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sumtimesuwonder wrote:Also, how available are e-textbooks for law school?

Not very, but it's not that much trouble to scan all your books if you have the right equipment.

paul_m86 wrote:

sumtimesuwonder wrote:Also, how available are e-textbooks for law school?

Not very, but it's not that much trouble to scan all your books if you have the right equipment.

Plus, a lot of supplements are available for e-readers. I think most publishers, including Lexis and Westlaw, offer at least some of their supplements for e-readers. And Black's comes in a version for e-readers, too...

Bildungsroman wrote:

vanwinkle wrote:

Bildungsroman wrote:

vanwinkle wrote:I've seen students use iPads in class, but only in classes where laptops are banned. They'll put up a name card (whether the prof. requires it or not) and then set the iPad behind it so it's hard to see.

"name card"?

Tent cards that professors print out and have you put on your desk so they know your name. There's often a direct correlation between a prof's hatred of laptops and their love of name cards, but they don't object to you having one on your desk when it's not required, either.

That's weird, I've literally never heard of name cards in law school before this moment. Here professors usually figure out people's names by using the seating chart. I learn something new every day.

Two of my professors had us use name cards at the beginning of the semester also. I thought it was a bit weird.

Bildungsroman wrote:

vanwinkle wrote:

Bildungsroman wrote:

vanwinkle wrote:I've seen students use iPads in class, but only in classes where laptops are banned. They'll put up a name card (whether the prof. requires it or not) and then set the iPad behind it so it's hard to see.

"name card"?

Tent cards that professors print out and have you put on your desk so they know your name. There's often a direct correlation between a prof's hatred of laptops and their love of name cards, but they don't object to you having one on your desk when it's not required, either.

That's weird, I've literally never heard of name cards in law school before this moment. Here professors usually figure out people's names by using the seating chart. I learn something new every day.

I took a class at Stern, and apparently B-school students/profs looooove name cards. There was a little rail on each desk to hold them, and several students had permanent engraved plastic ones that they put out each class.

And, as an aside, they apparently hate electrical outlets, because there was like 2 in the whole auditorium.

Oh, I forgot what we were supposed to be talking about in this thread. Op: I am a convert to the iPad/external keyboard way of life, but it's entirely infeasible for law school. You need a real laptop.

Everyone in my class who takes notes on an iPad also has a laptop. They seem to switch back and forth.

I can't imagine not having OneNote for law school. I do all of my class notes, case briefs, outlines, etc. in OneNote. It's very nice to be able to jump to a case brief in 2 seconds when the prof suddenly calls your name in class.

OP: It's a bad idea. If your current laptop is old and doesn't work well enough, just get a new one. A perfectly good laptop isn't that much more expensive than an iPad, and it will be much, much more efficient for taking notes/outlining.

sumtimesuwonder wrote:are they worth it for law school? I know that it would be cheaper to buy textbooks, and I've heard it can be useful to take notes. How useful are they really?

No. Just hand write, it worked before, and it still (shockingly) works.

Tablets are for consumption, not production. What do you do in class? Produce notes.

mrtoren wrote:Tablets are for consumption, not production. What do you do in class? Consume porn. Produce notes.

FTFM

Bad idea. If your laptop sucks, buy a new laptop. A nice piece of equipment can be had for around $400: for example, the HP g6 series.

0L here. I'm not really envisioning the tablet as a replacement for a laptop for note taking, but I do wonder how useful one would be to do much of the reading. And here, I'm wondering about class assignments of various kinds (textbooks, cases, articles etc.) as well reading for other activities e.g. reviewing class notes, perusing law reviews, relevant law blogs and possibly reviewing submissions as an editor for a student journal.

Anyone have thoughts on tablets as a tool to read rather than create content?

Secondly, I wonder if the Kindle Fire or other Apple competitors do the job just as well as the IPad, given the much more reasonable price...

I've considered using an iPad for day-to-day stuff (and of course a laptop for exams). I take all my notes by hand, so there's no need to bring my laptop on most days, but it seems that the days I choose not to bring it, I need to look something up, hit up Lexis for some research, or go back to an old brief. Since I type reading notes and go back and re-type my class notes, I need those documents accessible when those questions arise. I use Circus Ponies Notebook (the Mac user's limited answer to OneNote), which now has an iPad app, so I can sync my documents through dropbox or some other cloud-based server. I've also tested Lexis and Westlaw on an iPad's Safari browser, and there is functionality there. In New York, I'm obviously not taking a car to class, so by the time I pile a casebook or two, any supplements I need for the day, a couple of legal pads, and a laptop into my bag, I'm starting to haul a mini-library around with me. Anything I can do to minimize weight (e.g. no laptop and supplements on the iPad) seems like a great solution for someone in my situation.

tl;dr: If you have a laptop for exams and you take notes by hand, an iPad properly souped up might be functional for day-to-day usage.

Redamon1 wrote:0L here. I'm not really envisioning the tablet as a replacement for a laptop for note taking, but I do wonder how useful one would be to do much of the reading. And here, I'm wondering about class assignments of various kinds (textbooks, cases, articles etc.) as well reading for other activities e.g. reviewing class notes, perusing law reviews, relevant law blogs and possibly reviewing submissions as an editor for a student journal.

Anyone have thoughts on tablets as a tool to read rather than create content?

Secondly, I wonder if the Kindle Fire or other Apple competitors do the job just as well as the IPad, given the much more reasonable price...

Go find a copy of a boring, dense book, something by Nietzsche maybe, and then sit down to read 150 pages of it. See how that works for you. If you like it, then you'll be fine, assuming you don't want to highlight or take margin notes.

I love margin notes, and they have been helpful on exams.

kalvano wrote:

Redamon1 wrote:0L here. I'm not really envisioning the tablet as a replacement for a laptop for note taking, but I do wonder how useful one would be to do much of the reading. And here, I'm wondering about class assignments of various kinds (textbooks, cases, articles etc.) as well reading for other activities e.g. reviewing class notes, perusing law reviews, relevant law blogs and possibly reviewing submissions as an editor for a student journal.

Anyone have thoughts on tablets as a tool to read rather than create content?

Secondly, I wonder if the Kindle Fire or other Apple competitors do the job just as well as the IPad, given the much more reasonable price...

Go find a copy of a boring, dense book, something by Nietzsche maybe, and then sit down to read 150 pages of it. See how that works for you. If you like it, then you'll be fine, assuming you don't want to highlight or take margin notes.

I love margin notes, and they have been helpful on exams.

I agree that margin notes are a must. Supposedly, you can make annotations of a digital text on these tablets, including margin notes. I've personally been skeptical that this would really work efficiently ("efficiently" is the key word here), but again, I'm not in law school and I don't own a tablet. So maybe someone can prove me wrong...

Redamon1 wrote:

kalvano wrote:

Redamon1 wrote:0L here. I'm not really envisioning the tablet as a replacement for a laptop for note taking, but I do wonder how useful one would be to do much of the reading. And here, I'm wondering about class assignments of various kinds (textbooks, cases, articles etc.) as well reading for other activities e.g. reviewing class notes, perusing law reviews, relevant law blogs and possibly reviewing submissions as an editor for a student journal.

Anyone have thoughts on tablets as a tool to read rather than create content?

Secondly, I wonder if the Kindle Fire or other Apple competitors do the job just as well as the IPad, given the much more reasonable price...

Go find a copy of a boring, dense book, something by Nietzsche maybe, and then sit down to read 150 pages of it. See how that works for you. If you like it, then you'll be fine, assuming you don't want to highlight or take margin notes.

I love margin notes, and they have been helpful on exams.

I agree that margin notes are a must. Supposedly, you can make annotations of a digital text on these tablets, including margin notes. I've personally been skeptical that this would really work efficiently ("efficiently" is the key word here), but again, I'm not in law school and I don't own a tablet. So maybe someone can prove me wrong...

You almost certainly won't be allowed to bring a tablet into an exam, and probably not an e-reader either.

paul_m86 wrote:

sumtimesuwonder wrote:Also, how available are e-textbooks for law school?

Not very, but it's not that much trouble to scan all your books if you have the right equipment.

Really? It took me a long ass time to scan my LSAT prep books and I was using a scanner explicitly designed for scanning books.

I've been using my iPad for class and it's fine. If I have to write something long or take detailed and extensive notes then yea it would make sense to use a laptop, but for most other things the iPad is fine. I type only slightly slower than on a laptop and I can easy take notes in most classes. For reading it is great and I find making annotations and highlights easier on the iPad than paper.

The biggest thing I can't do is use flash or format documents easily. Other than that I think it's pretty much a portable Mac.

Discretion: I'm a 0L and am speaking only from my undergrad experience.

I have never taken my iPad to class because it would be weird, inconvenient and a potential target for thieves.

The device however is absolutely perfect for use at home for PDF-heavy courses.

I use an android tablet (the thrive) running evernote with a wireless keyboard and swear by it. Definitely not trendy - but still damned convenient. It allowed me to buy a much larger laptop which helps me out with a full size keyboard during exams.

I can only speak to my undergrad experience, but I used an iPad to take pretty copious notes in all my classes in my senior year. It was easier than using a laptop. The big advantage of it was I didn't have to lug around a heavy computer in my bag (I use the latest generation white MacBook). The other thing I liked about it was it was pretty minimal; you basically plop it down on your desk, open Pages (which is actually pretty good for notes), and start typing (silently). I used it in a history class where the professor banned laptops, but allowed tablets - her theory was that the silent typing and lack of an unfolded screen would keep the student engaged. I think she was right. Typing speed is the same as if you were using a laptop with autocorrect turned on. Plus, an upside is iOS basically forces you to focus on single tasks, although it's easy to switch apps.

It's doable for notes. I don't get the whole crazy TLS reaction in this thread against it. No idea if I'll use it in law school. But I think it's a preference thing, same way Mac or Windows is a preference.

I don't get why everyone is so opposed to iPads in law school...the iPad has one note and Evernote and pages which is exactly the same as a laptop. And if you get the wireless keyboard it becomes very easy to type just like a normal laptop, there even app where you can scan your cases or briefs as a PDF and then write on the iPad on make notes on the page just like a regular paper but it becomes more convenient when you easily organize them and reprint them at any time, plus a lot of case books can be downloaded straight to the iPad, or you can even download whole textbooks as PDFs to it and save money on actual books

2LT_CPG wrote:I can only speak to my undergrad experience, but I used an iPad to take pretty copious notes in all my classes in my senior year. It was easier than using a laptop. The big advantage of it was I didn't have to lug around a heavy computer in my bag (I use the latest generation white MacBook). The other thing I liked about it was it was pretty minimal; you basically plop it down on your desk, open Pages (which is actually pretty good for notes), and start typing (silently). I used it in a history class where the professor banned laptops, but allowed tablets - her theory was that the silent typing and lack of an unfolded screen would keep the student engaged. I think she was right. Typing speed is the same as if you were using a laptop with autocorrect turned on. Plus, an upside is iOS basically forces you to focus on single tasks, although it's easy to switch apps.

It's doable for notes. I don't get the whole crazy TLS reaction in this thread against it. No idea if I'll use it in law school. But I think it's a preference thing, same way Mac or Windows is a preference.

If you type the same speed on an iPad's virtual keyboard that you do on a regular keyboard then you are either a virtual keyboard prodigy or an abysmally slow typist.

It gets rejected because it is inherently worse than a laptop. It sucks for exams (either it can't run the exam software or you can't have your notes open next to your exam doc). You don't have a mouse which makes things slower. Physical iPad keyboards, while better than the virtual one, are worse than regular laptop keyboards. Oh and it makes it more difficult to gchat and do random crap in class.

I hate to be That Guy who resurrects old threads, but I'm doing it anyways because the other threads have old information from when the iPad first came out.

I'm thinking of having an iPad purely as an e-reader so that I don't have to take all my books around all the time. Has anyone done this and been satisfied? Is it difficult to find electronic copies of textbooks? Have you had to deal with scanning things in and running a text recognition program? I'm totally on board with the iPad's note taking and highlighting. It works for me.

If I bring a laptop to class for note taking and do all my outlining and substantive work on a computer, do you think the iPad is viable? The apartment I have lined up is a mile from campus, and I'll be walking it. While I can lug around a bunch of books, I'd prefer not to.

Wait for windows 8 tablet-PC convertible (like the Lenovo Yoga) to come out; type on it, draw on it, use OneNote, take exams on it.