Tablet for note taking in lectures?

[vellygoood]

DS already has a decent laptop, but its cumbersome for taking to lectured etc. What do your DCs use for working on the go? Ideally I want something less than £200. Thinking a Samsung Galaxy tablet, but not sure if it's the right choice.

A lot of my students use paper notebooks. There's been research done which suggests that students who take notes by hand grasp the concepts they are learning better than those who use a device.

I bought an iPad to do my note taking for uni. It didn't last long until I swapped back to pen and paper. I just found things didnt sink in as well on the ipad for some reason.

I used to take an iPad with Apple Pencil in with me last year for some of the time. Depending what subject it was I'd either handwrite or type notes (I had the keyboard for it) - if it was a case of writing on a worksheet then I'd download it or photograph it and add it into the lecture notes and complete it that way, or print powerpoint slides to PDF and then note take on top of them.

I know from experience (it's my second degree) that if I take notes on paper I never file the buggers properly and then I'm screwed when it comes to revision time. This year they're all now properly typed up, with videos used during the powerpoints embedded within them, handouts all sublinked to them and all cross reference each subject (I got really bored during lockdown).

I do still use my laptop as well - I find handwriting lots of stuff very hard work (my daughter's dyspraxic; I have a dyslexia diagnosis but also suspected dyspraxia) so DSA fund note taking software for me which records lectures - I mix and match which device I use a lot to be fair. If I was doing phonetic transcription or something requiring drawing a lot of diagrams I'd use the iPad - if it was just straightforward dispensing of information in a lecture I tended to type it.

I do draw out a lot of mind maps etc to help me get to grips with a concept - but tend to photograph them and store them digitally. Lighter on the back as well commuting into lectures without folders full of paper!

My students look a ipad pro. They download the lecture and use the pen to take notes. They can also down load links and they do some amazingly creative stuff with notes, Web pages and the likes. Not sure it'll come in under your budget though?

Notability and iPad.

I never found my laptop to be a problem to take to lectures. Depends on the subject though - stem ppl tend to write by hand or annotate on a tablet, bc of the diagrams, whereas if you're just typing "normal" words a laptop with a proper keyboard is easier (and quite usual)

I like a notepad and a pen. I just jot down key words and can use arrows and stars to highlight bits I want to look up later. It is too hard to listen properly and type notes imo. Most lectures will not even be done face to face this coming semester but will be on Teams and probably recorded so they can be listened to many times if needed. I would ask your DC to wait and see what might be best once they have started.