<p>I was wondering if students currently in bs use laptops in the classroom to take notes?</p>
<p>While visiting Miss Porters in the fall, all the girls in the 3rd yr English class had laptops out and were busy with them. At other schools I didn't notice or don't remember?</p>
<p>My d takes notes using the "cornell note" format and couldn't wait to use the computer version at bs.</p>
<p>The school she will attend all students receive a laptop upon arrival so it isn't a case of some students being able to afford them.</p>
<p>At her current inner city public school, we were told "it isn't fair for some kids to use computers when some kids cant afford them", thus all notes are long hand.</p>
<p>I know I did everything the "old fashion" way but over the last few years almost 50% of my college students use them during my lectures.</p>
<p>What are your thoughts and experiences</p>
<p>I know that at PA almost all students have laptops but it is not common to see them in class.</p>
<p>None. Zero. No laptops in class whatsoever.</p>
<p>hasta…may I ask which school?</p>
<p>Taft requires a laptop but they aren’t required for daily use in class:</p>
<p>[Taft</a> Academics - Computers & Technology](<a href=“http://www.taftschool.org/academics/comp_tech.aspx]Taft”>http://www.taftschool.org/academics/comp_tech.aspx)</p>
<p>My daughter has one, but seemed to think that there were options for students who don’t have one based on her revisit. Might want to check with each school’s policy.</p>
<p>At my son’s school, the kids don’t bring their laptops to class.</p>
<p>Exie-DA has a program, maybe just a few years old, that each kid gets a mac laptop upon starting, so each and every kid gets one unless the dont want one.</p>
<p>My d wants to use it for classes other than math/science/language.</p>
<p>She is a humanities “nut”, said lovingly by a mom who is chemistry teacher—lol, she writes alot and takes extensive notes.</p>
<p>During all the revisits we went to I don’t remember seeing much use of laptops in classrooms. I do remember some kids jotting a few notes in notebooks but even that wasn’t a lot. My guess is it’s due to the participatory nature of the classroom. With 12 students and a teacher, the classes are discussion based and not lecture based so the setting is not as conducive to keyboarding during class. I would imagine it would be like recording an event on a camcorder - I always feel like I’m not part of an event when I try to do it. I would think it would be hard to take notes on a computer when a discussion is rapidly moving from one student to the next.</p>
<p>Doschios-</p>
<p>now that makes the most sense to me–the conversation style classroom setting for the english/humanities type classes, most work is completed before walking into the classroom.</p>
<p>Perhaps a voice recorder would be better if permitted. Then notes could follow later, if desired.</p>
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<p>I saw myself in this! I never end up recording because then I can’t watch. I’m one of those annoying parents who always asks for a copy from a parent who recorded. Consequently, I have all these videos of my kids’ performances with close ups of someone else’s kid!</p>
<p>I’m sure your child will figure out what works for her when she is at school. Then, next year, you can ask her what she does.</p>
<p>My S attends Exeter.</p>
<p>I can’t remember - does Deerfield have Smartboards? I know they do in the Koch center, but can’t remember the rest of the classrooms.<br>
Anyway, that seems to be how many schools work it. The class notes are saved online directly from the smartboard and the kids access it there. Of course, they still need to take their own notes. When we did visits with my son 2 years ago we did 12 and did not see any kids with laptops in classrooms. This year with my daughter we did 3 and also did not see any.</p>
<p>My daughter graduated from Miss Porter’s last year. I watched the evolution of basically no laptops in classes her freshman year to pretty much everyone using them for note taking by her junior year - the English department really embraced it. The catalyst was when the campus went completely wireless. When I sat in on an English class, a question came up and the teacher asked the class to google something. Sharing of class notes was frequent and in English most exams and papers were submitted electronically. My daughter thrived in this environment and it became a key question on her college tours.</p>
<p>Shelley, congrats on the MPS graduate. We loved the school, and my d was accepted but decided on DA.</p>
<p>I loved the interaction we witnessed in the history class. The girls were engaged and excited about their learning. They set the tone for which we compared other schools in the classroom setting. </p>
<p>Thanks for the info :-)</p>
<p>Thanks - watching the girls in class, sometimes, I would tear up with joy to see what her days were like.</p>
<p>As my d prepares for winter final exams, I thought a bump for this thread might give some additional info.</p>
<p>True, my d doesnt use her laptop in class for chinese, or art, her physics group used it almost every day. The geometry class uses it and specific programs daily. In English, my d uses it everyday (specially for her modified Cornell notes program). Not all of her classmates use their computer like she does but it is common place to see them used in the classroom by about 50% of the kids.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that my d was homeschooled and did a lot on line before bs so the computer was a big part of her educational world.</p>