New Gadgets

I have two new gadgets this semester:  a USB flash drive and a digital voice recorder.  These guys have improved my school life dramatically.  Both are very easy to use, light-weight, small, and efficient.  I'm pleased with these recent purchases because I see them as being investments in my school success.  The flash drive was ~$20 at Sam's Club, and I paid ~$40 at Radio Shack for the digital recorder. 

Being an aural learner, I rely heavily on lectures.  Although I love books, for me to retain their morsels I need to read a book's contents more than once, and read out loud, conversationally, in a non-comfortable environment, or while pacing the room.  When reading out loud, I must pause often to discuss the material with myself - out loud.  Needless to say, I get easily distracted while reading.  I learn best by listening and then transmitting what I've heard into written or spoken words.  Now that I am friends with a digital audio recorder, I can re-listen to every lecture as many times as I need to!

Before I found the flash drive, I was emailing documents to myself between school and home computers.  The emailing method worked with little hassle until my internship required the reading of a very large PDF file that was too large to attach to an email.  I couldn't be more pleased that I was forced to buy this flash drive because it can hold 16 GB of memory and comes along with me anywhere I go.  It safely stores all of my school work, blog files, and photos that I wish to print someday at Wal-Mart.  Also, all of my recorded lectures are stored on my flash drive, so this setup is working really well.


Photo credits: 

Verbatim USB Flash Drive photo from: radioshacklebanon.net

Olympus Digital Voice Recorder VN-5200PC photo from: http://www.detshop.com