I want to invent distributed note-taking

[Xist]

Has anyone else had difficulty taking notes? One professor gave too much information in his slides and then summarized them verbally. One professor, who studies memory and learning, plans her entire class so that we can take good notes, and then the one that I have for two classes gives little information through Powerpoint and everything verbally. I stopped taking notes with the first professor because I could download everything. I stopped taking notes with the last professor because I could not remember what she said long enough to type it.

I have been listening to the review session that her TA gave and it seems to take at least three times as long to go through it, just to fill out the study guide.

There is not any way that I can do this regularly.

I need to go to the VA and get checked out.

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by Xist

...it seems to take at least three times as long to go through it, just to fill out the study guide.

There is not any way that I can do this regularly.

I need to go to the VA and get checked out.

Permanently taking three times as long to do something versus going to the VA... You'll probably save time by just doing it the way you're already doing it!

[gone-ot]

...thought about one of the pocket MPG3 sound recorders with huge RAM cartridge?

[NachtRitter]

Smart Pens are nice... I have a Livescribe Echo 8G that I got used for ~100. With it, I can both record the lecturer and write some notes, and the pen syncs the writing with the audio. So for the instructor that talks a lot but doesn't put much on the Powerpoint, you can just write down the slide number and title, leave a space, and then later you can fill in the blanks with what she said.

Obviously that's a bit expensive for a pen, and you do have to get special paper for it, but for me it's really worth it... Especially when the instructor is doing a review session for the upcoming exam. Even if I miss writing down something, I've got the audio.

[jamesqf]

I may just be wierd, but I always found it better to concentrate on understanding what was being said than try to take notes. Most people would have pages of notes, while I'd write down a formula or two and the assignments, and I generally came out close to the top of the class.

Alternatively, you could try taking a course in shorthand.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

I may just be wierd, but I always found it better to concentrate on understanding what was being said than try to take notes. Most people would have pages of notes, while I'd write down a formula or two and the assignments, and I generally came out close to the top of the class.

Alternatively, you could try taking a course in shorthand.

Many years ago I was introduced to Speedwriting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and I tried to use it. However, when I was halfway through, I was not able to find the book, so I called it "Half-wit shorthand." At the time, I kept a journal, where I practiced speedwriting as far as I understood it, and I tried to use that at college, but I doubt that I was fast as some people that I have seen that wrote normally.

I just write slowly.

According to that page, I can type about as fast a one can speed-write, but sometimes I have difficulty reading my own handwriting. With speed-writing, I would need to rewrite it later. It only makes sense in context.

Shorthand is much faster than speed-writing, but I had a difficult time writing normally when the time came for it.

I wonder how much better an external microphone would work than my laptop's. I cannot imagine anyone producing music with built-in hardware. I am going to look into dictation programs. If I could hit a key and replay the last ten seconds then I would solve many problems. I might need to finish my notes later, but it should not be that bad.

Syncing my notes and the slides would be great. I know one guy that actually takes notes at the bottom of PowerPoint, although I have forty-one presentations for one class, while all of my notes are in one document.

That isn't the biggest deal, though. I often use the search function from the folder.

Great ideas, guys!

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Xist

According to that page, I can type about as fast a one can speed-write, but sometimes I have difficulty reading my own handwriting.

Well, you must type faster than I can :-) But the real problem with typing to do note taking is how to do the equations & diagrams. I suppose one could get really, really good at LaTeX.

I wonder how much better an external microphone would work than my laptop's.

Don't know if this is still the case, but at one time many universities prohibited lecture recording by students.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Well, you must type faster than I can :-) But the real problem with typing to do note taking is how to do the equations & diagrams. I suppose one could get really, really good at LaTeX.

At the end of last semester I decided that had I just written down everything that the professor wrote on the board, I could have had an A. I may obsess over using the computer, but it is kind of like NASA inventing a pen while the Russians used pencils.

I do not know how many more equations and diagrams I will have with my major, but if I do, I will look into LaTeX--or bring a paper notebook.

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Don't know if this is still the case, but at one time many universities prohibited lecture recording by students.

I have not ever heard about that, but I have seen a few students ask for permission to use recorders.

Were they afraid that students would edit the audio?

[basjoos]

Pencils were invented by the British military during the Napoleonic War and their raw materials and manufacturing process were a military secret at the time. They were an instrument for instant writing with no time wasted waiting for the ink to dry before you could handle the document just written. They were a vast improvement over writing with a quill, having sprinkle sand on the paper to soak up any excess ink, then shake the sand off and wait for the ink to finish drying before you could do anything with the paper afterwards, otherwise the ink would smear.

When attending classes in the 1970's, I would take notes via a self-developed version of shorthand and then transcribe them into regular english later that day.

When they used to have a test where you could bring in all the crib notes you could fit on a 5" x 3" notecard, I used to write notes/formulas/equations on the card with a fine tipped pen using several colors of ink so I could overlay the notes on top of each other and would read them by adjusting my eye/brain "color filter" to read only in one color. By using 4 colors of ink (black, blue, red, green) I could get almost 4 times of amount of info on the card.

Once when I had two classes that I needed to graduate that year scheduled at the same time, I took one class using a tape casette recorder. I would drop the started recorder off at the one class, attend the other class, then afterwards go back to the first class to pick up the recorder and copy any notes the professor had on the blackboard.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by basjoos

Pencils were invented by the British military during the Napoleonic War and their raw materials and manufacturing process were a military secret at the time. They were an instrument for instant writing with no time wasted waiting for the ink to dry before you could handle the document just written. They were a vast improvement over writing with a quill, having sprinkle sand on the paper to soak up any excess ink, then shake the sand off and wait for the ink to finish drying before you could do anything with the paper afterwards, otherwise the ink would smear.

When attending classes in the 1970's, I would take notes via a self-developed version of shorthand and then transcribe them into regular english later that day.

When they used to have a test where you could bring in all the crib notes you could fit on a 5" x 3" notecard, I used to write notes/formulas/equations on the card with a fine tipped pen using several colors of ink so I could overlay the notes on top of each other and would read them by adjusting my eye/brain "color filter" to read only in one color. By using 4 colors of ink (black, blue, red, green) I could get almost 4 times of amount of info on the card.

Once when I had two classes that I needed to graduate that year scheduled at the same time, I took one class using a tape casette recorder. I would drop the started recorder off at the one class, attend the other class, then afterwards go back to the first class to pick up the recorder and copy any notes the professor had on the blackboard.

Well, yes, that was before Time Turners were invented. Hermoine had the same problem!

Since everything is on-line, the site will not allow us to take two classes at once, although someone persuasive could probably get an override.

You certainly seemed to figure out school. Me, I am going on nine years.