Is laptop computer absolutely necessary at UW BSE?

[Prabhakar Ragde]

Horus @ Sat Jun 13, 2009 3:53 pm wrote:

Also, just wondering, are we allowed to record a lecture using a laptop with webcam? that would totally give me a reason to buy a laptop.

You had better ask permission of the instructor for something like that.

[Dan]

Prabhakar Ragde @ 13th June 2009, 4:11 pm wrote:

Horus @ Sat Jun 13, 2009 3:53 pm wrote:

Also, just wondering, are we allowed to record a lecture using a laptop with webcam? that would totally give me a reason to buy a laptop.

You had better ask permission of the instructor for something like that.

Due to my disability i was able to get special permission to do something like this at Lakehead however there where also copy right issues with the recording requiring me to sign an agreement stating that the recordings could not be shared or shown to any one and that i did have any ownership of recordings in terms of copyright.

However i quickly found out that most laptops have rather poor audio recording abilities and you would need a rather expensive mic to get anything worth while.

[Horus]

Prabhakar Ragde @ Sat Jun 13, 2009 4:11 pm wrote:

Horus @ Sat Jun 13, 2009 3:53 pm wrote:

Also, just wondering, are we allowed to record a lecture using a laptop with webcam? that would totally give me a reason to buy a laptop.

You had better ask permission of the instructor for something like that.

just wondering, would you allow it? and do you think other instructors in UW will allow it?

Need to know cause I might buy a laptop.

[Prabhakar Ragde]

Horus @ Sat Jun 13, 2009 6:10 pm wrote:

just wondering, would you allow it? and do you think other instructors in UW will allow it?

I would allow it from someone I knew or if there were a good reason (e.g. a disability). Not from a random student. I can't speak for any other instructors.

[ecookman]

If distractions are the problem, get a laptop that that doesn't have to much horse power, and don't connect to the school's network.

I think that the pnly way you would be able to record the lecture is if you had a disabllty. or if the teacher doesn't mind. Also the Mic's built in to laptops usually suck really bad.

[BigBear]

Don't some prof record their lecture for students?

[ecookman]

from what i have heard, no (only for UoT from my programming instructor)

[implosion]

hey i was just wondering, since your going into software engineering @ UW, what makes software engineering different from software engineering under computer science... like why would you need chem + physics... isn't software engineering pretty much the same as computer science ? =S

[Drew416]

There is no need to ask for instructor's permission if you're gonna be recording lectures as long as you keep them for personal use and don't post them on the internet or something stupid like that. You're paying so much money for education that it is unfair to deny you the ability to record lectures for review. Laptop mics are crap, buy one of those audio recorders from futureshop they are usually like 80 bucks and record more then 200 hours of audio. They are smaller then a cell-phone so there is no way the prof will know you are recoding if you conceal it properly. With that being said recording lectures is useless esp for cs. I only recorded lectures for one class (Music) and that was only because the prof dumped so much information in 50 minutes that it was impossible to keep up with him without listening to the lectures atleast a couple of times.

[Vermette]

Drew416 @ June 17th 2009, 06:24 wrote:

There is no need to ask for instructor's permission if you're gonna be recording lectures as long as you keep them for personal use and don't post them on the internet or something stupid like that. You're paying so much money for education that it is unfair to deny you the ability to record lectures for review.

This is simply untrue. Professors are within their right to refuse your request to record a lecture as they hold copyright to it. The lecture is their (or, sometimes a colleague's) property.

A simple google search shows that Waterloo considers recording a lecture a non-academic offence:
http://www.secretariat.uwaterloo.ca/Policies/policy71.htm (see Section 3: Offences) Other schools have similar policies.

Now, that could be interpreted to read as "I'm allowed until the professor says otherwise, but any lecturer I've known that has dealt with a student wanting to record has invariably worded their position into the syllabus. Besides, not asking first is a jerk move. And, getting their permission to record never equates to permission to share that recording.

edit: One last thing; it you felt you don't need permission, why talk about concealing the recorder?

[Dark]

[Dan]

I have to agree with Vermette, it's neither ethical or correct that you can record lectures with out permission of the professor and/or university.

I think that if you have a good reason to need to record a lector that most professor would allow you to do so if you asked (assuming they can, there could be copy right issues). Tho i could see why some would not want students to, as it could encourage not playing atation as they would have the recording to look at for studying.

Also from experience recording CS and Math lectors is not overly use full as a lot of the content is referring to things that are being written on a white board or over a projector.

[joseph2625]

I dunno... I am not even planning to have a desktop because it too will become a big distractor.. Will it be safe to do so? As Dan mentioned, I will have to live in the computer lab..