Making study a snap

Of all the bits of equipment I expected to use on this course, never thought the most useful one would be my camera.

I mean, you can justify an iPod by listening to downloaded lectures on the way to class (although I haven't done so yet and the walk's only six minutes). A laptop and printer - go without saying. And a PDA is pretty much vital, with a To-Do list that extends to at least 20 tasks and appointments a day. But a camera?

What I'm using it for is capturing stuff: everything from class-sized whiteboards to A4 pages I can't be arsed to scan. (With 10Mp on tap, a page of text snapped from half a metre away is perfectly readable.) And teamed with a zoom - which zooms out as well as in, letting me capture more of a scene from closer - it's saving hours and adding real value to my notes.

I'm writing revision notes as I go along, so by course end I'll have a complete summary of my MBA in a couple of hundred pages. But the real reason for doing so's a bit less nerdy: the act of writing something down and putting it into your own words aids understanding.