<p>Do the students bring their laptops to class to take notes?</p>
<p>Yes, though some professors ask that you not, because most students who bring laptops use them to message friends and check emails, not take notes. I normally did for classes bigger than 20-30 people.</p>
<p>In large lectures, I definitely found my laptop useful - especially when the professor spoke quickly - because I wanted to get as much information down as possible. In smaller classes it's definitely not common - I thought it was a little strange when someone in my English seminar brought his laptop to class. But I mean, there were certainly times when I was glad I had it - in my Writing 20, near the end of the semester, she let us use good chunks of the class period to work on our paper, so literally every single person in the class brought in his/her laptop to revise pieces of the paper, show her what was written so far, etc. I can't imagine what I would have done in that class had I not had my laptop. But overall, yeah -- I saw a considerable amount of laptops in the larger classes, but not so many in the smaller ones, and even in the large classes there were plenty of people using notebooks.</p>
<p>for lectures people do sometimes-- typing quicker than writing, no one will see if it gets boring and you check email/newspaper online/aim whatever</p>
<p>Has anyone put the Writing 20: Monster in Literature and Film in their bookbag? That sounds like a really funny class. Has anyone taken it? I mean, what do they do, watch fims like Godzilla and then write about them. lol</p>
<p>Laptops tend to be great for classes in which profs are really disorganized and hit the same material repeatedly - you can get a lot of extrinsic things done so you have time to do other things later! On the other hand, they are helpful in classes that are more worthy of listening to becasue you can type a lot faster than you can write and as such, can get a lot more down. I made the mistake of going 2.5 years without taking mine and only this past semester did I realize the error of my ways!</p>
<p>I dont know about other people, but I never have brought my laptop to class. In most classes I'd say the overwhelming majority of students do not, especially in smaller classes.</p>
<p>That may be a Trinity/Pratt thing - the largest classes I've been in have been Pratt classes and they're filled to the brim with laptops if the teacher allows them.</p>
<p>In small classes most students don't bring laptops to class since it's rude. These classes typically have such a strong emphasis on class discussion, that bringing a laptop doesn't make much sense. However, I've been in plenty of larger Trinity classes (lecture-sized classes-- esp. in PPS and Poli Sci) where there were plenty of laptops. In one of my poli sci classes last semester, pretty much every student in the class brought a laptop (because the class was so boring).
I agree with megaconservative though-- when professors go quickly, laptops are key-- esp. because they allow more time to listen to important and interesting lectures.</p>
<p>I love people who bring in laptops to do work. On the other hand, I send spies or use the cameras installed in the back of my classroom to find students who are playing solitaire or AIMing or otherwise not using their computer for relevant material and give those people lower grades.</p>
<p>haha...good to know ;)</p>
<p>what if I play free cell instead of solitaire? is that better or worse? how bout minesweeper?... I mean thats kind of like engineering right?</p>
<p>If you are a three-button-capable minesweeper player you get some bonus points, though not enough to completely compensate for the decline. Freecell, on the other hand, loses even more points. At least try something challenging like Seahaven Towers.</p>
<p>The scary thing, Dr. G, is that I can't tell if you're serious or not. O_O;</p>
<p>I don't imagine that sort of monitoring occurs frequently in Trinity. If I had to guess, Trinity profs would probably be more like to exclaim, "Ugh! A blatant violation of the expectation of privacy rights!" or something along those lines. I must say, however, that I certainly applaud the effort!</p>