I have to read on screen, like many others this is not my natural state of affairs. Over the past few years I have gotten much better at editing on screen, but too frequently my instinct is to press the print button.
So I pimped my school bag, invested in an iPad, downloaded iannotate and bought a stylus. And it is brilliant. At least so far I think it is.
BUT, I am not actually doing that thing where you are supposed to make a note of the article you just read, so that you have a short record on everything. I like to think I am warming up to that particular practice.
So far I think the advantages are:
- Always have a whole pile of reading with you (so that you can carry it around and not read it), but it weighs nearly nothing.
- Annotations in the margin which you can print and record seperately and also navigate the document with.
- Dropbox.
- Lots of people ask you how you find it, and you get to show off the nifty apps you found!
- Reading off the screen is surprisingly fine.
Disadvantages:
- Sometimes, though not always, the page does not fit perfectly on the screen and you have to scroll around a bit.
- Iannotate has some very minor glitches, hopefully they will resolve these in time.
- My shiny new iPad broke, and I had to get a replacement.
- Kids like iPads, and generally they have sticky fingers.
- Bit awkward to read with direct sunlight on the screen, but in Ireland this is not a major problem.
- oh ok... even though I got an 'old' reduced price ipad, it still cost 400euro, mind you don't think it would take very long to spend that on copying and ink cartridges.
I think I am getting better at reading and thinking in this way. Still wondering if I am absorbing as much though, but I do think that's training more than anything else. Overall I would overwhelmingly recommend hoping on 'the cloud'.
Mind you so far I have only written relatively short assignments with a few references, wonder how I will find it, when I can't lie bundles of printed articles all over the living room floor...
