Live Scribe SmartPen for Law School anyone? Forum

[Think_lax86]

I don't know if everyone has heard about this new pen, but its pretty sick... I am going to law school in the fall (at least thats the plan) and from what I know about law school, this thing seems like it could be really useful... But than again I have never actually been in law school so I am only going by what I have been told and what I have read about in books like Law School Confidential... If anyone has the time to check it out, please let me know if this might be a good investment for law school... thanks...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4G3T7b8pKM

[caoyun]

Seems kinda unnecessary. From what I hear, most lectures in most schools are recorded (they're all recorded at my school). Further, if you completely missed it the first time, then the pen will be of no use to you. What I mean is, it really is only useful if you wrote something on the relevant subject. If you completely missed a subtle point, it will do nothing for you. Basically, I think it depends on your confidence. If you think you can understand what the professor is saying, I don't really think the pen will be all that useful. If a particular lecture went over your head, you'll want to listen to he whole thing again, not a particular line or small part. It might help if you didn't understand one small part, assuming you wrote something about it, but in that case, its basically just a little more convenient than that actual recording provided by your school.

As a logistical matter, I'm not sure how closely the text you write will relate to the audio you want. I mean, you're pretty much always going to be writing after the fact, which means that once you start writing, the Professor will be talking about something else, perhaps fairly unrelated. In which case you'd still have to search through the audio to find what you want anyway.

I guess whether its a good investment depends on how much it costs. I wouldn't drop a couple hundred bucks on it, but it might be worth $20. I'd imagine it adds up pretty quick. The pen alone is probably $150-$200, plus the cost of the notebooks. They don't seem very thick and you'll probably burn through a lot of them if you're a copious note taker. Plus, you lose the advantage of having the notes on your computer, unless you intend to type up all of your notes later.

[mbw]

Seems kinda unnecessary. From what I hear, most lectures in most schools are recorded (they're all recorded at my school). Further, if you completely missed it the first time, then the pen will be of no use to you. What I mean is, it really is only useful if you wrote something on the relevant subject. If you completely missed a subtle point, it will do nothing for you. Basically, I think it depends on your confidence. If you think you can understand what the professor is saying, I don't really think the pen will be all that useful. If a particular lecture went over your head, you'll want to listen to he whole thing again, not a particular line or small part. It might help if you didn't understand one small part, assuming you wrote something about it, but in that case, its basically just a little more convenient than that actual recording provided by your school.

As a logistical matter, I'm not sure how closely the text you write will relate to the audio you want. I mean, you're pretty much always going to be writing after the fact, which means that once you start writing, the Professor will be talking about something else, perhaps fairly unrelated. In which case you'd still have to search through the audio to find what you want anyway.

I guess whether its a good investment depends on how much it costs. I wouldn't drop a couple hundred bucks on it, but it might be worth $20. I'd imagine it adds up pretty quick. The pen alone is probably $150-$200, plus the cost of the notebooks. They don't seem very thick and you'll probably burn through a lot of them if you're a copious note taker. Plus, you lose the advantage of having the notes on your computer, unless you intend to type up all of your notes later.

Actually, you just download your handwritten notes from the pen and it translates them into One Note, Word or whatever you use. It also translates drawings.

I'm picking one up next week, after researching it for about a month (and asking Santa - hmph.) I find that I can't type my notes and actually pay attention in class - whereas I don't have that same problem for some reason when I take notes by hand. And my school doesn't routinely record classes (except during pandemics) so the recorder might be useful here and there. We'll see how it goes.

[caoyun]

Seems kinda unnecessary. From what I hear, most lectures in most schools are recorded (they're all recorded at my school). Further, if you completely missed it the first time, then the pen will be of no use to you. What I mean is, it really is only useful if you wrote something on the relevant subject. If you completely missed a subtle point, it will do nothing for you. Basically, I think it depends on your confidence. If you think you can understand what the professor is saying, I don't really think the pen will be all that useful. If a particular lecture went over your head, you'll want to listen to he whole thing again, not a particular line or small part. It might help if you didn't understand one small part, assuming you wrote something about it, but in that case, its basically just a little more convenient than that actual recording provided by your school.

As a logistical matter, I'm not sure how closely the text you write will relate to the audio you want. I mean, you're pretty much always going to be writing after the fact, which means that once you start writing, the Professor will be talking about something else, perhaps fairly unrelated. In which case you'd still have to search through the audio to find what you want anyway.

I guess whether its a good investment depends on how much it costs. I wouldn't drop a couple hundred bucks on it, but it might be worth $20. I'd imagine it adds up pretty quick. The pen alone is probably $150-$200, plus the cost of the notebooks. They don't seem very thick and you'll probably burn through a lot of them if you're a copious note taker. Plus, you lose the advantage of having the notes on your computer, unless you intend to type up all of your notes later.

Actually, you just download your handwritten notes from the pen and it translates them into One Note, Word or whatever you use. It also translates drawings.

That does, I imagine, assume your hand writing is legible. I can't read my own hand writing most of the time. I doubt a computer can. And if it merely copies what you wrote onto the computer in digital form (ie., it looks exactly the same as on paper) then it still doesn't have the typical Ctrl+F function of having your notes on the computer.

Either way, if you have the money, go for it. It doesn't seem that useful to me, but if you like handwriting notes, it might work for you.

[eandy]

I've had one for a year or so. It seems like a great idea but it gets really irritating. I don't think its very comfortable to hold. You hear everything the person next to you does(typing, flipping a page, etc). And, maybe it's just me, but I never actually go back and listen to the lectures.
From what I understand about law school lectures, you would be wasting your time listening to the majority of lectures again or writing down every word.

[Think_lax86]

I figured you wouldnt have to write down "every" note though... it seems like this would free you up to really pay attention to what is going on and than just write down like the main point or paraphrase what was said and than later go back and listen to exactly what was said... I havent been to law school or had to make outlines or study guides, etc. but I figured this might be good for class so you can really focus on what is going on instead of writing down/typing up everything that is going on....

And from what I am to assume, this pen does record everything, it just when you write something down it acts as a reference marker to go to that exact time of the lecture...

As for price, I heard if you have a good printer you can just print new pages... I dunno, I am trying to wiegh the costs and benefits... I know that in law school time is precious, so I am trying to figure out if it would be smart to record the lecture and than later go back and refine your notes accordingly, as oppposed to trying to write/type everything down during the lecture...

[eandy]

As for price, I heard if you have a good printer you can just print new pages... I dunno, I am trying to wiegh the costs and benefits... I know that in law school time is precious, so I am trying to figure out if it would be smart to record the lecture and than later go back and refine your notes accordingly, as oppposed to trying to write/type everything down during the lecture...

It has to be a laser printer, just FYI. And even then, not all laser printers work.

If you really will go back and fix your notes, it's worth it. One thing that IS useful is around exam time when I am looking at my notes and I can't figure out what I was talking about(weird abbreviation or something unexplained that I wrongly assumed I would just remember) I can go back and listen to what was being said when I wrote it. It's also good for doodle control. I can click on the doodle and see what was being said while I was drawing. Although usually, if I was drawing it was for a reason.

[kimber1028]

I would be careful with something like this. At my school, we're not allowed to record at all unless the instructor has given us permission for some reason. It's an honor code violation. We had a couple of class recordings emailed to us when multiple students were out sick with swine flu, but they're not allowed normally. If your school ends up having similar rules, the pen could be a waste of money.

[PoliticalJunkie]

You need the dot paper notebook......seems excessively unnecessary especially for $160 + the cost of the paper.