So I’m going back to school to get some more letters after my name. Last time I was at uni the Bic 4 colour pen, a trusty a4 lined pad and a ring reinforcer dispenser were my tried and trusted. These notes served me well, but due to their 20th century format are languishing in a box in the loft, when potentially they could have been useful to me day to day in my job.

So have things moved on since I was last in education?

If i could make notes in an electronic format, searchable and easily accessible that would be good, and is the main reason I’m considering the electronic option. But is it overkill when a four colour bic biro and some post-it index stickers is all i need?

So far the contenders are regular iPad with keyboard, iPad pro with something like one note? I don’t write reams and reams, some lectures I barely write a page. I do like diagrams and pictures for learning. Bonus points if said device can inscribe the desk with my initials permanently and ability to draw a massive cock and balls on the front page of someone else notes is essential.

Probably depends on the course but I found good old fashioned textbooks to be the only reliable solution. Paper notes I never read again and eventually binned, and anything electronic is on some long forgotten hard drive somewhere. And any notes I made were 3rd hand information from the lecturer who was following a textbook.

But dont let that distract you from the aquisition of shiny things!

Yes maybe its an excuse for a new shiny thing! The course is very practical and has direct applications to my day job, so having access to the notes day to day would be good, hence the electronic cloud based thoughts.

OneNote. Best application Microsoft ever created.

Also, I’ve not used it yet but Lens looks interesting.

But dont let that distract you from the aquisition of shiny things!

It didn’t take long for the STW pomposity to raise it’s head

However, I do concur that writing copious amounts of notes in lectures isn’t particularly helpful: Firstly, they require you to be completely accurate with the information you take down, which isn’t always easy when some lecturers can go a million miles an hour. As a result, I rarely trust them, when it comes to later referral.

What I would do is get hold of the lecture notes beforehand, read them, and annotate them with questions, things you don’t understand, which you can then raise with the lecturer during the class. You can still take notes, but this helps to cut down the amount of note taking.

Also, I find that if I’m busy writing, I’m not 100% focused on understanding exactly what the lecturer is saying, so I may miss some of the fundamental principles.

I’m lucky as my Uni records all the lectures and puts them up on the intranet within half an hour of them finishing, which is an absolute godsend. If that wasn’t the case, then I might think about taking in some digital dictaphone, so I can listen back later on. I wouldn’t bother with something that turns the recordings into type as I doubt you’ll ever read them, but you are far more likely to listen; whether it be in the car, at home, on an airplane etc.

A lightweight easy to carry laptop is ideal for ‘wordy’ modules, I tend to write quick summary documents of each each lecture as they go. Especially as my handwriting as more in common with hieroglyphics than the English language. Also ideal for doing coursework on the go.

For ‘mathsy’ modules nothing beats a pen and paper for getting notes down quickly. I do see plenty of people using tablets using one note in the lectures however. I also use the laptop to make a summary document again on each subject as I go with equation sheets/processes to common questions/copy pastes from textbooks.

What I did in similar circumstances is took notes old skool pen and paper style in lectures – but transcribed them onto the computer when I got home. This helped as I had to do the notes twice and when transcribing them I could also check references etc and put in links.

I found it really hard to get the degree – old dog and new tricks but the discipline of doing this helped for sure

Just finished year 1 of masters. Onenote is brilliant and pretty device agnostic.

Your uni will probably give you access to the full ms suite, so check that out.

If you’re distance learning many of the textbooks are available through university online libraries, make sure you go to the library induction event. Even if you’re on campus is extremely useful to browse journals/texts online.

Also check out citefast.com for creating your references in uni accepted format.

I’ve just started a full time masters and can fully recommend using One Note. Easy to upload lecture slides plus it’s easy to insert photos from your phone. I’m using it on a MacBook but if I had the chance to start afresh, I’d go for an iPad Pro with the pen thingy.

Ok so i’m on the right lines with ipad/ ipadpro and one note. Is the pro the only way to draw on a iPad with a pen? these online textbook things – will they run on ipad?

Depending on how spendy you want to be, a Surface Pro + OneNote would be an option. The writing with the pen is very natural – it’s what I tend to do in meetings – and it means you can scribble and draw pictures too.

iPad Pro and pencil using goodnotes 4 or Evernote (with subscription) for cross device syncing and penultimate (included with the Evernote sub).
This would allow you to annotate pdf’s, use a keyboard (either Logitech smart kb or apples own smart kb and do handwritten notes and diagrams etc.

Evernote would most likely be my pick at the moment – it also includes OCR with the sub which is super useful for searching notes (including web clippings, PDF etc)

Last time I tried one note on iPad it wasn’t as useful as Evernote. I’ll download it and have a quick look to see if it’s improved

Just tried ON very quickly and do not think it’s as good on the iPad as Evernote.

OCR for handwritten notes doesn’t appear to work in ON. If it did, you would find it as useful as EN.

Just tested Evernote as well and even though that does OCR in the cloud, it didn’t take long. One note didn’t seem to work, I see conflicting info – perhaps if you buy a surface, it will work.

Both apps are ideal for what you want to use them for. I would choose your platform and try both, see which one fits your workflow best. I moved over to Apple a few years ago and haven’t looked back although on occasion I get a pang because the office suite has more features in a windows env. I usually find a way around it and do like my scripts in OSX etc.

Enjoy your studies.

Thanks all. Trying one note and reactivating my endnote which i have used before.

Evernote (with subscription) for cross device syncing

OneNote does cross-device syncing and is free. I have it on an Android phone, a Windows phone and two PCs. I don’t have an iDevice but I see no reason why the same wouldn’t be true on there.

Just tried ON very quickly and do not think it’s as good on the iPad as Evernote.

Perhaps, I dunno. I haven’t used Evernote in donkeys’ years so can’t compare.

Either way, trying out several solutions out to see what works best for you is always good advice.

OneNote. Best application Microsoft ever created

+1

Cougar – chances are your version on ON in a windows env is different from that on an iDevice or OSX.

I’m not saying ON isn’t good because it is, it’s excellent. But MS hobble their products functionality in other OS

EN allows basic syncing but if you want OCR and other features, you need a sub.

Edit – if I was on a win platform and not an iPad, I’d likely go with ON

If you’re looking at costs a standard non-pro surface 3 is about £400 and will work with a ‘pen’. They’re Intel Atom powered so not amazing by solid media storage keeps them brisk.

I’ve used both the new Surface Pro and IPad Pro in the last couple of days, they’re both lovely but lots and lots of money.

£877 for bottom of the line iPad pro with pencil and keyboard! Crikey.

😆

Have a look at the refurb store. Dont forget you can get education discount if you’re at uni etc.

Pencil and paper would be much cheaper …