I've been very busy studying for Finance and Operations Management and I've not been able to post even when I created this blog in the first place.
Here's an update to my situation.
I became aware of my desire to have a tablet PC 3 years ago when a cousin by marriage showed me his tablet. The company that produced it is unknown to me; all I know is that it was created by a custom computer company. He was a student majoring in Engineering and he showed me how the tablet he had with him was saving his life in school. It was a slate with a docking keyboard much like Electrovaya and Motion have. I was able to play with it for about 10 minutes before he started his journey back from Dallas to Houston. I was able to drive to school at that time and the weight of my bags didn't concern me as we could park within a minute's walk from classes.
I transferred to Western Washington University in the fall of 2005 and declaired my major. I had been the president of a business club that Merrianne Bieler, an Accounting teacher, Tom Burke, a business lawyer, and several other teachers and students had worked hard to create to get an edge in our community. I won an accounting medal and was even nominated for another prestigious award. My university life was nothing like my prior college experience. After reading one chapter in a day, we were expected to have it memorized. I found slowly that because of the weight of my books, I was only carrying what was essential for my day's classes. Not only was the added weight of books so significant that it made me not bring them, but I didn’t realize that my time would not be spent studying when I had the chance.
I have seven books that I need for classes. I also walk to my university which has its rewards. Not only do I forgo the $300 for a parking pass, but I save on gas and it even helps to keep my body in shape.
I started studying solutions for my dilemma early into my first quarter. I developed a frame of study based on a marketing class I had. A bonus of this study was that I could write a thesis based on my experiences of this purchase.
After studying Tablet PCs in depth for over two months, I decided to purchase a Fujitsu ST5030D.
Besides major sales staff personnel being misinformed and giving false information, I had some difficulties with my order. I’ve rectified most of them with Fujitsu, but I imagine it could have been a much more pleasant experience.
One problem I have with the ST5000 series is that the plastic cover that is imbedded over the digitizer and LCD comes up at the corners while it’s being used and it’s nice and toasty. This I believe is a design flaw as I’ve seen other posts on this topic at the buzz.
http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=28488 So far, I’ve used the tablet to its extent. I scan my books with an OpticBook 3600 plus scanner. I’ve worked out the bugs with this technology and OCR with the help of Tracy and other users over at
www.studenttabletpc.com.
I have one bone to pick with Universities however. Most claim to be “the most wired” or technology friendly. I’m in an MIS class that the second professor had a problem quite unexpectedly with my tablet pc. We were having a test on a desktop, and books and notes were allowed. The desktop computers have internet access of course. My teacher decided to not let me use my “book” because it was an electric device. I could understand if you felt that I could cheat with this, but I’m on a desktop computer with full access to everything plus a book and notes, which could have anything written in it…
What would you think? I was polite and did not feel like I was picked out of the crowd, but you’d think professors in business would understand this. I’ve talked to the first professor and today he decided he’d let me use my tablet for the quizzes and tests. The Tablet PC has a learning curve, and not all of it is due to the computer hardware or software. It also has an acceptance curve to it as well.
So far this quarter, I’ve learned how to use OneNote pretty extensively. I caught the tail end of the GoBinder giveaway, and I did try that out for a short while. Overall, I recommend OneNote simply because it can do almost everything GoBinder can, but it has the recording options which I find to be extremely helpful as a student.
I’ve actually become a better student because of the tablet. I’ve read that the tablet alone will not improve your grade, which I wholeheartedly agree on. It does allow me better study time while I’m waiting between classes. I can actually read or go over notes where before I’d not have brought my books. I can quickly use Excel to figure out some forecasting for Ops class or focus on unclear points in my notes by listening to a lecture.
I’ve had a small part of the will to have less of a carbon impact on our planet as well, I have to admit. The more I study about our world, the more our direction upon it saddens me. While I’m not a flaming liberal that would go back to having only horses and iron, I do worry about our children’s future and our impact upon their lives. I know a fair portion goes into producing a computer, but on the other side of the coin I’ve used only 4 pieces of paper this quarter - and only because my teacher forced me to hand in quizzes on a sheet of paper and not via e-mail.
I know there are a few people that have had the desire to go paperless and they have a bigger name on the internet, but if there’s anything you cannot find via those tablet pc users, feel free to ask any questions. This is a journey for me that will last longer than my college career, and on into my Financial career.
This is pretty much what showed up in my package.
