Archive for 'Organization' Category

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The Amazon Kindle: A Yin for the Tablet Pc’s Yang?

21 November 2007 Posted By: Robert
Posted in: Digital Books, Hardware

Well the much anticipated Kindle e-book reader from Amazon has arrived (at least in the US - heaven knows when those of us who live elsewhere in the world are going to see it..sob!) and as you’ve no doubt seen for yourself already, it’s causing quite a bit if a stir on the blogosphere. The love/hate camps have sprung up, with the geekamentalists in the ‘love’ camp proclaiming the dawning of a new technological age, while the ‘die hards’ in the ‘hate’ camp are lamenting the death of the book in its traditional form (and also moaning a lot about the price :o)). I’m kind of midway between both camps (love the reader, hate the high price point) but wherever you’re inclined to pitch your tent, one important question remains - What value, in terms of usability, does the Kindle hold for the student who already uses a Tablet PC?

Fitting a ‘better’ Cornell page template into OneNote

11 October 2007 Posted By: Robert
Posted in: Note-Taking, OneNote

Well my migration over to OneNote is going pretty good. I’ve used it exclusively now in both of the scheduled 3 hour seminars I’ve attended so far, along with numerous other note-taking tasks, and I’ve got to say I’m thoroughly enjoying the experience and that’s without even getting my teeth into, shall we call it, the ‘power features’ of OneNote yet, such as side notes and note flags etc.

Of course a large part of the ‘moving in’ process has involved a ‘custom fitting’ tweak of the interface i.e. re-positioning OneNote’s toolbars, the removal and addition of buttons etc. and a ‘figuring out’ session on how to incorporate my established electronic filing system, but everything has been straightforward and hassle-free.

DocuPen on the Way

1 October 2007 Posted By: Tracy
Posted in: Scanning

Quick update that I have a Planon DocuPen RC800 coming my way for review purposes. I really can’t wait to try this thing out on my own as I’ve heard very mixed reviews. It seems like a great solution for students, but does it really work?

We’ll see!

eTextBook/Resource Database? Are You Up for it?

17 September 2007 Posted By: Tracy
Posted in: Digital Books

A big undertaking, perhaps, but I think it’d be very useful for the digital student to have a big list of textbooks and good resources that are available free online. Even simple textbook companion resources would be useful. There’s so much out there that is just hidden in the mass of the web but is for the free taking.

I’m not saying illegal textbook sharing (although…no, that’s wrong), but ones that your teachers make available for free, course notes, your notes, books that have free digital copies online somewhere, books that have website companions that are so good they can sub for the book. Just stuff like that. Maybe we could arrange it by subject matter and just populate it based on stuff we find, like informative blogs, instructional videos, etc.

Review: Snapter Ice v2.0

11 September 2007 Posted By: Robert
Posted in: Scanning, Software Info

We told you at the end of July that Atiz’s Snapter camera ’scanning’ application, re-branded as Snapter ICE V2.0, was being re-launched with the promise that the operational problems inherent in v1.0 had been greatly fixed and some new and improved functionality had been put in place. Well I thought it was about time I took a look at this new version just to see how it measures up against the old one. What I’m looking to find out is whether Atiz have fully ironed out those pesky operational problems and whether the application can now rightly claim a position of permanence in the Tablet PC student’s toolbox? Join me after the jump and we’ll get to work.

My Senior Year: A New Plan for Notes

29 August 2007 Posted By: Tracy
Posted in: Note-Taking, Organization

After a few years trying different things and a few internships under my belt, I have a new outlook on how tablets help note-taking, and how only keeping digital copies of my notes can be a hindrance. The basic plan for this semester is as follows:

1. Take notes with Tablet PC in class. This includes recording the lecture, if needed.
2. Use breaks after classes to clean and condense notes. Look through the book to add notes as needed.
3. Go home or to computer lab and print notes with one topic per page (to allow for easy rearranging later).

Studying in the humanities – Part 2a: Note-taking for lectures: The ‘before’

28 August 2007 Posted By: Robert
Posted in: Note-Taking, Organization, Study Aids

Well it’s been 2 months since I scribed the first in my series on how I use my Tablet PC (along with other e-gadgets) to study electronically (and as close to 100% paperless as I can) so before I proceed to the next part, I should perhaps apologise for such a lengthy delay. Over the past few weeks I had resolved to finish off part 2 almost daily but every time I did, something new would crop up and prevent me from doing so. Thankfully from now on (or for the time being at least) I’m not as affected by external distractions so subsequent updates will hopefully be a bit more forthcoming.

Unfortunately, due to its length, I’ve had split this part of the series into three separate posts. Yep it’s long and while I seriously detest long posts with a passion (especially when I’m writing them :o)) I think the complexity of the subject warrants it. To ease the torture of you having to read it (if you have the fortitude that is) I have, as I did in Part 1, used as many sub-headings and bullet points as I could and I’ve also tagged on a brief summary at the end. I hope that helps :o)

Ok so without further ado I proudly present (after the jump) the first subsection of Note-Taking for Lectures – the ‘before’ phase

Snapter turns sub zero

29 July 2007 Posted By: Robert
Posted in: News, Scanning, Software Info

You’ll remember back in April that we introduced you to Snapter, a software based scanning solution that utilises a digital camera as its primary means of input? Well Sarasin at Atiz has dropped me an email announcing that the software has been incarnated into a new version and renamed Snapter Ice 2.0. It seems our collective voice, and the testing efforts of power users such as Hugh Sung and Karla, have made Atiz sit up and listen. The biggest issues with the previous version i.e. poor recognition results and the inability to reposition the ‘border nodes’ in Book mode have apparently been bashed out and a valuable whiteboard recognition mode has been added (sweet!). The software also sports a new interface and is fully Vista compatible.

NaturalReader: Let your tablet do all the reading

24 July 2007 Posted By: Tracy
Posted in: Digital Books, Study Aids

Having a tablet lets you do many tasks with more interaction than you would otherwise. Many student tablet owners decide to digitize their books for easier reference and a lighter daily load, but digital books also have other advantages. They’re normal text and therefore you can do anything with them you can do to text, such as copy and paste into reports/notes. Such as…use a program that can convert text to speech (hmm…).

Maybe this is just my personal lack of concentration kicking in, but have you ever opened a textbook to read, only to realize ten minutes later you’re still on the same page? Assuming you don’t have any problem reading in general, this type of situation needs a little extra focus.

Looking for a solution somewhere between Word and OneNote

8 July 2007 Posted By: Tracy
Posted in: Organization

Maybe someone in cyber-world will have a suggestion. I’m looking for an idea/program/add-in/option that will let me have the organization of OneNote, but the formatting and document structure of Word.

The idea is a master notes file for summarizing subjects. It’s likely very similar to writing a book, except I don’t want to go as complex as the $300+ book-writing plug-ins.

Why do I want this? Because you really know if you understand a subject when you try to explain it, and for someone who likes to write, I think it’d be a nice archival experiment to try making all my notes into one book-like file; organized, detailed, and easy to read.

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