My experience is that handwriting is qualitatively different experience from typing, and has different cognitive effects (I think there is actually a fair bit of research corroborating this idea). I can type as fast as someone can speak, so I can create a perfect record of e.g. a meeting, but as I do so I'm on "autopilot" -- basically acting as a passive scribe, transmitting from voice to text without thinking about it at all. With handwriting, the limitations of the medium (speed, etc.) force one into an active synthesis of the material, which helps a lot with retention. A handwritten note becomes something I remember, and often don't even need as a note, because I remember it so well; something I jot down in my text editor becomes fodder for searches later on. It's just a different beast.