At school, I've started to see many people using laptops instead of normal school books. I personally think this is a great idea but I've decided to weigh up the pros and cons of both options.
I use a laptop (specifically a MacBook) at school. I used to use an Acer Aspire One laptop running Windows XP. I liked my Acer, as I had the entire Microsoft Office Suite right there. THE tool for taking notes in class is OneNote.
Unfortunately there is no OneNote for Mac (damn you you hoarding Microsoft). It's the tool I miss most, and now I have to use Word for taking notes. OneNote was much more intuitive, you could write anywhere you want and you could add in pictures, video and audio with absolutely no effort!
But there is an alternative for Mac users. On this you can write anywhere, put in pictures, put random notes on the side and even customise the UI. This would be a good, spiral bound NOTEBOOK! I still use them for maths, I mean if you can figure out how to use a computer efficiently for maths, please PLEASE tell me. But with a notebook you can have more colours, more sticky notes (yeah go Post-Its) and even more fonts! Admittedly it's not as fast as typing but who cares. You take in more when you write things out by hand.
I only use a computer because I'm so often sick that I don't want to have to get every one of my school books from my locker whenever I get sick. I do have a few kilos of work to do. But otherwise I wish I could use a notebook and a good pen.
It's hard to transport schoolbooks to and from school. They can get ripped, scuffed and dirty. Plus they're generally heavier than your average laptop. If you're not a cheapskate and purchase a cover for your laptop, there's not much opportunity for damage. I also dance every day, so the pro of having a laptop is that I have all my work right there. No chance for forgetting a book.
One last thing... Notebooks can't run out of batteries! The number of times I've gotten in trouble in class for plugging my laptop into the charger is enourmous. Now, my Acer only got 2 hours at most, with brightness at minimum and WiFi off. My new Mac gets about twelve - thirteen hours with these settings, so I doubt I'll be having this problem again.
So I think that the winners are the laptops. But if notebooks are your thing, then own it. You might not be able to write very fast or very neat (this is why my friend has a laptop. English is her second language so her handwriting is very messy and sometimes in Afrikaans) so a laptop would be better for you. Spell check is also very useful. But for notebook users, power to you. I would use a notebook if I could. I used to love re-writiting my work so it was more neat. I take notes very fast without looking with books, so they're sometimes not even on the lines. But with touchtyping I can do the same with no mistakes.
Hope this helps you decide. xx
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