In an age where your phone can scan your face and buttons are becoming obsolete, who thinks
of writing anything by hand anymore?
I know it feels archaic to pick up a pencil and use, ugh, lead, but writing down your
notes could help you pass your classes.
Note-taking is very difficult.
You have to listen, understand, and transcribe concepts all at the same time.
As technology integrates more and more into classrooms, computers have become the new
notebooks.
So we’re not writing things down or summarizing, we’ve completely changed how we encode information.
Somewhere down the line the emphasis for perfect cursive faded, and kids were taught to type;
as fast, and as accurately as they could.
A lot of college students now note-take on laptops.
However, typing leads to copying a lecture verbatim, and one study found that when students
do that they perform worse on tests that involve conceptual thinking.
So, to understand the best way to take notes, you have to get what note-taking is all about in the brain.
There are two ways researchers think note-taking affects your learning: “the encoding hypothesis”
and the “external storage hypothesis.”
Encoding: is when, during the note-taking process, you listen and understand what’s
being said, then write down what you can in the time allotted before the speaker moves
on.
It’s tough.
External storage is your brain storing information outside of itself, so it can retrieve it later.
Ok, ok, I know we all thought typing verbatim could help us study better.
It’s better “external storage” than my slow scribbles!
Right?
You may not be paying super close attention DURING the lecture, but you can totally review
it later and it's word for word and that’s great? Right?
Sort of.
When you’re writing out notes, although you’re writing fewer words than typing verbatim,
your brain is actively summarizing lecture material.
You’re encoding messages onto paper.
Then when you re-read the handwritten material “enhanced encoding,” meaning you’re
both encoding and storing the knowledge externally.
This is considered a “superior” method for concepts.
Why?
We don’t really know.
What we do know is, reviewing typed notes within 24 hours does helps you retain information.
Because 19th-century memory theories from Hermann Ebbinghaus showed, over time, if we
don’t make an effort to RETAIN information, we LOSE the data on an exponential basis;
this is called Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve.
Unless you constantly review that material, your ability to remember new material will
continue to decline over time.
It’s like a muscle, to learn requires practice!
In the end, physical handwriting works well for concepts because your brain is forced
to summarize your lesson before you jot it down.
However, laptop note-taking for straight factual information has equal retention according
to this study.
So it’s sort of up to you, to know what you need to remember and when, and THEN you
do have to actually go back and read it to secure that information.
The thing is, handwriting isn’t GONE.
Now technology has gotten good enough that tablets have handwriting recognition, and
styluses to work with them… so maybe we’ll see a resurgence of writing!
Maybe…
Or maybe we’ll see voice recording take over everything…
More research is needed to see what will be better for future students.
What do you think?
If you liked this video don’t forget to subscribe and why is learning hard anyway?!
Crystal explains it in this video here. Having the internet at your fingertips
in class can cause distraction, but did you know that you’re not only distracting yourself,
but everyone around you is taking peek and getting distracted too!. It's evolutionary theory.
Stay focused you guys and thanks for watching Seeker!