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A Learning Secret Don’t Take Notes with a Laptop Scientific American
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The old fashioned way works better.
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Mind & Brain » Mind Matters
A Learning Secret: Don’t Take Notes
with a Laptop
Students who used longhand remembered more and had a deeper understanding of the
material
By Cindi May | June 3, 2014
“More is better.” From the number of gigs
in a cellular data plan to the horsepower in
a pickup truck, this mantra is ubiquitous in
American culture. When it comes to college
students, the belief that more is better may
underlie their widelyheld view that laptops
in the classroom enhance their academic
performance. Laptops do in fact allow
students to do more, like engage in online
activities and demonstrations, collaborate
more easily on papers and projects, access
information from the internet, and take
more notes. Indeed, because students can
type significantly faster than they can write,
those who use laptops in the classroom tend
to take more notes than those who write out
their notes by hand. Moreover, when
students take notes using laptops they tend
to take notes verbatim, writing down every last word uttered by their professor.
Obviously it is advantageous to draft more complete notes that precisely capture the
course content and allow for a verbatim review of the material at a later date. Only it
isn’t. New research by Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer demonstrates that
students who write out their notes on paper actually learn more. Across three
experiments, Mueller and Oppenheimer had students take notes in a classroom
setting and then tested students on their memory for factual detail, their conceptual
understanding of the material, and their ability to synthesize and generalize the
information. Half of the students were instructed to take notes with a laptop, and the
other half were instructed to write the notes out by hand. As in other studies, students
who used laptops took more notes. In each study, however, those who wrote out their
notes by hand had a stronger conceptual understanding and were more successful in
applying and integrating the material than those who used took notes with their
laptops.
What drives this paradoxical finding? Mueller and Oppenheimer postulate that taking
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Comments
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June 3, 2014, 8:07 AMMindAfterMath
In general, I agree with this, but I found that over time taking notes with a laptop is much more
beneficial. In particular, in grad school (mathematics), we went into more detail on a lot of the
subjects that were covered in undergrad, but having those notes in a saved place that I could refer
to later helped me to be able to go back (instead of having to go through a library of journals from
old notes, probably written in pencil).
Also, when my notes are written on laptop I have a much bigger chance of doing things like sharing
them, or doing more advanced things about them like trying to make Q/A flash cards or other type
of programs.
I will say, though, that I think taking notes is extremely more beneficial than a professor passing
out a lecture notes overview as an excuse to move faster in the class.
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June 3, 2014, 9:24 AMmpopcorn
what taking notes on a laptop with a digital or active pen?
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June 3, 2014, 9:39 AMjtdwyer
In short, succinctly restating discussion points provides for better comprehension and retention of
the information presented. This approach is most naturally followed when taking handwritten
notes rather than typed notes.
In my own experience, I have always found it useful to restate complex information presented in
meeting to verify that it has been properly understood. Also, I often took some rough notes during
meetings to facilitate comprehension, although I very rarely referred to them later and found
them difficult to decipher when I did...
The laptop issue is likely superfluous if analytical listening techniques are properly used.
I suspect that handwritten notes taken in shorthand would produce similar results to typewritten
notes.
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June 3, 2014, 9:58 AMWillRoun
When I did my MBA, i would record the lectures and then found that I didn't have time to re listen
to them. Copying the blackboard points and making summaries worked best!
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June 3, 2014, 1:02 PMamaryrose