Comments on: Take out your quills and inkwells

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:35:58 +0000

And to what extent should we consider the fact that some professors speak much much much faster than others, thereby making it almost impossible to take handwritten notes? Perhaps some of the people on this blog list would disagree, but not all students have quick handwriting abilities. We live in a tech-weenie world and our underdeveloped hands from hours of holding comfortable, ergonomic video game controllers and hours of tapping sensitive computer keyboards have atrophied our ability to grip a pencil and write by hand for more than three minutes before cramping commences.

Some students prefer to take the final exam by hand, and others by computers. Overall, it probably benefits the professors more when reading typed exams saving them from deciphering scribbles/ chicken scratch, which some call handwriting. Likewise, if students can take better notes in class because they’re comfortable typing notes, and thefore produce better answers on the exam, wouldn’t that benefit professors grading exams as well?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 03:09:18 +0000

calm down 10. and balls? no thank you.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:09:24 +0000

Grow some balls. take some hand notes. that’s how its done in real life. See 7.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:31:16 +0000

I will be one of your ILs next semester – please allow us to use computers! Before each class, I take thorough notes on my computer, supplement them during class, and this enables me to stay organized and focused. Each student has his or her own way of taking notes that works, and you shouldn’t punish those of us who take notes on a laptop.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:22:53 +0000

I’m with 6. While I didn’t use my laptop in undergrad, I find it essential now to supplement the notes I took from the reading (which I actually do read everyday). I personally think that doing it this way helps the outlining process because I’ve already typed most of what I need — I don’t have to go through and try to understand my hand-written notes.

Also, I’m not sure I’m falling for the presumption that using a laptop to take notes is inherently killing our ability to take notes by hand. I think there are people out there who are good note-takers (hand-written or typed), and there are people who just are not. There’s no reason to think preferring one over the other makes you any less effective.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:01:18 +0000

Being able to take notes on a legal pad is a legal skill that any law students should graduate with. What are you going to tell the judge at calendar, sorry didn’t bring my lap top so I didn’t write it down.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:59:22 +0000

4, it’s quite glib to assume all laptop users take stream-of-consciousness notes. Students should be able to take notes in whatever manner works for them.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:20:00 +0000

What did all these people with laptops do before law school? You didn’t use laptops in high school, and the majority of people in college still don’t use them either. Why do law students always think they are special?

no wonder the rest of the world hates us.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:16:58 +0000

I think you should ban laptops. I handwrite all my notes, and it is much easier to learn by writing than by typing verbatim what a professor says (most of it is irrelevant garbage anyways).

Really, if you type notes verbatim, almost none of it is useful; some of it will even be the random and usually wrong answers given by a fellow student while attempting to answer a question that itself has nothing to do with the class, let alone the exam.

#3, supplementing notes in ink is extremely easy. First, when you read before class, write your notes in ink of a certain color. Then, in class, you can supplement your notes with a different colored ink. you can even draw arrows and other fancy things to organize your notes instead of typing paragraph after paragraph of undifferentiated crap.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:19:29 +0000

I must be the outlier.

I take notes on what I read before class. I supplement those notes in class with the lecture material. If I didn’t have my laptop, I simply couldn’t do this. Supplementing notes would be impossible when they’re in ink. I did this in your class and every other. I’m not the only one.

Instead of banning laptops and punishing the good students because of the bad, reward the good students and forget about the bad. I can’t recall if you required attendance, but if you do, don’t. Instruct the class that attendance and participation will result in a grade bump, but that the absence of either will result in a ‘downward departure,’ so to speak.

Don’t want to come to class? Don’t want to prepare? Great, you’ll pay for it. Students like me will do fine. The others can sink or swim if they want to.