Technology for Note Taking: Good or Bad?

Student Lounge College Life
1

Just curious on what everyone’s experiences are regarding taking notes on laptops/tablets vs doing them by hand.

I went to a high school where our class wasn’t allowed to bring any technology into the classroom. They introduced an iPad requirement for the class below us, and rumors went around that their grade had one of the lowest average GPA’s in the school’s history. Apparently most students were using their iPads to play games during class.

I do get that it’s a distraction, but I also think that it’s good for saving money on notebooks as well as saving paper. Plus, I have messy handwriting and type much faster than I write. But I also know many studies have shown that handwriting is better for memory. Not to mention how unreliable technology can be at the most inconvenient times.

Thoughts?

2

Personally, I take notes by hand. I used a laptop my first semester of Junior year but it was far too distracting, and that was my one semester where I had a sub-3.0 GPA. Every other semester was over a 3.5. I don’t think this is a coincidence, but I could understand people thinking that taking notes on a laptop would be faster.

3

I highly recommend note-taking by hand; I have yet to see a single student in any of my classes the past two years use their laptop/tablet solely for note taking - they always end up browsing social media, instant messaging, etc. Just use a notebook/binder. If you’re concerned about your handwriting, then make it a habit to type up your notes after class and save them for future reference.

4

This was a running debate between students and teachers at my school until some time during the 11th grade. We liked our toys, and wanted to believe laptops/tablets helped us learn better - the perfect excuse to use (and misuse) them frequently. Teachers weren’t stupid, and knew the misuse was at least as prevalent as legitimate use of these devices.

We got to the 11th grade, which is when we started the IB, and the debate was quickly settled. At that point, grades really start to matter, and the first week of school included a presentation on different ways to learn, study techniques, and the science behind these strategies. It turns out the evidence overwhelmingly favors paper over electronics when you take notes. This is because:

  1. You probably write exams by hand, and study conditions that are similar to exam conditions help recall. This is also why some teachers recommend chewing a specific flavor of gum only when you study their subject or when you take an exam.
  2. By writing information down, it becomes more strongly imprinted in your mind compared to typing it on a computer. I don't recall the scientific cause, but the research was unambiguous on this point.
  3. Electronics, as you noted, put distractions within easy reach.

It’s also simpler to combine notes and diagrams on paper than in an electronic file,* which helps because perceiving information through multiple pathways (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) adds a lot of recall above and beyond what you’d get by simply reading a textbook/powerpoint, although reading has its place as another pathway.

*Copy-pasting diagrams is easy, but it’s the process of drawing them that has the greatest benefits for recall. Even if you’re no great artist, this works; a fair number of my diagrams make Salvador Dali paintings look realistic, and that hasn’t been an issue.

Because repetition also increases recall, which ordinarily will drop over time, when there’s video of a lecture available you may want to attend the lecture and simply observe, then take notes from the video later in the day. Reviewing the notes the next day, condensing them in a week, and reviewing them again in a month, 2 months, etc. has been shown to boost recall from 20% to 70% or 80%. See this graph, though it’s probably a little optimistic in assuming 95% recall in time:

MODERATOR’S NOTE: Deleted link - not allowed.

There’s more, but those are the key points IMHO.

5

I think it depends on your major and the classes you are taking. For classes that are word heavy, like literature, history, etc., then typing might be faster and mean you can get more information, in your own words, onto the “page”. However, any time you have to write math symbols or draw diagrams, for instance any science or math, you really should take notes by hand because it is hopelessly slow to write out math in word processors. I have always used pencil and paper, and definitely agree that I retain information better through handwritten notes.

6

I believe that research shows that a different, and stickier, kind of learning happens when hand writing notes. This isn’t to say that there isn’t value in photographing the board or typing notes in class, but these have to serve as the basis for written notes.

7

I’ve always been a fan of the tech, but when it really matters, I’ll take notes by hand. It helps to write things down, and I can scribble over the diagrams however I’d like. I’ve also found that having to keep pace with the the professor has helped with my ability to compress information into important bullet points. It also helps to reduce distractions later on, when I go back to my notes. There’s no chance to pull out my computer to check notes and potentially see that Facebook page staring back at me.

8

My kids went to a HS with a well established laptop program, and took almost all their notes on them. Required to bring your laptop to class (charged). One has a learning disability and one of her accommodations was laptop note taking (has it in college, too). Both consider hand written notetaking to be from the Stone Age. As a consultant who had a client a couple years ago who would not assign me a laptop, I agree with them.

9

I did an experiment of 1 in college. I recorded the lecture and typed notes for the first half of a course and took notes by hand for the second half. I found there was a marked difference between what I could remember from my handwritten notes and what I could remember from the typed ones. I could remember what side of the page a topic in the handwritten notes was on, and that helped me remember what I wrote, but I wasn’t able to remember the typewritten notes as well.

My son has mentioned that he remembers better when he takes notes by hand too. It doesn’t have anything to do with surfing the net; the classes he’s used a laptop to take notes have been ones where he had to pay attention and take good notes because it was his turn to post them on the class portal. He found that if he wanted to remember the information well he’d have to go back and copy the typed notes into his notebook. The physical act of writing seems to make a difference.

My dyslexic daughter uses a laptop to take notes, but I have her transcribe them afterward. Technology is a tool, but one we use in combination with other methods to get the results we want.

10

Type your notes, we aren’t living in the stone age.

11

Our brains are very much products of the stone age, and their hardwiring doesn’t always match a 21st-century lifestyle. One way that manifests itself, apparently, is the fact that written notes lead to better recall than typed notes. If you want to explain why you disagree with the research others have done on this subject, go ahead.

Until then, if choosing the method that allows you to remember more information is living in the stone age, sign me up.

12

I type history notes and write science and math notes. This works best for me and I’ve never used social media during a class. It all depends on the person.

13

I’ve tried taking notes on a laptop, tablet, bamboo writing tab, and pen + paper and I have to say that pen + paper wins every time. Not only is writing supposed to be better for recall, but also as a STEM major who frequently has to copy equations and diagrams pen + paper is the most convenient way to organize notes on the fly.
As for the argument that “pen and paper is from the stone age”: why does that matter?

14

Good question, @dragonfly26 - and one I just asked my son who is starting college in August, as I was starting to think about what supplies he will need.

Some people like taking notes on tablets or laptops; others prefer handwritten notes; some do both. My sons, both engineering kids, mix it up. They tend to type lists of things to do and calendar events on their phones or laptops. They type thoughts and drafts for papers on their laptops. But, they actually prefer taking notes in classes on graph paper spiral notebooks. (Both use pen, which drives me a little crazy - Why not pencil, so you can erase errors?) They say they can take notes, draw diagrams, and do in-class math/science problems more easily with graph paper than with regular lined paper or on a laptop. While they both still print, which can be slow, their writing is legible. (Schools seemed to give up on teaching cursive writing when they were young.) Both kids have had laptops since elementary school and electronic button gadgets since they were toddlers. So their laptops have definitely become an extension of their brains and fingers.

In an engineering school or business environment, I guess it could be a little embarrassing if everyone else is taking notes on their phones or laptops, and you are not. Peer pressure may get to my son, but I prefer that he do what helps him be the most successful, not just what everyone else is doing.

When we visited engineering classes at a few colleges this April, I noticed that some kids were typing on laptops and some were writing notes on paper. It was not all one way or the other.

@OhSorryYo Does there have to be one answer for everyone for all purposes? I don’t think so.

@GoatGirl19 and others have already said this more succinctly than I have.