Do I need a laptop for uni?

[Whosaidthattt]

I'm starting my masters in 2 weeks, age 55! Do I need a laptop for lectures or can I turn up with an A4 pad and pens and look like a dinosaur?😄
I can write faster than I can type, so making notes with pen and paper makes more sense! But will I need a laptop for whizzy interactive stuff??
I have one at home, but share it with DH, so won't have access to it every day.
Please help! I'm clueless! 🤔

The uni I've just finished at (49) had laptops to use if required.

A4 pad and uni laptops worked for me.

My biggest tip (which isn't what you asked but!) is to set yourself up with a reference management software account before you start and get your head around how it works. Will save you sooo much time when writing assignments!

Good luck!!

As long as you have a fairly decent phone you can do almost everything except comfortably typing longer assignments on your phone!

I'm a PhD student and do the bulk of my literature searching, reading papers, and random note jotting on my phone. I have copies of what I'm working on accessible to read through and edit, I find it much easier to fit in with the ups and downs of family/work life as my phone is always with me. My laptop only comes out for actively writing. Use apps or whatever so you can easily transfer phone stuff to laptop and vice versa (I'm an Apple user so it does this automatically).

I've done all my Open Uni on an iPad or (occasionally) an iPhone:

• I get/keep as much as possible in pdf format because it's so searchable
• If I make paper notes, I photograph/scan them and then add a few electronic indexing annotations so I can also retrieve them easily
• I use electronic note-taking by Apple pencil (with or without conversion to type font) when I feel like a hybrid writing-typing solution
• I've tried lots of apps as it's really a personal preference as to which one do what you need.

In short, it's technically necessary to have some sort of IT but what that is (phone, tablet, laptop) and how much you use it will probably be down to what suits you and your ways of working.

I also love the dictation function for essays. I can wander around and waffle on to get basic ideas and paragraphs then sit down at a screen for some serious editing and sense-making !

Thanks all for your input. It's been really helpful! 😁

Don't use mine in uni, but for online classes at home/blackboard/assessments etc I do.

I’ve take pen and paper to lectures as I like having all my notes accessible for revision. However, I’ve often been asked in seminars or workshops to log onto moodle and view x document or join Google docs in group work or whatever, so I do take my laptop to seminars. It’s awkward not to be able to access it when needed. If you had an iPad or tablet you could use that instead though.

Personally it does annoy me though because the campus wifi is rubbish! So I resent having to waste time fiddling with it or waiting forever for things to load and sometimes wish we would be notified of what needs to be viewed beforehand, then I could make my notes on it at home.

and sometimes wish we would be notified of what needs to be viewed beforehand, then I could make my notes on it at home.

Have you communicated this to the lecturer?

Definitely no need for a laptop in lecture. Most students don't have one out. Occasionally there is an interactive quiz but that can be done on a phone.

(I teach MSc students)

It’s not the lecturers (multiple) who do it, it’s all my seminar holders and workshop teachers. I have communicated in the feedbacks and to my department that it’s really awkward and disrupts the flow of lessons when we need to open loads of Google docs/moodle/this website where you do ‘quizzes’ but I just get the standard ‘we try to provide for all learning types’ reply. Which I get but to me it just feels lazy and annoying.

Having just completed my Masters you may have difficulty not having a laptop during class. Perhaps especially due to covid all materials were online and I didn't get a single handout in the year.

You could potentially access materials on your phone but you may want to look at some of the discounts students are being offered from tech companies.

Especially when doing group work in classes we all needed access to online materials.

But if it’s an online lecture the OP would be at home - where she does already have a laptop.

I was surprised to see yesterday just how (relatively) inexpensive basic iPads are now. If I were doing another MA I’d definitely get one for lugging around, and leave my laptop at home.

Also what's going to happen when you have homework and study to do or revision or prep and your dh needs to use the laptop. Don't underestimate the volume of work that's likely ahead of you.

If you were replying to me, so what? What happens if they have a tutorial and the lecturer has only just put up the lecture materials. That happens!

I got around that by accessing it via my phone (uni used qmplus)

I just made notes on paper (marked slide 5 etc) then moved those notes to printed copies later. Not ideal but having laptop with me wouldn't help as can't print on the fly.

And all lectures have the slides on overhead monitors anyway, just my eyesight is sometimes poor.