What sorts of technology are you using for school?

[Yetanotherdegree]

I'm wondering if I need to go buy another machine...

I use my ipad for most things. With a keyboard, I can take notes etc although the pages app isn't as helpful as an actual word processing program.

I have a PC that I like a lot but it is getting older and slower and has started to not do things it should do.

And I have access to other computers, both PC and Mac, as needed.

Is there any reason why I would need more access or comgputing power than what I have described above? It's a theology degree, not aerospace engineering. All I need is to be able to type words.

What do you use for school?

And if you could pick anything, what would you want to use?

Thanks

Edited July 19, 2013 by Yetanotherdegree

[Body Politics]

I use a yellow legal pad for class notes and a cheap Lenovo laptop for everything else. It has worked well so far.

Oh -- and sticky notes for research.

Edited July 19, 2013 by Body Politics

[sacklunch]

I use Bibleworks and Accordance quite a bit, but they can be run easily on any old machine. 

[MsDarjeeling]

In class I take notes in paper notebooks and for research or textbook reading I use post it notes, old school but always worked for me.  When at home I am using a desktop pc, which is very outdated so I'm shopping around for a new one.  I don't have a huge need for a laptop as my school has computer labs everywhere.

[TakeruK]

When I started my PhD last fall, I decided it was time to buy a new computer because my old laptop was on its last legs (the battery no longer charged and it would suddenly shutoff if it got too hot, too cold, held at the wrong angle, or if you looked at it the wrong way).

 

I considered all the possibilities of what kind of machine to get: "ultrabooks" (e.g. Samsung Chromebook), tablets (iPads as well as others), or "regular" laptop (but then Mac or Windows or Linux?). Even though I am not in theology, I'm writing here because the main reason for determining whether or not a tablet/iPad was enough for me was not driven by what kind of work I needed to do, but more to do with personal use! So I would say to consider more than just what you need for school when deciding what kind of machine to get. e.g. do you want to watch streaming videos? play DVDs? play games? etc. Personally, although the iPad would be awesome, I just can't deal with not being able to directly access files on my machine. So I could never use the iPad or any tablet as my primary device and I can't afford to have a secondary device!

 

In the end, I chose to buy a Macbook Pro for my personal use. Having used Windows almost all my life, work purposes did play a tiny role in the end to convince me to switch to the (prettier but more expensive) Mac because Macs are much closer to the Linux computers I use at work. For work/school, I am currently using an old Linux computer that my supervisor had but I hope to one day get them to buy me an iMac (my MSc supervisor spoiled me and bought me one; it introduced me to the world of Macs and I never want to go back now).

[dr. t]

I have a Lenovo X1 Ultrabook I bought with a tax refund this past year. I can't say I'm disappointed by it. I also have a massive tower PC with two monitors at home, which I find helpful. A lot of the stuff I do is digital; http://darmc.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do is one of my RA jobs.

[marXian]

I have an Apple laptop that's on it's last leg, but in class, I take notes in a graph paper Moleskine. Many in my department only use an iPad and I've seen people from other departments with just iPads or netbooks. Those whom I know who bring iPads to class for notes and the readings also have either a desktop or laptop that they use at home for writing their papers. I'm thinking of switching to one of those options (probably a tablet) when my laptop finally croaks. I've become quite accustomed to using Scrivener to write my papers (which I highly recommend checking out, btw), so I will probably get a cheaper laptop or desktop to keep at home to write papers and a tablet for class.

 

I did have an experience last quarter with a professor who refused to post PDFs of articles and chapters we were reading on Blackboard, though we could find them ourselves through JSTOR or what have you. Half way through the quarter he banned electronic devices for reading or note taking. In a graduate level seminar. He didn't do it in a mean or angry way, he just said he wanted to "be able to see everyone's eyes"--obviously because he felt like those of us who were using our laptops/tablets for some of the readings weren't giving our full attention. So I suppose you could encounter a situation like that where your planned style of regular seminar equipment gets thrown out the window! (Hopefully only figuratively.)