5 Tech Gadgets For The Modern College Student
July 29th, 2010 Filed Under Computer Tips
Well really, these tech supplies could be used by students of any level. However, some schools may not allow the latest gadgets in the classroom.
Aside from the traditional laptop, there are some other gadgets on the market that aim to make school work easier this upcoming semester. Instead of going with the basic pens and notebooks this school year, you may want to consider some of the following gadgets. Some you may have heard of before, some not.
Boogie Board LCD Writing Tablet
The Boogie Board LCD Writing Tablet won’t be suitable for taking a tremendous amount of notes. In fact, it basically gives you one full page of writing surface. However, that’s all you need for jotting down quick notes, reminders, and assignments.
At $35.00, the Boogie Board is cheap, environmentally friendly, and quite unique.
Digital Notepads
Unlike the Boogie Board mentioned above, digital notepads allow you to actually write on real paper with ink. Meaning, you can take as many notes as you want. The unique factor comes from a pressure/memory system that digitally records the pen strokes.
From here, all of your hand written notes can be uploaded to a computer for additional editing, or, just to save your notes to a hard drive. In many circumstances, it may be handy to have a digital uploaded copy of your notes as well as a physical copy. Definitely beats scanning each page of your notebook in order to upload pages to your PC.
Here is a popular digi notepad.
Digital Recorder
Sometimes, you just can’t take notes as fast as your professor is speaking, which is exactly why some students choose to record lectures, given that the teacher allows it. Audio recorders are nothing new, but the latest digital audio recorders are a big step from the traditional cassette tape recorder.
At half the size of a traditional tape cassette recorder, the latest digital recorders can record up to 500 hours of audio, using built-in storage. This means you can keep a semesters worth of notes without having to ever change tapes.
TI-89 Titanium
Chances are good that you will need a graphing calculator for college, but the latest version of Texas Instrument’s TI-89 Titanium is a bit more than your basic graphing calculator. In fact, it may be more of a pocket sized computer. With the TI-89, you can take notes, store phone numbers and addresses, store calculations, upload custom mods and programs, and much more.
USB Flash Drives and Portable Hard Drives
Many of today’s college classes actually require USB flash drives. But, even if your classes don’t, it’s always convenient to have a flash drive or portable hard drive handy.
You’d be surprised at how many times you will find yourself in need of a device like this to transport presentations, Word documents, and other essential files. One decent capacity flash drive or portable hard drive should be more than enough for all of your classes.