not ruin the clarity of the writing of the slides themselves.
Definitely worth it!

[Trekk69]

Send me an example page of a 'massive engineering drawing', I will load it into OneNote and do some random inking on it.
Than send it back to you to check out.

[ronan_zj]

http://cee.engr.ucdavis.edu/eci130/Self ... ple8-3.pdf


yea, all my notes are like tis

[Trekk69]

Check your mail, I inked on it with random notes to show different pens/highlighters etc.
Hope it confirms the benefit of using a tablet for engineering work as well!

[ronan_zj]

hmm, thanks for the email
my concern is if I can write that much on tablet?
coz I saw your handwriting is little bit bigger than my teachers.