<p>jasper, there are still many who use it. I can remember a few girls on some of my higher end engineering courses who uses them. One thing I would portray to your son, is that the first thing he should do in college is learn his learning style. If he is one whom benefits and learns best from spoken word, a record could be priceless to him.</p>
<p>“And if my students can do well in my course without attending my lectures, it suggests I’m doing something wrong (I’m obviously not very useful and I should be doing something different with the time we have together).”</p>
<p>What arrogance! Students learn in different ways, and some students are simply better at absorbing information than others, but as a professor, you must teach so that a broad section of your classes understands you. </p>
<p>More importantly, all knowledge that should be taught in college (i.e. excluding cutting-edge unpublished research that is not relevant for undergraduate audiences) is in text form already. There is no reason students ought to absorb information better from lectures than reading the text version. Unless, that is, you’re teaching really obscure material that is difficult to find in a good coherent published form. That may be warranted, but you should ask yourself if you’re just teaching minutiae and missing the forest for the trees.</p>
<p>And I’ve seen many kids use their iPhones to record their professors, and sometimes even a TAs, speak.</p>
<p>My neice (graduated '07) was a student athlete at a large state u. She routinely missed several days of classes per week during her sports season. She often sent a recorder with a friend so she could catch up.</p>
<p>Off-topic but does anybody else’s kid use I-Clicker? S2 has two classes this semester with 250 kids. Both require the I-Clicker.</p>
<p>Oops, sorry folks: here are links to 2 gadgets (I made an earlier mistake trying to post a link)</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> IOGear GPEN200N Mobile Digital Scribe: Electronics](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/IOGear-GPEN200N-Mobile-Digital-Scribe/dp/B0014BJIFM]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/IOGear-GPEN200N-Mobile-Digital-Scribe/dp/B0014BJIFM)</p>
<p>[Livescribe</a> :: Never Miss A Word](<a href=“http://www.livescribe.com/]Livescribe”>http://www.livescribe.com/)</p>
<p>The livescribe takes notes and records. The mobile digital scribe, I believe, transposes into computer text (I didn’t have time to read it right now, so check for yourself- I ran into the mobile digital scribe while reading a review of the livescribe).</p>
<p>Slightly off-topic–looking for suggestions for my D who needs a dictaphone or a small-taper recorder. (Do they make these anymore?) She’s going to a theater program overseas and needs a device that allows her to be able to record herself and play it back–this is for voice lessons. I know some cell phones have recording and re-play capabilities, but she won’t be taking a cell phone from the US. The advice she received was to buy one when she gets to her foreign study program. Looked at the devices mentioned above, but those aren’t really geared for what she needs.</p>
<p>Videotape your lectures?</p>
<p>Profs usually publish class notes on-line. D’s comment is that she reads textbooks extremely rarely (never?), they are impossible. When I asked why we are buying (very expensive, even used), she could not answer. No complaints from us, though. College junior pre-med, still GPA=4.0 (that includes major and 2 minors, one completely unrelated - Music Composition, that requires practice) and some other funny classes like Papermaking (very time consuming art class). Very busy with EC’s like job, volunteering, sorority board, research lab, intramural sport (freshman year).</p>
<p>A couple of my friends record lectures on their iPods. </p>
<p>MiamiDAP, I have had the same experience . . . I hardly ever crack open the $100+ textbooks I buy. Sometimes I wonder why I bother!</p>
<p>I believe the availability of professors posting class notes varies by individual and by institution - at my school, for example, very few people do so. Of course, we also emphasize small classes and lots of discussion, so the notes (or recorded version thereof) are much less important in the learning process than the in-class experience. YMMV.</p>
<p>Bromfield, my daughter records music that she composes, when it is played by musicians, using a “handy recorder” called the Zoom H2.</p>
<p>She uses it for readings of her music, but also for final performances, and has used the recordings in conservatory admissions portfolios. The quality is amazing.</p>
<p>It is maybe 5" by 3", or less, very easy to use, and cost, I think, around $85.</p>
<p>We found out about it on CC, on the music major forum. So you could also ask over there.</p>