Tape Recording Classes

<p>Do the professors at Dartmouth let people tape record the classes/lectures, whether in a large class setting or a small class setting (like about ten people in a class) or do they ask students not to record them. I know there are so who will allow it and some who won't, but in general, how tolerant are the professors of tape recorders? Thanks.</p>

<p>that brings up an interesting point....are there a lot of professors that allow students to download lectures to their ipods?</p>

<p>My personal take on this is that it is not a matter of tape recording classes and getting the professor's words down verbatium as much it is a matter of developing good reading ,notetaking, studying and time management skills (whether you are at Dartmouth or any where else).</p>

<p>These are skills that are worth developing that will make your college life much easier remember once you get to college, no one is really re-hashing what is being done in the reading. While it has been my experience in both undergrad and graduate programs to see students tape notes, my thoughts are that taping lectures are not going to do you any good with out the good listening and note taking skills to back it up.</p>

<p>Dartmouth's academic skills center does have excellent suggestions to make students better in this area (I know that once my daughter made the transistion from doing things she used to in high school and changeing the way she read and took notes in college allowed her to work smarter)</p>

<p><a href="http://www.dartmouth.edu/%7Eacskills/success/index.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.dartmouth.edu/~acskills/success/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Cornell has has a great notetaking and studying system (Dartmouth even talks about it on their site. Props to parent poster originaloog (who is also a college professor) who gave us the link (yes, we talk about these things on the parent's forum :) )</p>

<p>RIT's website really does a great job on Cornell's notetaking system</p>

<p><a href="http://www.rit.edu/%7E369www/college_programs/lng_pwr/ln_cornell_revealed.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.rit.edu/~369www/college_programs/lng_pwr/ln_cornell_revealed.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Also attaching the link Workload in college because it has a lot of good tips. Happy reading</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=35568&page=1&pp=20&highlight=notes%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=35568&page=1&pp=20&highlight=notes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Regarding taping lectures -- I tried that in college, for a very short period of time. The problem is, you then have to find the time to listen to the lecture again, and you STILL need to find a way to condense or summarize the material into notes. So I didn't try this for long -- it seemed like it just doubled the amount of class time, without improving results. Sybbie offers the best advice -- learning HOW to learn is the most important thing in college, whether at Dartmouth or another school. fwiw, I found that if I just really, really listened and took some notes (but not trying to transcribe every word of the lecture) then I learned the material and didn't have to study as much for exams.</p>

<p>Apparantly the new tape recorders that have been invented in the past few years come with software that enables you to hook them up to your computer, put the audio file on your computer, and then use a sort of you-talk-it-types software to translate the lecture into text on a program like Microsoft word.</p>

<p>I personally think that if I have everything the teacher said in class up on a computer screen (minus the ums, ahs, and whatever long pauses/thinking noises the professor makes) where I can reread the information over and over again, I will be able to learn much better than if I can only jot down the main points that a professor is getting at.</p>

<p>So if anyone has any insight into whether or not the professors at Dartmouth allow tape recorders (although I'm sure that they're called by a different name nowadays, like digital voice recorders or something), his or her input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.</p>

<p>
[quote]
I personally think that if I have everything the teacher said in class up on a computer screen (minus the ums, ahs, and whatever long pauses/thinking noises the professor makes) where I can reread the information over and over again, I will be able to learn much better than if I can only jot down the main points that a professor is getting at.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Ok,</p>

<p>while I am quite sure you are doing what you feel works for you right now. The only problem that I see with your philosphy that it really does nothing for you ar far as learning. I am sorry to say that your approach is probably not going to help you to be successful in school over the long term because you will be lacking some vital tools.</p>

<p>I think you need to be prepared for the fact that college is not high school where many exams and papers were based on being able to parrot back what was said in class.</p>

<p>At the college level there is very little rote learning and when it comes to taking exams, reguritation will get you nothing but a failing grade. with the exception of large lecture classes- probably math, and some of the science courses (even then the professor posts notes on blackboard) the classes are broken down into smaller discussion groups. Even if you tape and transcribe through your voice activated software everything that is said, you will nedd to pick out what is relevant.</p>

<p>In college, you do the reading, there is usually a discussion where the professor is looking for your thoughts on a particular topic or issues The focus will be on applying what you have learned. Exams are usually short answer or essays where you will have to use your critical thinking and analytical skills. The professor is looking at the thought process that you used to answer a question or solve a problem.</p>

<p>Maybe it's me, but through 4 years of undergrad, completing 2 masters, going through a PhD and even teaching a few college courses I have yet to hear a professor say 'you are responsible for knowing everything I said in class".</p>