Visit any lecture hall of a college or university and you are likely to find students typing away frenetically. Notebook computers, tablets and smartphones have become so commonplace that the good old pen-and-paper routine seems tedious. 

And yet research shows that taking notes on the computer is detrimental to learning. The study “The Pen is Mightier Than The Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking” was published in the journal, Psychological Science. According to it, even when laptops are used solely to take notes and distractions — browsing social media sites —are controlled for, they may still impair learning.   

How so? The study — by researchers Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer of Princeton University and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), US, respectively — suggests that laptop use facilitates verbatim transcription of lecture content because most students can type significantly faster than they can write.  It reads: “Verbatim note taking has generally been seen to indicate relatively shallow cognitive processing.”    

Says Pabitra Sarkar, educationist and former vice-chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University, “This happens, perhaps, because when you write, your brain, hands, ears and eyes are all in sync. As a result, you understand a concept better and it stays in your mind.” He adds, “In addition, written notes have a distinctive identity — your own unique signature — which helps your brain analyse and process the information. But when you use an electronic device, it’s very impersonal and mechanical and unlikely to make any lasting impression on the brain and memory.” 

Rachita Chatterjee, who is pursuing a PhD in Cancer Biology at University of Sherbrooke, Canada, prefers handwritten notes when she attends lectures. “It is my handwriting, so I feel more comfortable reading and understanding my notes later. Also, this helps me filter what to write and what not to from an ongoing lecture.”

The Princeton-UCLA study makes the point that those who took written notes were aware that they wouldn’t catch every word and this forced them to focus on listening and analysing the spoken word better. 

The counter-argument hinges on theories about technology, familiarity and practice. Co-founder and director of Calcutta’s Praxis Business School, Charanpreet Singh, points out that many schools today encourage the use of tablets and laptops from the early years. This makes a difference because, when these students get to college or university, they are likely to wield these smart writing instruments with as much proficiency and ease as did the previous generations pen and paper. 

He says, “During the early days of word processing, when I was still a student, I was far more comfortable writing notes in a ‘notebook’. First, I’d take notes by hand and then type them back all on a computer for easy reference. But slowly, I have become very comfortable with the electronic medium and find taking notes on it much more convenient. And on the subject of speed of typing versus speed of writing, that’s actually a personal decision. If one is trying to understand and  write at the same time, the speed will automatically reduce, irrespective of the medium.”

Singh, however, tells us that a lot of Business Management students still prefer to take notes by hand. Kosturi Sarkar is a second-year student at Praxis Business School. She says, “For me it is far more convenient to take notes on paper as I can draw diagrams, graphs and charts easily. I can also make alterations and additions in no time,” she says. “Later, when I go back to the notes, it’s easier to turn the pages and find things, rather than scroll up and down on a computer.” 

No wonder then that post lecture her laptop-savvy classmates get in queue with their smartphones to make copies of her paper notebook.

CORNELL NOTES

The Cornell method, a note-taking system devised in the 1940s at Cornell University, US, is hailed as the most effective way of taking notes

BASICS

Organise class notes into easily digestible summaries. This method is effective because the main points, details, study cues and summary are all written in one place 

METHOD
Divide a page into three sections: a 2.5-inch margin to the left for cues, a 2-inch summary section at the bottom, and a main 6-inch in-class note section

Use the main notes section to take notes during class

Use the cues section to review your notes. After class, write down things you’ll need to remember and a prompt for each 

In the summary segment at the bottom, write a summary of your notes and highlight the main points

Source:  http://lsc.cornell.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2015/10/Cornell-Note_Taking-System.pdf

Additional input by Prasun Chaudhuri