Kuci is getting a laptop - recommendations

[Agathon]

Seriously, just incredible. Apple doesn't have anything like it.

Because it's a waste of time. Real professors allow the students to download the notes.

Tablet PCs as they exist today are basically useless toys.

[MrFun]

Funny that Kuci created this thread.

My next new computer will be a laptop, and I plan to buy one sometime this year.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Agathon
Because it's a waste of time. Real professors allow the students to download the notes.

Tablet PCs as they exist today are basically useless toys.

Real professors know that students each learn differently.

Some learn best by writing down rather than just reading.

Tablet PCs are one of the most innovative things to come to personal computers in years. You're just bitter because Apple wasn't there first.

Rest assured, if Apple had one (think of a full-size Newton), it'd have been the best thing since sliced bread.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Agathon
Because it's a waste of time. Real professors allow the students to download the notes.

Real professors write their notes on the blackboard in chalk.

I've never taken a class where the notes were fully PDFed or .ppt etc.

Waste of time for the professor to do that.

[Asher]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
Real professors write their notes on the blackboard in chalk.

I've never taken a class where the notes were fully PDFed or .ppt etc.

Waste of time for the professor to do that.

I reckon it's the philosophers who do that. When your content is so dry and pointless, why bother writing it more than once.

Put it on a PDF and put it online, kids don't go to those courses anyway.

It's a scam.

[Agathon]

Real professors write their notes on the blackboard in chalk.

Only the ones who's English script looks like Sanskrit.

I've never taken a class where the notes were fully PDFed or .ppt etc.

I don't Powerpoint (for moral reasons), but I put the notes up so that the kids spend their time listening rather than writing.

Waste of time for the professor to do that.

Not really. It helps the students, which is our job.

[Agathon]

I reckon it's the philosophers who do that. When your content is so dry and pointless, why bother writing it more than once.

But you're famous for being an ignoramus on these matters. Curious and interesting people like reading philosophy. Trained monkeys don't.

Put it on a PDF and put it online, kids don't go to those courses anyway.

Maybe not at your college. I had a really high attendance rate this year (apart from the 10% of perpetual losers who never turn up to anything and wonder why they fail).

I guess it's because I tell such excellent jokes and stories.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Agathon
Not really. It helps the students, which is our job.

A professor's job is to lecture. If he's nice he will answer questions out of class.

In no way, shape or form should teaching a class take up more than 20 hours a week (10 each from the TA and prof).

[Agathon]

Depressing note from this year:

In the exam I had to stop the students from writing and explain to everyone what "exonerate" meant.

[KrazyHorse]

I suppose the pre-arranged lecture format is fine for giant intro classes where nothing ever changes, but the dynamic chalkboard format is better for any medium or advanced classes (at least in the sciences, where intermediate steps may need to be inserted for clarification, depending on the students).

[Agathon]

I suppose the pre-arranged lecture format is fine for giant intro classes where nothing ever changes, but the dynamic chalkboard format is better for any medium or advanced classes (at least in the sciences, where intermediate steps may need to be inserted for clarification, depending on the students).

I agree. You're absolutely right.

In my 3rd year paper this year, I just stood at the front of the class for an hour and did a monologue with a couple of scrawls on the board. Then we talked for the next hour.

I never took notes after first year. Sometimes I would write down something after class to remind myself. But that's it.

A lot of students have those Palm Pilot things – they seem to be more popular than tablets. One of my kids downloaded the whole of Jowett's Plato to his. :shakes head:

[Agathon]

A professor's job is to lecture. If he's nice he will answer questions out of class.

That's mandatory for us. We have designated contact hours, and it is considered polite to answer questions after class.

I usually leave the last 5-10 minutes empty so that people can ask stuff.

In no way, shape or form should teaching a class take up more than 20 hours a week (10 each from the TA and prof)

I don't. It takes about 10 seconds to make my notes into a PDF and not much longer to post them.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Agathon

I suppose the pre-arranged lecture format is fine for giant intro classes where nothing ever changes, but the dynamic chalkboard format is better for any medium or advanced classes (at least in the sciences, where intermediate steps may need to be inserted for clarification, depending on the students).

I agree. You're absolutely right.

In my 3rd year paper this year, I just stood at the front of the class for an hour and did a monologue with a couple of scrawls on the board. Then we talked for the next hour.

I never took notes after first year. Sometimes I would write down something after class to remind myself. But that's it.

A lot of students have those Palm Pilot things – they seem to be more popular than tablets. One of my kids downloaded the whole of Jowett's Plato to his. :shakes head:

I can't live without my iPaq 4150.


It's even more ultimate when your school/workplace has wireless internet. I have the internet, MSN messenger, Skype, etc. on that thing.

I could be eating dinner at the student center and get an MSN message.

[Agathon]

That's one of the reasons I can't see the point of tablets. Those are cheaper and the students seem to like them more.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Agathon
That's one of the reasons I can't see the point of tablets. Those are cheaper and the students seem to like them more.

They're complementary.

Though together with a BlueTooth enabled laptop with OneNote, it's pretty close to replacing it.

When a diagram is being drawn, or I draw one to help explain something to people, I'll draw it on my iPaq and then beam it instantly over to my laptop full-screen in OneNote, then we annotate it from there. Painless.

I literally just need to select Beam To -> Killian (name of my laptop) on the iPaq and it gets pasted into OneNote automatically.

Technology.