Note-taking by Hand

A study^[22] in psychological science discovered that using a laptop is less effective than taking notes by hand. One obvious reason is the fact that with digital devices, students are more likely to get distracted and multitask.

Another underlying scientific reason to this is that students who take notes process the information more deeply than the students who type on their laptop. While students who use laptops or tablets type faster and take notes more extensively, students who take note by hand are likely to understand what they are taking note of as they try to select the most important points. While taking notes, they have to paraphrase and do a conceptual mapping of what have been thought of during the lecture.

Typing on one’s laptop is more akin to transcribing. The laptop students may have typed almost all of what was said in the lecture but they have missed the mind processes that are necessarily involved in note-taking.

The advantage of laptop typing is that when it comes to lists of information such as dates and names, laptop notes are more complete because the students type faster. But when it comes to the conceptual application such as “How do Japan and Sweden differ in their approaches to equality within their societies”, the note-takers by hand significantly performed better.

To summarize, the following is a comparison of the two when it comes to disadvantages and advantages:

Digital note-taking:

Faster typing
Extensive and more complete notes
Although students are advised not to take notes in verbatim, they can’t fight the instinct to type everything down
Less processing of the information, thus less comprehension
Prone to distraction and multitasking

Note-taking by hand:

Slower writing
Fewer notes because information written down is selected
Extensive processing of the information
Involves other mind skills such as paraphrasing and conceptual mapping
Bonus is that the student is more likely to focus and pay attention in keeping with the lecturer’s pace