Even when students paid attention and took copious notes on their laptops, they still didn’t learn as well. In fact, the copiousness of their notes may be part of the problem, the study found. Laptop users are inclined to use long verbatim quotes, which they type somewhat mindlessly. The handwriters are more selective. They “wrote significantly fewer words than those who typed.” It may be, the researchers reported, “that longhand note takers engage in more processing than laptop note takers, thus selecting more important information to include in their notes, which enables them to study” more efficiently.
John Evans on 22 May 15"I have been exploring sketch-noting and brain-doodling lately and thought it would be a great vehicle my students to think, process, and organize information. I started off with a class discussion and asking my students what they find challenging about note-taking. Many of them shared that they found it hard to keep up with the speaker, and others said that they sometimes wrote so furiously that they couldn't understand their own handwriting when it came time to study for the tests. Others shared how they found it difficult to make sense of their notes. Sketch-noting seemed a great way to address some of these issues. Introducing it through sample images of sketchnoting from Google images and sites like Sketchnote Army was a great way to start. For more tutorials and ideas of places to start with doodling, I went to Brain Doodles."
