My First Two Week In-Class with the eDGe Review

I’ve just finished my homework and thought I would take the time to post my experience with the eDGe. I purchased the eDGe over the summer with the expectation of using it for school this coming fall. Well, I have completed my first two weeks of school and thought I would post my experience with the eDGe so far.

For most of the summer, the eDGe had been setting on my desk idle (I did take the time to do the previous updates), but a couple of weeks before school started, I sat down with the unit and really went over it to see what would be the best way to use it. After reading various entries on the forum and researching a few available apps. I download a few applications I thought that may be useful (ex. Jorte, BI Notes, Sketcher, Thinking Space, and okay a couple of games).

I am taking a history, creative writing, and psychology class. I tried to envision how I would use the eDGe and what would be the best way to setup my materials while reminding myself this will be an experiment that will require adjustments along the way. The following preparation plan was devised. I created tags for my class: Eng 35, Hist 12, and Psyc 1. I also created a tag for School Materials. For each of the class tags, I created a journal (notebook). I setup the notebook in the following manner: 1.) I created an intro page 2.)Homework Log sheet (I like to hand-write things) 3.) Class note page. I used the tab editor to create a table of contents so I can click to each area. Each day that I add notes to the Class Notes section I use the tab editor to create another entry using the date (ex 8-24-10). Using this method I have one note book for each subject and I have all my class notes dated in the note book.

Taking notes in class has been fun. I really like that I can change the type paper on any page that I add to the notebook so I can have blank sheets for quick sketches and ruled paper for writing in one notebook. (Note: I did get the Motion L-Series pen, big help)

Along with the “notebooks, I have been recording the lectures of my class with the recorders. I save the recordings with the name of the class and date (ex. Eng 35 8-17-10). The recording quality has been fine and I can hear the instructor and student responses okay. While I am recording the class and taking notes, I do take the time to jot down the time on the record with some of my notes sections so I can easily return to that area in the recording if needed. I have one class that last for 3 hours and the eDGe has lasted the entire class period including recordings with no problems.

I have a printer/scanner/copier and Acrobat Pro 9 at home and I have used it to scan in my syllabus (1 page for one class and 6 pages for another) and the handouts given by the instructor. The scans are fully searchable so I can look up terms on the handouts I am not familiar with,make necessary notes, internet research and link the pages to the notes. The comfort level with the documents on the eDGe is so high the following class period I had actually given a student who missed the first class my handout from the previous class (the instructor didn't have enough extras). I brought my notes and syllabus with me the next class, but I will not be bringing them in the future (I will store them in my file at home just in case). I do take the time to back up and export my files to a USB stick that I leave at home just incase something happens and I (heaven forbid) lose my eDGe.

I guess I will mention here what I use School Materials for. I didn’t want the individual class tags to get too cluttered. When I feel I don’t need the recording I do one of three things: delete the recording if there is no value to me, export the recording to my USB drive if I am a little unsure whether I need it again, or move the recording to the School Material to easy accessibility for later if I want it close. Also if I take screen images or have misc materials that I am linking to my core materials, I will place these in the School Materials tag since I don’t access them as primary materials. Bottom line all “primary material (ex. Books, “notebooks, syllabus, and handouts) goes into the class tag (ex Eng 35) and “secondary material (screen shots, images, recordings, etc.) goes into the School Material tag. I use the Title and the Description fields to indicate the class the material is from so even though all classes are in the School Materials tag I can easily distinguish them.

I turned in my first paper this week in my Creative Writing class that I typed in Word 2010. I like that I was able to have a copy in my eDGe (as a Word document) for myself and was able to refer to it during class discussions while having the handouts open on the other screen and my “notebook available at a touch of a button. So far everything has worked seamlessly and there hasn’t been any real lag time. The amount of time it takes for the other students to shift their books and notes on their desk I am able to do at a press of a button. An observation I should make is when the instructor told us to take out some paper so that we can “create a character, I realized I have to take the time to ask whether or not the material will be handed-in so I’ll know whether or not to use real paper. He was okay with the question and informed us that we would not be handing it in so I used the eDGe. I was writing fairly quickly and the lag time was not a problem. Actually I barely noticed it. All my ideas were present when I was done.

Well this is just an intro of my two weeks of use. I will continue to refine and stream line, but so far I am very happy. I haven’t had to do library research yet, but I am looking forward to it. It may be that all I will need to bring to the library is the eDGe. As of now, all I take to class is my eDGe, some paper and a pen (paper and pen in case of in-class work). All my books, notes, handouts, and various materials are all in the eDGe. Both the students and instructors have express interest and I have receive the standard question of “is this an iPad?. With a smile, I politely tell them no and show some of the general features. So it is definitely making an impression in class.

Excellent review! Although I'm not a student, I'm very glad to hear that it's working well, as the eDGe was mainly planned for students. Your backup plan sounds good, as you never know what can happen. Hope things continue well!

Very well thought out system! Although I'm not a student, I think will adopt some of your process for my personal studies. Thanks.

I'd be curious to know if you're able to use your school's online library (or other) facilities for searching, locating and downloading content. Also, are you using an external keyboard or the virtual one? Thanks!

I haven't tried to use the school's online library yet. So far, the virtual keyboard has been enough.

Awesome review!! Very comprehensive!!! I wish I could use my eDGe as effectively as you.. =\ I am a student as well, but I'm still working out the kinks of how to best utilize my eDGe in class. Thank you for the suggestions on howto use the eDGe in a classroom setting!

Thanks for the compliments. I am excited about the update coming out on Aug 30. I'm curious to see if and how this may change my routine. Thankfully the update is coming out on Monday (I don't have a class) so hopefully this will give me enough time to make the necessary adjustments.

I would be interested in hearing what others are doing (processes or apps being use). Though I have been content with my process, I am always open for improvements or other ways of doing things. Even if is just some one thing a person does, it would be great to share. I have some additional ideals I am toying with and will post after I see how it works.

Originally Posted by kemar

I'm curious to see if and how this may change my routine.

And, I, for one, am interested in the changes you may choose to make...

Amazing. Well done! Keep up the good work!!!!

I'm a doctoral student and I still find it easiest to bring my laptop to class and type up notes on Microsoft Onenote (a complete gem for students) http://iheartonenote.com/
as it is quicker and easier to search through typed notes especially on Vista or higher and it is easier to embed multimedia in onenote. However, I will try to use the eDGe in one of my classes this yr (a Fieldwork class in which I don't think I will be writing a lot of notes) and also try to get as many of my textbooks in an e-book format (I like being able to annotate e-books and hide the annotation, but I would never mark up an actual text-book).

I'll let you know how my own adventures with the eDGe go as well.

Thanks for taking the time to write this!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by kemar

Thanks for the compliments. I am excited about the update coming out on Aug 30. I'm curious to see if and how this may change my routine. Thankfully the update is coming out on Monday (I don't have a class) so hopefully this will give me enough time to make the necessary adjustments.

I would be interested in hearing what others are doing (processes or apps being use). Though I have been content with my process, I am always open for improvements or other ways of doing things. Even if is just some one thing a person does, it would be great to share. I have some additional ideals I am toying with and will post after I see how it works.

The update is going to screw with this feature that you liked:

I like that I was able to have a copy in my eDGe (as a Word document) for myself and was able to refer to it during class discussions while having the handouts open on the other screen and my “notebook available at a touch of a button. So far everything has worked seamlessly and there hasn’t been any real lag time. The amount of time it takes for the other students to shift their books and notes on their desk I am able to do at a press of a button.

I'm debating whether I even want to install it. The bug fixes would be nice, but it's gonna be seriously annoying not being able to use the switch button on the ereader side. Considering that's one of the few features of the Edge I'm actually not disappointed with, I'm not exactly thrilled with the bug fixes being contingent on going along with their goofy UI experiments. Entourage should have released bug fixes as soon as they were available, and THEN their user interface "upgrade". I don't like having to choose between a functioning right parenthesis key and an interface that I like.

That, by the way, is why we all should care about open source...closed source means you have whatever features Entourage wants you to have, not what you want to have.

Originally Posted by Chubulor

The bug fixes would be nice, but it's gonna be seriously annoying not being able to use the switch button on the ereader side. Entourage should have released bug fixes as soon as they were available, and THEN their user interface "upgrade". I don't like having to choose between a functioning right parenthesis key and an interface that I like.

I agree. If I understand well, the button we're talking about can be used to switch to wallpaper and back after the upgrade. In my opinion, this is not even a real feature and of no importance at all. It shouldn't be too difficult to change things back before monday.

Jan.

OK, now that I re-read the release notes, it sounds like you just have to go to the tablet once to open the Journal, and thereafter you can switch between the reader and the (already-opened) journal using the "switch" key. If this allows you to have multiple journals open at the same time, this is actually an improvement in my book.

Yes, that's an improvement. I should have read better instead of just 'scanning' through the release document. If I understand well, it will be possible to switch between different apps, not between two documents, for instance between two already openen .pdf files? Which I would like very much to be possible.

Yeah, that's the question. I don't see much point in the change if that's not the case. If we're still allowed to have only one document open in the reader and one in the journal, then the switch app button would just do nothing until you open a journal from the tablet, and afterward it would behave exactly as it does now.

Hello everyone, just a quick update. I was conferring with a friend of mine who’s a biology major and after looking at the edge together, we came up with some additional ideals on using the eDGe.

I’m not sure whether I should create a new thread or not, but for now, I’ll enter them here.

Thanks to cheyennedonna, I downloaded the Sketcher application. After I showed my friend the ereader functions and how it can read PDFs and linking various objects like webpages, other books, videos, and the key topic for this entry, images, we thought we would try something. My friend likes to sketch her own pictures when dealing with certain information in her classes (for her, its a memory tool). She played with the Sketcher application and really liked the effects and how the program works. The saved sketches save as PNG image files and I showed her how the files can be added to the library (from the looks of it, it copies the file to another location for the library thus creating a duplicate, an easy remedy to keep from having duplicates eat up precious space, after adding it to the library, we just deleted the image from the sketcher folder, the library image was still there.) Once in the library, we could attach the sketch to a PDF file. Since she is in the habit of handwriting notes in class and going home to visit them and type and turn them into PDF files in her Netbook, this was of potential use. Though I know this may not be useful for everyone, I thought it was interesting and am throwing it out just in case someone would be interested or find a better use.

Also, as an update to my own note taking strategy, we realized (more than likely someone else probably realized this as well) that merely dating the notes would not be enough of a reference. So now instead of dating the notes (ex. 8-25-10) only, I date the notes and enter a subject or key words (ex. 8-25-10: Period 1890-1920). Now it will be easier for me to go back and review my notes. Forgive me if I am stating the obvious. It honestly didn’t occur to me until after a few note entries were made and I realized I was confusing myself on what was discussed on what day. I had to click on more than one date to see what we were talking about to find the topic I wanted. Now, I have an ideal at a glance at the table of contents.