Comment by jtxt | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jtxt | Hacker News Reader

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I can see the correlation to student performance, comparing typing on a full laptop with a big bright screen and distractions VS a blank sheet...

However, at least for some subjects, I think note taking with technology can be perfectly accurate and enable review better than handwriting. (At least for me.)

This was my note taking system for a more recent history class, (usually a poor subject for me) where most everything in the lectures had to be remembered:

Record audio, while basically typing a transcript... (I used audionote and a Bluetooth keyboard on an iphone (small screen) with no notifications.) This helped me stay focused on every word. I also sat near the front.

In an audio editor, (audacity) I removed background noise, changed the rate 2x, detected and removed pauses between words, then edited out where he repeated himself...

That compressed a two hour lecture to about 25 minutes.

Then I could listen and follow along and correct my notes, reviewing the entire semester fairly quickly.

Students that took handwritten notes near me asked for a copy of my compressed audio and transcript/outline, which I put in a Dropbox.

I personally would not have aced or (perhaps) survived that class by just handwriting notes. I'm too slow/messy and prone to doodling...

With malleable text and audio it's easier for me to accurately trim, condense, and focus on what is needed.

Another route would be to improve at hand note taking, but I'd worry that I missed something important.

As a college student, I've considered recording lectures, but have never done that for two reasons: overhead and referencing.

How much time did it take you per lecture just to clean up the audio recording? My guess is 10-15 mins. The way I see it is that it's not a lot in general, but if you factor in the cost of context switching, it can become a time sink.

Then, as you noted, there's the task of writing a pseudo-transcript to make later referencing easier. Without it, the audio is completely useless in my view. But there's a trade-off here between granularity and effort required to set it up.

I might still give it a go though, just to see if I can manage it for more than a few weeks. I get distracted easily :(

It took a few minutes to process it in Audacity- more the first time while I figured it out.

- Select a pause in the recording.

- Effect -> Noise removal, get noise profile

- Select everything.

- Effect -> Noise removal

- Effect -> Change tempo, 100% change? (don't remember exactly, but whatever is still understandable/not boring to you, try on a smaller chunk before processing everything.)

- Effect -> Truncate Silence. (don't remember what settings I used, but to your taste.)

...

Then manually trimming out repeats, useless questions, extra stuff took some time... it was also how I studied. Then more so by playing it back and fixing my notes.

I first picked Audionote (android and ios) because typed text is time-coded, so you can skip to that part of the recording by tapping on the text.

But I ended up not really using that feature and using it as a dumb recorder and text editor. It did a good job of automatically adjusting the sound level though. (Compressor. You can also do this in Audacity.)

Also it was nice that I could have the mic (at the bottom of the iphone) pointed at the prof, and the screen turned 180 degrees facing me.

...

I wish there was a better tool that:

- During playback, skips pauses. (by audio level threshold.) then easily pick more areas in the recording to skip. (Please just non-destructive editing/filtering though; just build a list of times to skip during playback.)

- High quality time compression playback. Variable, even up to 3x perhaps. (without increasing the pitch like audionote.)

- AND synced the notes with the recording.

- (Even better would be for reliable voice to text, and automatic trimming/outlining... but at some point it may deter grey matter processing.)

Perhaps there are better tools now?

There's also a third reason. It can be illegal without consent of those involved (e.g. lecturer, students, university). To comply with the law, you would have to clear rights such as copyright, performer's rights, moral rights, and privacy rights before any recording takes place.

Yes, great point. I did ask permission before the class. I was not allowed to offer the recordings to everyone, and I took them down after the class.

Also, I think it helps that I'm writing/reading/editing and listening. multi-sensory.

Perhaps it could be better by adding video, smelling, tasting, and feeling... :)

But no, just capturing the exact words, and being able to trim to what's needed helped me.

Did the time spent editing the audio outweigh the time spent studying the shorter lectures? I guess there must have been some cost/benefit there otherwise you wouldn't have continued doing it.

Yes.

The editing/condensing the audio and text was part of the studying for me though. It made the otherwise one-way-brain-dump class a bit tactile. Then being able to review everything quickly was helpful too.

Did you ever sell your notes or audio files?

Nope, those that asked were showing up and putting effort in the class.

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