Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Posts: 2682

Just curious... since there seems to be a lot of high schoolers buying and using the Visor, my question is why? What is it that you're doing with it and why did you decide on the Visor?

It just doesn't seem that students would have much use for one, unless school has changed that much from when I went. In my day we used these things called pencil and paper.

Of course, I'm old enough to be your father, so bear with me on this one, please.

------------------
MarkEagle - Ice is nice!

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: California
Posts: 108

Ok, I'll do my best to explain. First, most student end up typing a lot of their work, so why not just do it 1st and save yourself the time typing. Next, with programs like Four.Zero it lets you easily keep track of assignments and get instant grade updates. Next, it lets you surf the web or play galax when there's nothing to do. Next, it looks cool, and how else are you going to play IR Pong with your frind, right?

We live in a technological world now, and it's only natural that students would want to stay on top of that trend.

[This message has been edited by CompuPika (edited 03-06-2000).]

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 1571

Why use paper and pen when you can use the visor. With the visor there is no more headaches with pieces of paper lying all over the place. Think of all the trees we are saving!

Also with a visor and a ThinkOutside keyboard there is no need for a laptop to right essays. Not to mention the notetaking abilities of the visor. Heck if the diddlebug program is developed so that I can draw (like graphs etc) and imput regular texts I will be able to toss out my notebooks...saving even more trees... I can go on and on hehe...

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Kennett Square, PA, USA
Posts: 26

i use MY bvdx for keeping track of tons of stuff (not just school) and the schoolwork is taken care of with ToDo+ Memo+ and Four.Zero. Itz also great to download the texts of books that im doin essays on and cut and paste directly on the visor for quotes. also...i think the MAIN reason a lot of students are buying this thing is the low low cost, thatz why I bought it anyways

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 72

seeing as your dont seem to be a student, what is your career and why do you use your visor?

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Posts: 2682

I haven't been a student in a LONG time...

I work in both Operations and IT at a mid-sized manufacturing company. Primarily use the Visor for appointments and note taking at the moment. Once I get a modem or wireless Springboard, then I'll be looking into interfacing with the network as well. We're also exploring some bar-code applications that I think the Visor can be useful with. Plus... I needed a COOL toy, too!!!

The only reason I started this thread was that because I was curious as to why kids (no offense) found the Visor (or other PDA's) useful. I just figured they'd be more interested in GameBoy's.

Sort of restores my faith in today's youth. I'm glad to see so many young people grasping today's technology. My school days were a bit ahead of the PC revolution or I probably would have been the same. I used my first computer (an old Wang running BASIC) in the summer of 1980 and have been hooked ever since. Heck, I even owned an original IBM PC Jr with the "chiclet" keyboard!!!

Oh well, enough dating myself... I'm starting to feel old here...

------------------
MarkEagle - Ice is nice!

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 106

quote:

---

I haven't been a student in a LONG time

---

'80!! Don't feel too old yet MarkEagle -
I still have my slipstick!!! Used it as a backup to the *early* handheld 4 (yes FOUR) function calculators. (Of course I don't remember how to use the thing now ...still have the manual just in case.)

Steve

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 41

I use my visor to take notes and stuff. I am in 8th grade and have gone through a palmIII, palmIIIx and now i have a visor deluxe. In my class alone there are 7 kids with visors or palmpilots.......at one point they got so out of hand that the school banned them b/c kids where telling the teachers that they where taking notes but they where really playing games, now you and your parentd need to sign a contract saying that if any games are found on your visor/palmpilot then it will be taken away until the end of the year. There is talk of banning them again this time forever b/c of the new springboards with modems and all.

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Chandler, AZ
Posts: 289

The Visor is a fantastic student companion. I am currently in my 3rd year of college and I wish I jumped on the Palm bandwagon years ago. I thought about getting a laptop, but the size, startup time and battery life were turnoffs for me -- the Palm platform fixes these problems. Like most students, I am anxiously awaiting the Stowaway keyboard accessory for the Visor. Given the fact that I can type about 3 to 4 times faster than I can write, the advantages of the Stowaway/Visor combo are numerous.

During class, I will beable to focus on the professor instead of doing head-bopping between what the professor and my notes. Because of this, I feel I will most likely take more comprehensive notes which would be very helpful when studying. (not to mention much easier to read)

Another advantage to the visor/palm configuration is backing up of notes. I have had enough of my notes taken down with paper/pencil become illegable (or startout illegable.. ) to being lost. With the visor, I will have a backup copy of all of my notes on my computer at home. Copies of notes can also be useful to give classmates if they were to miss a class (or as the need arises).

When working on essays and homework assignments, using the visor as my primary wordprocessor gives me more flexibility where I can work. After getting the majority of my ideas down on the Visor, I can simply import into Word and format.

Of course, this is used in conjunction with the organization functionaility built into the visor. Alarms, day-by-day organization, etc..

In the future, I hope more text books will be converted to an e-book format so I can load them into the Visor and not have to carry the entire book around with me. This could be very helpful to add notes to the text.

The ultimate student setup for me would be to have my Visor, a pen and a thin notebook to augment the Visor (ie, for graphing or drawing where the Visor isn't a feesible option). All books would be electronic and stored on the Visor, homework assignemtns could be turned in electroniclly via a wireless campus LAN and all computers and printers would be IR compatible (or easily accessible via the wireless lan) to allow printouts or transfer of data.. Heck, maybe on a setup like this, the teachers could use something similar to WeSync to transfer all important due dates and such to the Visor automatically Or maybe a class AvantGo channel.. heh..

Joe

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 23

I'm not too suprised to see the high school and college students taking to the PDAs. The schools and teachers just need to catch up.

Here the students are required to buy a paper planner starting in the fourth grade. It didn't take my fourth grade daughter 30 seconds to realize my visor was the electronic equivalent and ask for her own.

Registered: Nov 1999
Location:
Posts: 40

I'm a college student, and the visor is great for storing TA contact information, professor's office hours, as well as notes, formulas and whatnots. I don't use it to "cheat", as college level classes most tests gives the equations or "a sheet of notes" anyway, but for homework it's invaluable. It has the potential for expansion, both hardware wise in the springboard modules, and software wise with open sourced development tools. At $250.00, it's a bit expensive if you compare it to a good graphing calculator, but not terribly so when you consider what it can do. To be perfectly honest with ya, I think a visor, a stow-away keyboard and a WinCE Z50 workpad (hacked to run Linux) can replace my laptop, and offer far more in flexability and portability.

Much has changed since my father's generation went to school. In my father's time, being an engineer was difficult; and I really have to admire and respect what he had to go through. Slide rules were the norm, and strapping a motor to an adding machine was considered an upgrade. But as technology matured, engineering and science students have more and more to learn (half the stuff that we learn in chemistry class wasn't invented 30 years ago!) and to offset that, they no longer have to learn to do the basic calculations the HARD way, since everyone now has a calculator. (Does anyone know how to take square roots by hand, w/o a calculator or a log table? My Dad does!) IMHO, that's the way things should be (focusing on the material, and not the basic techniques) and visors and other electronic gismos, if used correctly are GREAT learning tools.

-=- SiKnight

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Posts: 2682

quote:

---

...they no longer have to learn to do the basic calculations the HARD way, since everyone now has a calculator. (Does anyone know how to take square roots by hand, w/o a calculator or a log table? My Dad does!)

---

I agree with and admire most of what you're saying... however, I personally feel you STILL need to learn the "old-fashioned" way, too. What happens when you're in the field and your Visor or calculator or whatever doesn't work. Technology IS great... but it has limitations, too.

This topic has been very enlightening to me. Gives me those warm-fuzzy feelings inside... After all... today's youth are tomorrows leaders.

------------------
MarkEagle - Ice is nice!

Registered: Nov 1999
Location:
Posts: 40

I agree.

For our Math classes we are still required to do ALL computations by hand. The University does allow the substitution of the Applied Math classes for Math credit, which allows a calculator (but then assigns MUCH harder problems 8-) ).

And, ultimately, the distinction between a successful student is how well s/he retains his/her knowledge. You can teach someone the basics, and then show them the modern technological shortcut; the real test comes when the calculator/visor runs out of battery and whether he/she still remembers what she had learned way long ago and arrive at a result...

-=- SiKnight

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: Hermosa Beach, CA
Posts: 222

I only graduated from college about 5 years ago and I actually DID learn how to do roots without a calculator (with differential equations). Then again, 5 years in internet-world is like a generation.

Si_Knight, it's funny that you mentioned how engineers used to do things a few years ago. Can you imagine what your kids will be saying in the next decade or so? "My Dad used to have to TYPE on a keyboard! I can't how he got anything done without a BAWDID!"
That's a Brain-Alpha-Wave-Decoder-Input-Device, just in case you didn't know what that was.

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 14

I first saw the visor last year before it started shipping, and wanted one immediately! The reason I got one was the very reasonable price! I plan on using it for college next fall.

Again I say PRICE, PRICE, PRICE.

Wes

[This message has been edited by Klaymen (edited 03-11-2000).]

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 5

I go to the same school as ynw86. I take notes on my Visor Deluxe, play IR games during class with ynw86, and we beam each other notes (we switch off days) . When the Stoaway comes out I'll stuff another pocket .

Registered: Nov 1999
Location:
Posts: 40

I go to college with Voltaire (he usually hangs out in the Developer's Corner) and we do the same things with notes. Not quite IR games, college is a wee bit harder for that.

Certain parts of our school (Univ. of Washington) has wireless ethernet wired up. When the 802.11 modules come out, I might sit in class and daytrade to finance my college career (yeah, right).

8-)

Most reactions from the girls have been, "Wow, you can write on that thing? Cool!"
One girl, however, asked me after lecture why I keep scratching the screen on my game boy. I told her that my pet tamaguchi would die if I don't scratch it's tummy. I think she bought it too. 8-)

-=- SiKnight

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Posts: 2682

SiKnight,

Did you find yet another use for the Visor, as in "chic magnet"?

------------------
MarkEagle - Ice is nice!

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: Evansville, Indiana
Posts: 1

I'm in high school so I believe this question was directed towards me. I have not found that many other students use palms of any sort in my school. I'm a junior and it seems that TI calculators are all the rage in my school [www.ticalc.org]. However many of my friends have expressed interest in buying a visor (I'm pushing them to buy because I want somebody to trade apps and games with). I believe the visor is more popular than other palms because of it's price, expandability, and it's colors. The mp3 player was a big plus for me [www.innogear.com]. Another thing is that it's just fun to use. I use it to organize my life occasionally, but to tell you the truth, for me at least, it's more of a hi-tech toy. I'm not gonna kid myself because I use it a lot more to goof around with. In closing I just want people to know that kids really don't need these things... They ARE just big gameboys.

But what cool gameboys they are.

------------------
Yo Mamma

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: California
Posts: 19

With 8 MB, think of how many girl's numbers you can put on there!!!

Good for writing down homework with the cool apps available. No more jotting into a piece of memo pad.

Stock quotes

Soon, girls will own Visors...no more having to use the stylus...just beam, BAM! you got the hookup!