Ask HN: What are your thoughts on students replacing their notebooks with iPads?

I think this is framing it wrong.

First of all, you need something to write papers on, which means you're choosing between a laptop and a tablet with an add-on keyboard. "Traditional cheap pen and paper" doesn't work for writing papers.

Second, once you've got a device, it makes much more sense to take notes on it rather than pen and paper, for most people, because it's easier to keep organized, to keep backed up, to share with other students, and never worry about losing. (Oh crap I brought my red notebook to Econ 201 instead of my blue notebook!)

So it really comes down to, whether a laptop or tablet with keyboard is better. For some majors like CS you need a laptop full stop. For other majors the ability to draw diagrams with a pencil might be far more important. If you have a lot of digital textbooks then a tablet might be much more ergonomic to read them on than a laptop.

Not to mention tablets are often easier to protect, less likely to break, easier to slip into a bag, weigh less, etc.

But none of that has to do with "better grades" or "group pressure" or a "desire to fit in". It's entirely to do with a necessary tool, and which one meets your specific academic needs the best. You seem to be coming from an assumption that "expensive iPads and accessories" are in addition to a laptop+paper, whereas for a lot of students it's an alternative to.

In the title it's iPad vs laptop, but in the text it's iPad vs pen and paper. That gets me lost. When it comes to iPad replacing laptop. I don't think it's a good thing. iPad is a consumer of information (playing apps, watching videos). In contrast, laptop is more of a producer (developing apps, writing, reading but not lying around). iPad replacing laptop means that students are shifting more towards consumption rather than production,.

It doesn't help at all. It's a gimmick and it used(maybe still is) to look cool when you sit with a tablet and look like you are learning something. In any decent class, you'd have hard time following the pace the professor sets, so quickly writing on paper is much better.

It's a tool like anything else. If you use it right, it can allow you to do certain things better than you could on paper.

I used an iPad to take notes on PDFs of lectures and textbooks when possible. Was incredibly helpful, and searching worked faster than flipping pages. The stylus is very accurate as as easy to write with as paper.

Eventually found an app called Notability to takes notes that stayed in sync with audio recording of the lecture. Helped a ton concentrating on what was being spoken instead of trying to transcribe it, and revisiting areas of confusion.