Am I a snob for using an iPad for College?

[Jophster]

You should pay more attention to your language classes, because I can't understand a single thing you are trying to say.

Not sure what you are getting at? Judging by you calling it 'language' class, would I be wrong to presume you are an American? Given, my use of English is fairly British (archaic and so forth) but I don't think there were any grammatical or lexicon mistakes.

Good luck tomorrow!

Thanks very much!

 

[chrono1081]

Bit of a rebel or just ADHD

Lol ADD may have played a role I ended up switching majors twice and then took a job working overseas so I started online school. I was skeptical at first but vie learned so much more online than at a traditional school. Mostly because its more work and a lot more research on anything you learn. I like it but its not for everyone, especially people who have a hard time learning on their own.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

If you want a girlfriend in college, do not use an iPad in college.

Oh I would have to disagree with this...

Not sure what you are getting at? Judging by you calling it 'language' class, would I be wrong to presume you are an American? Given, my use of English is fairly British (archaic and so forth) but I don't think there were any grammatical or lexicon mistakes.

I can confess that I have ZERO understanding of the British Ed system... I got all confused when they were talking about it on Radio1 a few weeks ago. But I love Greg James and Scott Mills so I suffered! Lol! (did I just confess to liking the radio station my child puts on??? Yikes)

But maybe that is why he is confused?

Or hey, maybe he doesn't have friends that use the Queen's English much..... Sometimes mine throws me for a loop with what he writes! Lol!

Thanks very much!

you are welcome.... And I'm hoping for a positive report!

 

[Bentron]

I'm off to University next week and I am going to try and use the iPad for most tasks. Ive got my textbooks on the Kindle app, just invested in a case (why I only recently got one I do not know, so much easier to type!), dictation apps etc. I imagine it will become a lot easier in November with 4.2.

To bring it back to the OP, I am fully expecting to be deemed a nerd, a geek, a whatever, but I also expect it won't be in a malicious way just fun teasing. Being a geek is increasingly cool nowadays anyway (An oxymoron I know). As long as you are not arrogant and smug with your iPad, for example "Pfft, you're reading an actual book, I just use Kindle". Basically, being a snob isn't about what you are using, it's about your attitude. Judging by the fact you are worried about seeming snobby, you won't be.

 

[Dooger]

What makes you think that anyone will give a toss what you use for your A levels? This all reminds me of a story in the Onion

 

[scottness]

If you are concerned about what others think about your being forward-thinking and practical and in taking the most efficient path in your learning experience then you shouldn't be in college in the first place. Are you in school for them or you?

This is worth reading again.

 

[TorontoLRT]

I bring one to high school and get the same crap, but most of it is from the big-iPod-Touch crowd, so it doesn't bug me that much.

 

[kntgsp]

I thought I'd chime in with the "iPad as main device" theme here.

I'm not an undergraduate, but I find typing on the iPad (in widescreen) to be very pleasant. I downloaded some app called TapTyping Test (seems to be the most popular one), and managed 95wpm with 99% accuracy after a few tries (it switches up the paragraphs so it's not just repetition). I hadn't ever really used the keyboard on it before aside from typing in a web URL, but found it to be very pleasant for text input.

I actually turned off the auto-correction on the iPad because I found it more of a hindrance. I just wish they would move the location of the "keyboard language" switcher somewhere else as I've accidentally hit that on occasion. Having y and z switch in the middle of typing something can make for an awkward read later.

Also, when typing in English, quicker access to the ' key would be nice.

 

[Ciclismo]

I actually turned off the auto-correction on the iPad because I found it more of a hindrance. I just wish they would move the location of the "keyboard language" switcher somewhere else as I've accidentally hit that on occasion. Having y and z switch in the middle of typing something can make for an awkward read later.

You can select where the z and y are to be placed for most languages - I found this to be a pain too until I discovered this under settings>general>keyboard>international keyboards and then select the respective keyboard and then select either QWERTY or QWERTZ.

 

[kntgsp]

You can select where the z and y are to be placed for most languages - I found this to be a pain too until I discovered this under settings>general>keyboard>international keyboards and then select the respective keyboard and then select either QWERTY or QWERTZ.

Ah-ha! I will have to check if German supports QWERTY placement. That would make life easier as I type a lot in both languages.

Now if they'd only give me easier access to ä,ö,ü and ß without needing auto-correct......

 

[TraceyS/FL]

Ah-ha! I will have to check if German supports QWERTY placement. That would make life easier as I type a lot in both languages.

Now if they'd only give me easier access to ä,ö,ü and ß without needing auto-correct......

Tap and hold?

The ' can be had by swiping the ! key upward. I'm getting good at it after months of practice..... '''','','''' flick flick flick!

 

[DenniZ]

Tap and hold?

The ' can be had by swiping the ! key upward. I'm getting good at it after months of practice..... '''','','''' flick flick flick!

If you are just typing 'we'll' and it sticks at well, add an extra 'l' so you type 'welll', it auto corrects to 'we'll' automatically.

Thanks for the other tip tho.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

If you are just typing 'we'll' and it sticks at well, add an extra 'l' so you type 'welll', it auto corrects to 'we'll' automatically.

Thanks for the other tip tho.

I'll have to try that!

The one that drives. Me. Insane. is i'll.

I have an entry in my address book (multiple actually, it's an abbreviation for something) of LL. Even if I type i'll it wants to autocorrect that to LL. Why????? ::::::banghead:::::

Illl - ha, that doesn't work for it... But the well one did. Hmmm, that time it went to well. Oh lord, now I'm going to have a mess with more contractions! LOL!!

 

[kntgsp]

Tap and hold?

The ' can be had by swiping the ! key upward. I'm getting good at it after months of practice..... '''','','''' flick flick flick!

Yea but that seriously dampens the flow of my typing on the iPad. If I'm doing 95wpm, stopping to tap hold on a,o,u and s is like slamming on the brakes. I wish there was something like "auto-correction lite" where it simply auto-corrected German words that need ä,ö,ü or ß. I dunno, there has to be some simple way of going about it without needing to break up the flow or smush the keyboard so you can fit dedicated ä,ö,ü and ß keys.

You know what would work really well (and if I had any programming skill for iOS I would try this) is a system whereby simply tapping the screen with two fingers after typing a u would give you ü. It'd be intuitive since you are essentially gesturing an umlaut, but I wonder if it would be done in a way that doesn't interfere with navigation. Maybe restrict the area where you have to two finger tap to just above the keyboard, I dunno. Or make it so that the two finger tap has to be done within 3 seconds of typing an a,o, or u. That way it would minimize interference with two-finger scrolling.

Watch as someone steals that idea, heh.

If you are just typing 'we'll' and it sticks at well, add an extra 'l' so you type 'welll', it auto corrects to 'we'll' automatically.

Thanks for the other tip tho.

I would do that but I have auto-correction turned off as it hampers fast typing. Anything above 50wpm and the auto-correct starts crapping all over and you wind up having to fix or stop and click the little "x" too often. At that point simply typing normally and fixing the odd mistake is much quicker than using auto-correct.

 

[notjustjay]

Also, when typing in English, quicker access to the ' key would be nice.

Swipe up then instead of tap-and-hold, it should be much faster.

As for this whole "iPad for note taking" thing, I'm definitely old-school about using pen and paper. Something about the mechanics of writing down the words (and figures and equations) helps me to retain the information I'm learning. I don't know if typing would do the same because I wouldn't have the ability to doodle or highlight or draw little figures in quite the same way.

Of course, the generation that is in college right now has lived in front of a computer keyboard for their entire lives, so it's quite possible that you guys are far better at typing than you are at handwriting. When I was in grade school, it was all pencil and paper, and "computer class" was an hour a week in the library on a lab full of Apple ]['s. I didn't learn to touch type until the Typing class in grade 9 -- and that was on electric typewriters! By then it was too late - I have learned my own peculiar typing style which I can do far faster than traditional touch typing. Old habits die hard...

(Wow, that makes me feel old!)

So, sure, if a note-taking app on an iPad (or laptop) makes you feel productive, then hey, go for it. I just don't think I'd make that same choice for myself. (I do, however, remember how heavy my backpack used to get, with multiple subject binders and textbooks...)

And hey, some people will think you're a snob no matter what you're doing with the iPad. Someone on this very forum called me a douche simply for saying that (a) I liked my iPad better than my netbook and (b) Google Earth was more fun to use on the touchscreen.

 

[DKatri]

I think a few of the US people on here are confusing what the OP means by college, over in the UK it is between the end of high school (age 16) and the start of university (age 18) It is much more like high school than university.

Having finished my A-Levels this time last year I think that it might be a bit of overkill. It might be cool to use it for organising all of your assignments and stuff but I cant see much more use.
I'm off to university soon and I'll probably be carrying my iPad instead of a laptop but i'm still expecting to be mainly relying on pen and paper for note taking and maybe my phone for recording lectures.

 

[notjustjay]

It also depends entirely on the subject matter you're studying. I took engineering classes, in which everything pretty much devolved into calculus. Physics becomes calculus. Chemistry becomes physics which becomes calculus. Electronics, Circuits and Signals, Statics and Dynamics were all specialized types of physics, which became calculus. Multivariable Calculus, was, well. I spent far more time writing equations than any real text!

(So glad that's all over...)

 

[TraceyS/FL]

Swipe up then instead of tap-and-hold, it should be much faster.

As for this whole "iPad for note taking" thing, I'm definitely old-school about using pen and paper. Something about the mechanics of writing down the words (and figures and equations) helps me to retain the information I'm learning. I don't know if typing would do the same because I wouldn't have the ability to doodle or highlight or draw little figures in quite the same way.

Actually, all three of my kids have Auditory Processing disorder. They CAN'T write and listen... They have to pick which one to do. However, my oldest can type notes on her touch and listen to a video class. Typing lecture notes is one of the strategies all three of them will need to learn.

I think a few of the US people on here are confusing what the OP means by college, over in the UK it is between the end of high school (age 16) and the start of university (age 18) It is much more like high school than university.

Having finished my A-Levels this time last year I think that it might be a bit of overkill. It might be cool to use it for organising all of your assignments and stuff but I cant see much more use.
I'm off to university soon and I'll probably be carrying my iPad instead of a laptop but i'm still expecting to be mainly relying on pen and paper for note taking and maybe my phone for recording lectures.

Oh hey, i feel smarter now!!! Thanks for the info, I'm going to go tell my daughter!

 

[Titus]

I'm a college professor at Daytona State College. We're going 100% e-books in Fall 11'. Students can still buy hard copies but we're requiring them to have notebooks, iPads, or some other device that allows them to download or access e-books.

From a professor's view......we just want students to succeed. If an iPad helps, go for it. Who cares what anybody thinks. I use an iPad and, probably because I'm a 55 year old woman, I get some looks. Too bad. I remember going through the same thing WAY BACK when pocket calculators first came into existence.

Have fun, study hard, make money, love life.

 

[Jaro65]

It certainly is a good choice for me. Hope it also works for you.

 

[Ciclismo]

Ah-ha! I will have to check if German supports QWERTY placement. That would make life easier as I type a lot in both languages.

Now if they'd only give me easier access to ä,ö,ü and ß without needing auto-correct......

Ja tut es - und wenn mann auf eine Taste kurz nach oben zieht bekommt mann alle alternativ Buchstaben.

 

[lilo777]

I see nothing wrong with bringing an iPad to class.

Bring a dock and wireless keyboard for maximum douchiness.

This should solve the problem with "snobbiness" because iPad with keyboard is a) cheaper and b) less convenient than a laptop and nobody considers laptop users to be snobs

 

[LastLine]

Would I have done it for college? No.

Would I do it for uni? Yes.


But then again when I was in A-Levels nobody used laptops anyway. I say go for it.

 

[mdatwood]

As for this whole "iPad for note taking" thing, I'm definitely old-school about using pen and paper. Something about the mechanics of writing down the words (and figures and equations) helps me to retain the information I'm learning. I don't know if typing would do the same because I wouldn't have the ability to doodle or highlight or draw little figures in quite the same way.

It's not just that, but any class where I needed to take notes ended up being very free form. For completely free form input a pencil and paper still beats anything else.

Then depending on your major you can add in equations, diagrams, drawings, etc... and pencil and paper destroys any other device in speed and accuracy of creation.

 

[ssdeg7]

Like the one poster said, who cares what they think.

Once again, you shouldn't care what they think, I use my iPad at college, but don't take notes with it, I find it kind of hard.