Should I spend the extra money it takes to get a Tablet PC instead of a more traditional Notebook PC? the poster asks while preparing to send a student to college?
Peter and WNewquay make good points about the utility of a Tablet PC in a college or university. I support those opinions.
Let me suggest a different position, based on appointments in higher education over several decades. (Yeh, I’m an old guy.)
No student needs any electronic devices to succeed at the traditional top levels of academics. The key to academic success rests with the focus, discipline, effort, time commitment, and talents of the student. The more of each, the higher the performance level of the student.
It’s the learning, not the tools of learning that’s important. The criterion for the highest level of student success is widely available as performance equal to peer reviewed publication in the student’s major discipline. That means the student will likely earn an “A” grade in a course by skillfully handling published procedures and information in that discipline.
Advanced technologies can, but do not necessarily, make study more efficient for both student and professor.
I like a Tablet PC over a non-inkable notebook, because ink allows more options for study and play. But people have produced brilliant work for eons without electronics.
Each parent should contact the institution to find out what electronic device it requires. Some require a certain model and brand. Others leave it open to choice. Some institutions provide a service to purchase electronic equipment at discounted prices. Others let you purchase on the open market.