I hate “no laptop in training classes”
I was tied up all day today in a mandatory training class and it was one of those that allow no laptops to be used during the class. This particular trainer was the first I’ve seen that extended that to Tablet PCs so I was not allowed to take notes in ink on my Tablet. I understand why they don’t want folks to have the distraction of using a laptop during the class but I showed him how I take notes and explained that I do it this way so I can search those notes in the future to get my hands on important information gleaned from the class. I got a firm "no" so the Tablet stayed nestled in my closed gear bag. The only result was I took no notes as I don’t like paper for that. Sheesh. Maybe he’s heard of stealth blogging. :)
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Sheesh, that’s unbelievable! Mobile devices are terrific for enabling learning, and a blanket ban on any kind of mobile device in an education setting is conceptually neanderthal. After all, it isn’t the DEVICE that can be a problem; it’s HOW the device is used. If the device is being used for learning, surely that’s not a problem; it’s only a problem if the device is a distraction to the learning, which wasn’t the case in your situation.
Keep up the great work,
L.
Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve encountered anything like that in a professional environment. Did you tell him where he could stick his abacus? ;)
You could have taken paper notes then scanned them so they would be searchable. Also, you could have recorded the lecture and inserted that into onenote aswell.
It’s a long time since this has happened to me – that guy is very out of touch.
In future just tell him you refuse to write on dead trees for ethical or religious reasons…
I like your point about being able to search your notes…
What is he, an x-high school teacher?
Was this a meeting required by/paid by your
company?
As an instructor, if your presenation is so boring that your students surf the web out of boredom…well
Did you ask why he didn’t also ban paper?
I wonder if my “mindmap style” [hand drawn] notes would be banned for resembling a Doodle?
you shouldnt be taking notes James, you need to be paying attention when he’s teaching you how to flip burgers.
what happens when you are on your own & wind up starting a grease fire?
@jhall: “You could have taken paper notes then scanned them so they would be searchable.”
I know you can do this with Evernote (i.e. search for text in handwriting within images). Does OneNote do it too, or are there other programs that do? I think this is a very promising possibility. I like using a keyboard but if I have to write by hand I’d rather do it on paper than on a screen. And a paper pad has various other advantages, such as portability and unobtrusiveness. Not much use for stealth blogging, of course (but that could also be seen as an advantage).
Did you really have to take “no” for an answer?
I generally don’t react very well to people saying “no” to me without a good justification :)
I must admit that I understand where the instructor was coming from. His purpose was to eliminate distractions from the classroom, he even prohibited anyone from even looking at their phones. I verified after the class that he had never in years of instructing had anyone else ask to use a Tablet PC for notetaking, a sad state of Tablet affairs.
Yes, you can scan in notes on paper directly into OneNote and have them searchable, but I hate taking notes on the little notepads provided. It would have been a pain.