hand written class notes vs typed

[itsmejuli]

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/head-the-class/201402/nota-bene-how-we-take-notes-matters

Nota Bene: How We Take Notes Matters

The old ways prove to be best.

Published on February 14, 2014 by Dana S. Dunn, Ph.D. in Head of the Class

Nota bene is Latin for "note well" or, in our vernacular, we might phrase it as "take note." This entry is a variation on these phrases: To wit, how should students take notes?

The mechanics of note taking may not seem like a big deal. In fact, in our time, the issue is well defined: Should you write with pen or pencil? Or, given the ubiquity of laptops, iPhones, and tablet devices, should one type notes during class? The later smart devices also allow students to record material, say, a professor lecturing, or to download material (some instructors rely almost exclusively on PowerPoint slides and a subset of these folks will put their slides online for whomever wants to use them).

In other words, the decision for students now is to whether to be scribes on paper or to embrace our digital tools. (I neglected to mention that many tablet devices allow you to "write" in your hand on the screen which software then "reads" and converts into typed notes--so, to clarify, being a scribe is also possible with technology, too.) Does it matter which method one chooses?

Well, many people are wailing about the loss of penmanship and the new generation's relative inability to write using cursive with all those flowing letters. I think losing cursive is a loss, though perhaps not in my case--my handwriting is abysmal. Well, to be fair, even my printing using block letters (unless I really take my time, an act that does not lend itself to teaching using a blackboard) is pretty abysmal. The highpoint of my handwriting career was back in second grade when I won "honorable mention" for "most improved penmanship"--surely, the booby prize for handwriting--so, yes, my cursive was never/is not now a thing of beauty.

Interestingly, however, whether one writes or types one's notes in class may matter a great deal. Two psychologists at Princeton wondered whether using laptops for note taking might have some pitfalls not associated with using pen and paper. Pam Mueller and David Oppenheimer wondered if typing on a laptop might lead to a more shallow form of information processing and lessened learning than the older, more traditional method of note taking. In other words, taking notes with a pen or pencil might require deeper cognitive processing as one translated classroom concepts into one's own words on paper than doing so with a laptop.

To explore this hypothesis, the researchers conducted various experiments, most of which relied on the same methodology. Students were assigned to classrooms where they either used laptops or traditional notebooks. Both groups heard the same lectures and both groups were told to use their usual note taking approaches. About half an hour after the lecture, all the students were given an in-class test on the lecture material. Here's an important point: The students were examined for their memory for both factual recall (What year did the Titanic sink?) and conceptual material (Explain how the study of physical anthropology differs in content and scope from cultural anthropology?).

What did they find? The students using the laptops tended to take more notes but--and this is a big important "but"--they were more likely to take verbatim notes, which is a relatively mindless activity with fewer benefits than putting ideas and concepts into one's own terms. So, while both groups of students worked to learn the same set of facts, the laptop group did much worse during the recall test.

Here's the real clincher: Another study in the series found that students who wrote in longhand and who had time to study their notes in preparation for an exam did significantly better than other students in the experiment--including the crack typists who wrote much more--or even the students who were veritable court stenographers, transcribing the whole lecture! The traditional writers wrote less (fewer notes) and did so with much less transcribing than the laptoppers, and they still scored higher on factual learning and higher-order thought, that is, wrestling with concepts. Even when laptop note takers were explicitly told NOT to transcribe the lectures word for word, there was no improvement--it seems the association with transcribing when typing is too hard to override.

So, what's the lesson here? At least one old way of note taking may be superior to newer, faster ways of taking notes. If you are a student, take notes with pen and paper in class--nota bene. Teachers, tell your students! A digital device may seem easier, faster, and better, but that only affects the task of note taking, not the important consequence of note taking--learning, retaining, and using knowledge.

Nota bene!

[pmabraham, BSN, RN]

Thank you, itsmejuli, for sharing. This semester I'm using an iPAD in terms of trying to go paperless. For notes, I take hand written notes using a stylus so that it would come close to the paper experience. Not so much as pen and paper as thinking about what I really need to write, about how what the professor states is relevant to what other connections.

I agree that if I was typing vs. hand writing, I might be doing more of a mechanical activity vs. a learning activity.

Thank you.

[RusticSandy]

I have always felt this way about handwriting things. I use an iPad for pretty much everything for school, but I take handwritten notes on it. I also tend to make out my own flash cards rather than using an app because something about writing the words on paper help me remember so much more. I'm slower than some people, but taking my own notes has always been part of my learning process!

[NurseGirl525, ASN, RN]

I definitely retain more from handwriting my notes. I do not take a computer or my ipad with me because I know I won't retain it. I will later take my handwritten notes and put them in quizlet for easier studying when I am in the dojo. Just works easier for me that way. I totally think handwriting is the way to go.

[Sand_Dollar, BSN]

I would make handwritten notes next to the lecture powerpoints which I had printed out. Once I got home I then made a set of study notes on my computer. This was the best thing for me... I would often reorganize the lecture notes into something that made more sense to me. And, this is the funny part...pinterest became my #1 study tool! Because I'm a visual learner, I would find pictures/graphics that would represent what was talked about (ie blood flow in the heart). I would add different fonts and arrows to my study notes and by the time I was totally done, I would often not even have to study them again. Working, and I mean really WORKING with the lecture info worked great for me.

[erint91DC]

I've always found that I retain more by handwriting notes! Instead of writing outline-style lecture notes, I tend to write all over the page with arrows, different sized fonts, colours etc. I'm already able to connect the information in lecture, and re-writing my notes after improves my retention even more.

Sadly, there is just so much information in NS that no matter what, I take ages to do handwritten notes. I cannot seem to cut down the time with it! Usually, I underline/circle/highlight/abbreviate while reading my textbooks (gassspp! defacing textbooks), and then I type up shorthand notes from that. I do this one small section at a time, but it still takes a long time .

I also make flash cards with the prototype meds in pharm. I include the med class on the front, and on the back, indications, actions, pharmacokinetics (route, duration, onset, peak, half-life), adverse effects (group them by the system they affect), drug-drug interactions, contraindications, cautions. I fit all of this on the 4x6 cards. I do not copy the textbook; I paraphrase as much as possible without taking away from the info.

Got a bit carried away with this! Haha I like to share/compare study methods :)

[canigraduate]

I think this is an interesting point of view, but it leaves out other learning styles. It doesn't really matter how I take notes, I don't learn squat!

I have to DO something with the information, like make a chart or an illustration. I used to "teach" my dogs during my maternity class. Just writing stuff down doesn't do much for me other than help me sit still in class.

[morte, LPN, LVN]

hmmm, going back a, ahm, few years....I took notes in jr science class, went home typed them up and that was the only studying I did....the key here is that I didn't know how to type so it was hunt and peck and read....found when I learned how to touch type, it no longer worked as a study method..