Ask Slashdot: What Is the Best Note-Taking Device For Conferences? 300
First time accepted submitter Duncan J Murray writes "I will be attending a 3-day science conference soon, consisting mainly of lectures, and was wondering what people thought would be the ultimate hardware/software combo note-taking device, taking into account keyboard quality, endurance, portability, discretion & future ease-of-reference. Is a notepad and pen still king? What about an Ipad? N900? Psion 5mx? A small Thinkpad X-series? And if so which OS? Would you have a GUI? Which text-editor?"
Re:Livescribe (Score:5, Insightful)
Just a pen and paper.
No other device can keep up, and you get bogged down with operating the device, missing key points.
Pocket recorder as backup.
Go Low Tech... (Score:5, Insightful)
Does technology *always* provide a better solution? I own an iPad, but really, a yellow pad and a pen and pencil are what I use at meetings and conferences...
The old fashioned way (Score:5, Insightful)
Pencil and Paper (if you want to digitize it later, use a sheet fed scanner or just a regular scanner).
A Ticonderoga II and linedPad (Score:4, Insightful)
I've found the Ticonderoga II and linedPad to be an excellent system for taking conference notes, the graphics, though usually monochrome have had retina capabilities for decades, works with whatever style or language you know and is the envy of everyone else when their batteries fails and you keep writing.
What Is the Best Note-Taking Device For Conference (Score:5, Insightful)
A: A scribe, held in thrall.
We don't NEED April fools. With the real stories posted today, it's clear that fiction cannot compete in absurdity, shock, disbelief and ultimate dismay.
Re:What Is the Best Note-Taking Device For Confere (Score:3, Insightful)
Plant Jihadi rumors about your conference - then have the NSA scoop up everything - lecture proceedings to passing hallway conversations.
Re:Livescribe (Score:4, Insightful)
I honestly think it depends on the person. I find if I take copious notes, it doesn't help me, and instead I am more concentrated on being a secretary taking dictation than really *listening* (as opposed to just hearing) what has been said.
That said, jotting down a few choice notes at the right point in the presentation material can be invaluable. For me, it reminds me of the questions and confusion I had encountering the material the first time. These are likely the most interesting places to revisit anyway.
That said, I make the assumption that the presentations are in your domain of experience, so there is a fair bit of "real time" understanding of what you're learning. There was one class in college I took copious, detailed notes for: RLS331 Religions of the Eastern World. Fascinating, but information heavy and entirely out of my element. I earned a B+, and to this day I think the notes helped more than hurt. In any other class, I never considered notes an advantage beyond serving as a flag to say "look here again".
Your memory (Score:4, Insightful)
I know it sounds like I'm being a smartass, but I don't mean to be. Really, I recommend just putting down the pen, closing the laptop, turning off the tablet, and just paying attention. Everybody is going to be a little different, but since you're asking for advice, that is mine. I found early on in high school that taking notes of the pen and paper variety takes away from attentiveness in favor of trying to become a stenographer. Effectively, my attention would be split between the process of note taking and the lecture itself. And an electronic device is just that plus even more distraction. I find that when listening if there's something I do truly need to review, I'm that much more aware of that need and can go look it up with another resource (the text book, a syllabus, proceedings, internet references) after the fact.
Re:Your memory (Score:5, Insightful)
I will also try not to sound like a smartass, but you were doing it wrong. Effective note taking doesn't mean transcribing what the lecturer or presenter is saying, it means noting the key points and tidbits of information that are interesting to you and will remind you of the rest of the material when you review it later.
Re:Livescribe (Score:4, Insightful)
Again, this depends on your field. In my field, conferences are where you present your latest results before you submit them as a journal paper, or while they are being considered for publication by a journal, or are in press, or occasionally, have just recently been published in a journal.
In my field, conference papers are worth nothing on your CV unless you are a student and they are the only publications you have. It is considered poor practice to cite conference papers (even from peer-reviewed proceedings) if there is a journal paper that you could cite instead. In general, published conference papers are read only by those who attended the conference, so they are for the most part a waste of everyone's time.