The Methods And Benefits Of Digital Note-Taking For Students

Taking down notes is one of the most important activity that a student should perform in order to review and remember different lessons from every subjects. According to a research conducted by Dr. Himel Mondal, 82 percent of students still chose to take down notes via hand writing, typing, taking pictures and other noting techniques so they can review what is being thought by their teachers and professors. 18% of the students do not jot their lectures and just depend on their learning during the discussions of lessons. As technology advances, Types of note-taking methods used in today’s system of education are restyling as well. Typing and capturing pictures of lectures using mobile phones, laptops and cameras are already popular; however, educational psychologists have suggested that longhand notes are more beneficial for learning.

Members of the millennial generation today grew up with modern technology, such as smart phones, Internet, computers etc. For this age group, technology is a suitable medium for note-taking and educational purposes however, some teachers and professors commonly find that technology is counterproductive to the learning system Traditional note taking or taking down notes by hand writing (using a pen and a paper) which is a codified system of standard symbols (letters, numbers and different characters) written by our hands to represent ideas is one of the technique used by students in noting their lectures. According to Mariette DiChristina, 2010 Longhand notes allow students to improve their short- and long-term memory recall. because as you write, you also read the important words in your lectures. These can serve as an effective memory cues by recreating the context and content from the original lecture or meeting.

Note-taking via Handwriting involves motor memory through the high intake of physical information that is encoded while learning. The process of learning kinesthetically is through the physical movement of a pen on paper. The muscle movement used to handwrite letters activates the sensorimotor region of the brain, which causes reinforcement of the learned information through motor memory. Digital note taking or taking notes by taking a picture of the lecture, typing it using mobile phones or laptops, and getting the soft copy of your professor or teacher’s presentation is also used commonly today. Tablet, Laptops and smartphones have further quickened the transition toward digital note-taking. One benefit of tablets for note-taking is the ability to type notes, add drawings, and highlight text while still retaining the digital format. Different note-taking applications in electronic gadgets are also widely used. Popular note-taking apps allows note takers to play back their lectures, which is a great instrument for students who are audible learners which prefer hearing what they noted instead of reading it. Additionally, when using technology, Typos and grammatical errors are automatically corrected by the used application in taking down notes.

Another digital note-taking method is taking a picture of the lecturer’s presentation and getting the soft copy of the presentation. Using devices like Smart phones to take pictures of lectures had become a trend. This method of note-taking is increasing in prevalence as students explore new ways of keeping up with lectures and staying on top of their classes. According to Maryellen Weimer, PhD, 2012, many professors today are sending the softcopy of their presentations to their students which may help students with incomplete notes and students who are absent on the day of the lecture. Based on a research conducted by Dr. Colin Montpetit, 2014, 66 percent of students who used the soft copy of his lecture and used their smartphones and laptops in typing notes achieved a 3-10 percent increase in final exam scores. Students typed and noted an average of 300-500 words per class. With an average of 18 slides per lecture. The modernized medium of note taking was a major component in the increased score of the students in the final exam.

There are different advantages and disadvantages of between the two methods of note taking. Traditional note-taking encourages our minds to process and understand the lessons that we write, it enhances focus and makes it laser sharp, cutting down distractions, and it enhances your short-term as well as long-term memory. However, hand written notes need to be maintained and cannot be backed up if it fades away with time or be destroyed due to weather conditions. Grammatical and spelling errors cannot be checked and corrected easily and It can be physically tiring to write and process plenty of information during class hours. Digital noting on the other hand, allows students to take notes quicker and store enormous volumes of data in any type of device or different cloud storages. typographical and grammatical errors are automatically corrected with this method, information can be created dynamically and retained forever, and it can be accessed any time because students nowadays are always with their devices.