This article talks about why it is better to take notes on paper than with your laptop.
http://www.npr.org/2016/04/17/474525392/attention-students-put-your-laptops-away
I never liked taking notes on my laptop in high school and I don’t see myself doing it in the future if I can help it. Glad to see I wasn’t delusional into thinking that writing it out by hand is better. I find that sometimes on writing papers there is residual…muscle memory? that helps me remember a certain phrasing from a lecture or reading that I can incorporate into my own work.
Do really people take notes on laptops? How do they manage to draw sketches, diagrams, and join related concepts?
I don’t like to see the laptop screens opened and blocking my view. But I think it would be useful to have o tablet lying flat on the desk and we can use a digital pen to handwrite on it then save the image and nicely convert to print characters or math expressions.
Technology is improving.
Interesting initial findings but the studies have several important differences between real-world academic realms that bring into question the full applicability.
Studies tested limited knowledge based off of a TED talk - hardly comparable to an entire semester of lectures 2-3 times per week. Students were tested shortly after the talk which wouldn’t be the case in a gap between initial lecture and final. As time increases memory decreases and the need to consult notes increases. If lecturers don’t have all the notes on their slides then having detailed typed notes is an advantage if given adequate time to review.
Of course the distractibility issue still stands with laptops and the ease of Facebook. However, I think that a phone is likely a common distractor even among hand written note takers.
Findings have interesting implications necessitating future study, but it’s presumptive to take these studies to show that hand taking notes is better than typing notes.
I much prefer hand-writing lecture notes. I can type very quickly and very efficiently - to the point that I can do it while completely spaced out, something which isn’t exactly conducive to active learning. With writing, I have to consciously listen to the professor, interpret the material, and record it in a way that will make sense to me when studying it in the future.
I do type up my written notes after the fact, though, so that I can keep a digital record of them to use for study guides.