iPad Pro College Question

[profcutter]

College Prof here. It’s nice to see you working to help your son through college. I’d just tell you, some professors, myself included, have started to ban devices in the classrooms. The temptation of social media and games is far too high. If he’s saying he prefers to use paper notes, that’s probably a good thing. I can see the advantage of using one, but again, since they multitask, the temptation is far too high, this has been a problem that’s gotten much worse since lockdown. I used to allow at least computers in class, but given my students’ falling grades, I realized I wasn’t helping them out by being slack.

 

[cjsuk]

We just bought an iPad Pro for our son to take to college this summer along with the Pencil Pro. He is reluctant to use it and feels like paper notes are the way. Talking to other parents with college students they all seem to use and love their iPads. Obviously, we bought this in hopes it grows on him. He also has a MacBook Pro and iPhone so the integration will be nice. What is the best app out there that students are using for their notes? Any other apps you recommend that are awesome for college?

Oh man sod pen and paper at this point. Caveman tools. Can't move things around as you're working, can't embed pictures and charts and things, can't change the background, erasing stuff is a pain in the ass and it's really hard drawing shapes. Paper is difficult to back up (scanning stuff for hours at a time sucks), takes up a lot of space, always runs out at the most inconvenient time and once you've lost it you've lost it forever.

I am using Noteful myself for mathematics. I won't go back. I rarely see anyone using paper these days at least in that field. iPads spread like wildfire in the last 5 years.

Noteful, Reminders, Notes, Mail is pretty much my entire existence at both commercial work, academic work and personal life.

 

[cjsuk]

College Prof here. It’s nice to see you working to help your son through college. I’d just tell you, some professors, myself included, have started to ban devices in the classrooms. The temptation of social media and games is far too high. If he’s saying he prefers to use paper notes, that’s probably a good thing. I can see the advantage of using one, but again, since they multitask, the temptation is far too high, this has been a problem that’s gotten much worse since lockdown. I used to allow at least computers in class, but given my students’ falling grades, I realized I wasn’t helping them out by being slack.

I think this extremist approach is ridiculous and I am against it entirely. The temptation and social media distractions are a problem of course but quite frankly they need to work around that. Call them out on it. Make it an issue.

Kids where I am all have been issued iPads and use their phones as well. It is rarely a problem. It's a matter of personal responsibility and they need to have that reinforced regularly.

Also if they are getting distracted, much like it was when I was on the other side of the desk, it was because the tutorials were boring, the material was dry or so many people were left in the dust ages ago that they have no idea what is going on.

 

[mpetrides]

I second the recommendation for GoodNotes for note taking on the iPad. Others have already mentioned the evidence that handwritten notes are associated with better retention of information, as opposed to taking typewritten notes and that's been my experience, as well.

However, call me old school, but I still find that I can take notes faster with pen and paper than I can on a screen with an Apple Pencil. So, I'll use my iPad for taking short session notes (or to take to a meeting) but a paper notebook for longer lectures. If needs be, I will memorialize my notes either by typing them into Word or Apple Notes after the lecture or by converting them to handwritten notes in GoodNotes. I've found that converting handwritten notes to typewritten ones works best for situations where I think I will be referring to these notes months to years later when the content is largely forgotten, replaced by more currently pressing information.

There are techniques I learned in preparing for college decades ago (I DID say old school) that stood me in good stead and still do. I use a spiral notepad and take notes only on the right hand side of the pad, using the left hand side for highlighting key points or clarifying my notes after a lecture. I believe I was, in my day, quite an efficient notetaker because I often had other students ask to borrow my notes if they missed a lecture or missed a point in a lecture.

The point here being that different techniques work better for different people. Your son is in college--he's old enough to make his own decisions about what works best for him.

 

[profcutter]

I think this extremist approach is ridiculous and I am against it entirely. The temptation and social media distractions are a problem of course but quite frankly they need to work around that. Call them out on it. Make it an issue.

Kids where I am all have been issued iPads and use their phones as well. It is rarely a problem. It's a matter of personal responsibility and they need to have that reinforced regularly.

Also if they are getting distracted, much like it was when I was on the other side of the desk, it was because the tutorials were boring, the material was dry or so many people were left in the dust ages ago that they have no idea what is going on.

It’s funny because this is becoming best practice at universities across the country. Banning devices isn’t extremist, it’s simply a return to helping students focus. There have been numerous studies that show that students entering college are far less prepared for success than they were 10 or even 5 years ago. I have college students that have never read a book from cover to cover.

The shift to electronic devices in primary and secondary education was more or less inevitable, but even there, our school district, for example, bans student phones in school. When you say “it’s rarely a problem,” how do you know? And parental responsibility, well, that’s a whole can of worms that goes far beyond the scope of this thread, which is a parent asking how best to help their kid.

As for your third paragraph, I couldn’t finish it because I got bored because I left it in the dust ages ago.

 

[ClearScreen]

College prof here,

For lectures I create slides with room for writing on them and give students the choice of a hardcopy to write on for in-class notes, and provide an electronic copy (PDF) for those so inclined. Nowadays I'd say the distribution is roughly 60/40 in favor of the electronic version. There are some undeniable advantages to writing electronically, such as backups, moving things around, zooming in/out for smaller writing, etc. If one uses pencil on paper that can fade/rub off over time. But some prefer the physical copies and that's okay.

I would ask him the reason. If it is a "pencil on paper feel" kind of thing -- it is definitely harder to write on a glass screen -- then there are ways around that such as screen protectors that give a rougher texture (at some expense to image quality IMO). Someone mentioned a reMarkable, which is my own tablet of choice for note-taking. It feels more realistic and there are fewer distractions. If you have a (cheap) subscription then syncing to the desktop is blazingly fast.

If the reason is getting used to the software then just spell out the potential advantages and let him make up his mind if it is worth the time investment. He is adulting at this point, it is his decision.

For some of my classes I allow "cheat sheets" where students can write facts/equations/diagrams and bring them to class. For such a use case, the electronic tablet is FAR superior than the paper/pencil approach. Students who do their cheat sheets on tablets have a much more intelligible end result.

 

[cjsuk]

It’s funny because this is becoming best practice at universities across the country. Banning devices isn’t extremist, it’s simply a return to helping students focus. There have been numerous studies that show that students entering college are far less prepared for success than they were 10 or even 5 years ago. I have college students that have never read a book from cover to cover.

The shift to electronic devices in primary and secondary education was more or less inevitable, but even there, our school district, for example, bans student phones in school. When you say “it’s rarely a problem,” how do you know? And parental responsibility, well, that’s a whole can of worms that goes far beyond the scope of this thread, which is a parent asking how best to help their kid.

As for your third paragraph, I couldn’t finish it because I got bored because I left it in the dust ages ago.

Banning the devices is treating the symptom not the cause. Might want to have a look at your society, education system and the functional illiteracy problem before you start casting stones. That would of course require reading the studies you mention. That give some causal insight as to why students have never read any books rather than that they have and picking a wholly disconnected cause to pick on.

Here's a funny one: you can indeed read books on devices!

Ironic the last paragraph. Perhaps you should try harder

(I am in the UK for reference, not the US)

 

[profcutter]

Banning the devices is treating the symptom not the cause. Might want to have a look at your society, education system and the functional illiteracy problem before you start casting stones. That would of course require reading the studies you mention. That give some causal insight as to why students have never read any books rather than that they have and picking a wholly disconnected cause to pick on.

Here's a funny one: you can indeed read books on devices!

Ironic the last paragraph. Perhaps you should try harder

(I am in the UK for reference, not the US)

If you want to suggest that our education system is beyond broken, in a shambles, you’ll get no argument from me here. Your tone is a bit off putting, but that’s ok, I’m not the tone police. Our educational system has long suffered from under-investment, made far far worse by No Child Left Behind, which made “teaching to the test” codified into law. It’s a disaster.

The problem is, we as professors can’t control the society at large. We control our classrooms. Professors don’t even control the colleges. Administrators with MBAs do that. So generally I support whatever is effective in the classroom.

There’s lot of different learning styles and lots of different teaching styles. If courses seem boring, either you’re choosing the wrong professors, you might have chosen the wrong major, or you might not be ready for college. That’s fine. A mechanic or an electrician makes far more than most professors do and they may find their work more rewarding.

 

[doogm]

I would ask him the reason. If it is a "pencil on paper feel" kind of thing -- it is definitely harder to write on a glass screen -- then there are ways around that such as screen protectors that give a rougher texture (at some expense to image quality IMO).

One thing that I like for Apple Pencil is made by Pen.Tips: https://pen.tips

I have one for my pencil and it gives a pretty good writing feel compared with no tip, and that allows you to use a higher-quality glass screen protector, or even none. Previously I tried a few of the screen protectors with a "paper-like feel" and I was never happy with any of them.