Take notes by hand, not on a laptop
vox.com
vox.com
That being said, I can not tell you how many of my Law School classmates literally transcribed the entire lecture. Sometimes it was kind of nice though, because if I miss a class, I could borrow the notes from someone, read them, and take my notes based on that. I always tried to limit my notes to one typed page per hour (10 pint).
As a side hint, to any one who might be in school right now. I used to scan all of my books at the beginning of the semester into my computer. I had a little book scanner, and it would take about 1-1.5 hours per book, I would watch TV or listen to an audiobook while scanning. That way you don't have to drag heavy books around with you, and instead, you can have nice, searchable textbooks any time you need them, on your laptop. Of course, if you are less than honest, or just exceedingly poor, you could also borrow the books from the library rather then buy them. Of course, I could not recommend that as it would mean braking the law :)
Also, while what you did was possibly illegal you're not a criminal. People could sue you for loss of earnings, but the police (and fines and criminal records) only get involved if you are selling what you're copying.
"Format shifting" tends to be not legal but ignored by everyone. In the UK for at shifting is changing status from not legal to legal. "Time shifting" was written i to law as being allowed because otherwise VCRs would have been ridiculous.
I usually opted for paying attention, trying to grok the key concepts rather than endless details.
Now that I know my subject much better, I can take notes & really get something out of it, because I can process the material at the same time.
I always take notes by hand. I have tried doing on the computer and by hand. By hand is better. There are 2 advantages the way I see it:
1) The motor effects of moving the pen somehow help me remember the information better. It is as if I later remember moving the pen on paper when I have to recall the information. It is very likely that I just trained myself this way over many years.
2) I can sketch. I have a very visual memory and quite often I doodle diagram. Arrows connecting to boxes. A little graph with a relationship can be drawn and visualized very quickly when it might take a whole paragraph to describe.
Mind maps are useful for consolidating and summarizing a large pile of new information. Say the components of an operating system kernel. Or how sorting algorithms works. Stuff like that. Usually with lectures, smaller more focused concepts are presented, so then I still mostly take notes with outlines and diagrams. But when studying for exams, I might letter build a mind-map from the notes.
At some point in high-school I sort of discovered the Buzan (repetitive recall) method on my own. In the Soviet Union, in schools quite often one had oral exams. Where have 100 questions related to anything you learned in the semester or year. And then when you come in, you have to randomly pick from one of the 100 question. Well that means you need to have a mind-map like understanding of pretty much everything. So students studied for the big final test some number of weeks. During those weeks I discovered how certain cyclical summarization and repetition worked best. Also discovered that sugar helps memorize stuff.
Laptop: probably typed text input given the comments about verbatim recording of speech.
Paper: Quite possibly mind maps or hierarchically arranged notes that mirror the structure of the talk. Diagrams and rapid tabulations (even just 'pros' and 'cons' of a position the speaker is outlining). Seems much richer. As others have suggested a third group using tablet/stylus in a visual note-taking program might be interesting to include.
My experience was that my recall with the handwritten notes was better, but my handwritten notes weren't much different from my typed notes. In fact, my typed notes usually contained more information (as the article notes) since I am a much faster typist than writer.
In both cases, I basically wrote down what the professor said. It might have been abbreviated, and I wouldn't bother with things I didn't think mattered, but they were very much essentially an unstructured and disjointed narrative of the class. I didn't feel like I had the time to structure them (into say, pro/con lists) because that kind of information often was something I could only extract after the fact. For example, a professor might start speaking about a particular subject, mention a benefit to that approach (pro, right?!) but then go on another five minutes about what that entailed, leaving that part of my notes long behind and so keeping me from really structuring it as a pro/con list. If I thought a professor was saying something especially important I might sit there, absorb it, and frantically write down a condensed version as he started into something else, but that was as close as I got to any kind of structure.
On the very rare occasions I reread and reorganized my notes, I did do something of the sort. But I rarely bothered because a) my notes were hardly readable in the first place and b) it didn't seem worth it since I already understood the material by that time. Oddly, I think my bad handwriting might have contributed to the quality of my notes: when I did go back and read them, I had to read them very slowly, again and again, to understand them and I often had to fill in several words from context since they were mostly illegible.
About one third of my students depart from linear in some way (use of objectives as headings and add notes under, use of key words as centres around which to organise sentences). Agreed a small number use full on mind mapping in the lessons itself. I teach at below university level.
Your point about having to read slowly and work to understand your notes ties in with some research, but I'm not about to try that on my handouts!
Notebooks are an escape if the class is boring/irrelevant. They should not be banned, so students can make at least something useful. I learned a lot about programming in high school from printed materials from under the desk in some classes which where not for me.
In other words, notes are your tool to have access to those critical moments of understanding again, later. I don't know about you, but even if I have a "eureka" moment, it may start to slip through my fingers and require refreshing once or twice.
I guess Khan Academy and it's breed could satisfy both camps.
The only exception for me were courses that were heavy in symbolic manipulation, like calculus, statistics, and relational algebra. For those, the concepts are still easily gleanable from the textbooks, but I found that it's very helpful to follow along with the teacher on paper to practice the physical manipulation of symbols.
Also, by writing something down, you're repeating the fact in your head a second time. Once when you hear it, the second when you rephrase and write. I find notes improve comprehension, because notes force this kind of comprehension.
They can be about structure, or about your own mental process. Or they can simply be a way to transfer spoken material to a visual (written) format -- some people learn better with their eyes than their ears.
I would typically have my laptop open, ostensibly to take notes, but the ease of distraction was too great for me. Too easy to get caught up Googling stuff or writing code or following the live tweet stream.
I then tried keeping the device closed while taking notes on a small paper notepad. My notes were so much better. If I really did not care for the talk I would draw pictures; I'd still have a better recall of the talk than if I was using a laptop.
Using a tablet (as Htsthbjig mentioned) seems like a good alternative since you then have digital storage, if you are still hand-writing the content. At least for me that difference in action (writing versus typing, and using assorted pen-lines and sizes/styles/placement of content) is key for helping me recall things.
NOW GET OFF MY LAWN.
Taking notes by hand definitely improves my memory for things. I thought it might be the process of production that did it - that it had to go through your eyes and ears into your fingers, and that the output looked nothing like the input that cemented it, but the theory advanced here (aggressive filtering) sounds good, too. I've always been annoyed at lecturers that stopped for long periods to allow notes to be taken verbatim. Wouldn't that kill the effect if that were the cause?
For example, I've never been able to write for extended periods without my hand cramping horribly. I suspect it's because I've been typing since somewhere before or at the age of five years old.
I type fast enough that I can keep up with most speakers word for word if I need to.
Writing them down? Forget about it; in the time it takes me to actually scribble out a few short words, the speaker has long since moved on and I'm already lost.
I think the better suggestion instead is to minimise distractions. Turn off wi-fi, open your favourite editor in full-screen mode, and avoid other applications. Apply the technology effectively instead of blaming it for the failure.
Being able to draw pictures, mind maps etc is a huge plus with paper based note taking.
Obviously, in my particular case, I can't physically write for more than a few minutes at a time.
And quite frankly, my handwriting has degraded to the point where it's barely legible even to myself unless I place a rather exhausting amount of effort into it.
It's a bit of a different story, of course, because rather than learning what they are really doing is compiling vast troves of information, like a squirrel harvesting nuts, and the advantages of computerized notes (ease of searching, for example) pay large dividends in this scenario.
However, my long-term retention is far better and deeper with digital notes, as they are not only indexed by spotlight (osx), but I drop them into DEVONthink which can relate text to other text through word frequency (and perhaps some other techniques).
For example, I remember attending a lecture in my fourth year where the teacher's statements sparked a memory of some earlier lecture. I entered some search terms in these tools and immediately found both the notes I had made three years earlier as well as the original articles that they were based on. As a bonus, I ended up remembering more about both these lectures and the topic at hand.
My ideal approach would be to take notes by hand and then transcribe them into my 'information systems'. Unfortunately, I often forget this crucial second step and end up forgetting where I left those original notes, or losing them entirely.
The same principle applies to reading. I much prefer reading and annotating on paper, with all the 'drawing' freedom that gives me. But reading an ebook, exporting all my highlights and annotations, and then importing them into my 'systems' has been much more valuable in the long run.
(for an idea of how someone actually uses spotlight, devonthink, or some other digital storage system effectively, this could be informative: http://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/movabletype/archives/0002...)
All during my non-college years I was forced to take notes via pen and paper. I remember that I actually threw my pen down in history class one day because all the slides and not knowing what's actually going on. My teacher was perplexed, but understood my reasoning. I'm too busy scribbling down pages of notes, to comprehend anything until I read it again. This might mean I was just a poor note taker though. But having digital notes helped me much more, especially when searching or sections to study and having something much more legible.
I can't be the only one who this is a case for. Remember most classes where the teacher asks a question and all but 2-3 students where rapidly copying notes instead of answering? Though this might be a heuristic error, but I remember this to be the rule instead of the exception.
No, most students are paying for a credential so they can get a job, and also for social and other aspects of college. While there may be some students who want to listen to a lecture but get distracted, I think most choose not to listen because lectures aren't usually that interesting or even helpful.
You need to be actively involved to learn a topic, and taking notes may be the best option available in a lecture. But once you leave the lecture behind, students can be involved more directly, such as by working on challenges as they learn. It would be interesting to see a study that compared students who took notes to those who answered questions.
The screen is a little too narrow to be comfortable in a portrait fashion and too heavy to hold in landscape. The pen also has some calibration issues which makes my handwriting much larger and less legible than it would be on a notepad.
The SP3 should fix those issues, I think.
It's a little better for mind mapping since I'm able to move the page around, erase stuff and use colours, but I have to hold it in landscape. I think the larger screen of the SP3 would help there too though.
* No smudging (left-handedness issues solved!)
* Never out of paper or space to write
* Very fast erase, almost no cost to correcting mistakes
* Can move things around on the "paper" very quickly
* Copy and paste, resizing, shape recognition, ...
* Can insert graphics, formulas, etc as needed, quickly
Specifically I use xournalpp [1] and ipython with a custom onscreen keyboard layout for math-related activities. It works exceedingly well for a ~$300 total investment (used PC + FOSS apps).
You can also take it away from the computer and put it into "note taking mode". In this mode, you can type and it records your typing. When you return to your desktop, you can tell the keyboard to play back your notes and it sends them to the computer as if you are typing them.
Optional feature: a one line LCD display so you can see your typing in note mode.
This gives the speed of typing, without the distraction of a laptop.
I carry a notebook and I highly recommend it for all the reasons described but I have one more - going through them years later is a huge amount of fun. Seeing old ideas sketched out makes me happy and I keep all my notebooks in a stash for later perusal. Looking at old digital documents doesn't give me the same feeling, with tangible paper and ink bringing back memories.
I first note that there are, in my opinion, two major types of lectures: there are those in which I only need to note down major ideas and in which it is more important to listen to the lecture, and those which move more quickly, making it necessary to note down everything, as a single omitted detail can cause hours of confusion later on.
It is clear that for the first type of class, handwritten notes are just as good as those taken on a computer. There is little difference between the two, practically.
For the second type of class, however, it is clearly easier to type notes. Most people type faster than they handwrite, and with reasonable proficiency in LaTeX, anyone is able to more or less type up an entire lecture of notes quite easily.
But my reason for typing notes goes beyond that: the major issue I have with handwriting my notes is the inevitable accumulation of loose-leaf paper, and the ensuing confusion. I have only rarely actually managed to keep together an entire set of handwritten notes on a class. More rare is the case in which I actually manage to decipher my own handwriting later on, and rarest of all for me is actually going over handwritten notes. For some reason, I (virtually) never bother revisiting my handwritten notes. Organizationally, handwriting my notes is an enormous hassle that I cannot deal with. It just never works out.
Electronic notes --- I keep a single .tex/.pdf for each class --- are much easier to maintain, organize, and browse later on. I can continue making revisions, add hyperlinks to relevant web resources, etc. Moreover, as they are (when you are sufficiently quick) easier to take than handwritten notes, it's also easier to thus create a complete set of notes that cover everything.
I recognize that by transcribing all my lectures in real-time, I am probably missing out on some of the experience I would have if I were more immersed in my professors' lectures, although I feel that I should point out that despite taking notes electronically, I am quite immersed. After some time of practice, I'm able to listen and pay reasonably close attention to the lecture while I'm just typing as the professor speaks. I would probably be more immersed if I were not taking notes at all, or very few, on a piece of paper, but as it is, having a complete set of typeset notes is just far more valuable to me (not to mention the value to the other students, and occasionally even to the professor --- I often distribute my notes to others).
When rewriting the notes you can make them more condensed and leave out the parts that might be irrelevant, but the information is still available with the handwritten notes if ever needed.
Also, just making a summary of notes or an outline is a good way to remember and organize them.
Will kids in 20 years still be taking notes or will they just upload entire textbooks to their brains?
1) Record the audio of the lectures 2) Do a quick mind map with an tablet.
That way you get all the technology benefits with none of the reported issues.
I would think a signifiant number of students would already type faster than they can write, and wouldn't even need to continually look at the screen to take readable enough notes. At least that's was my experience in college after 3/4 years on IRC.
How do the kids learn maths or CS nowadays? I can't imagine that they do it exclusively with a laptop.
(FWIW, I studied in an elite-ish engineering program, finished with a B average)
Lecture: My number one goal is to stay awake, and listening to the words coming out of the professor's mouth. For a chalk and talk scenario, I use a notepad (that tears off at the top) and follow the blackboard and add commentary. If I can't process the information, I devolve to rote copying. This is the raw material of studying that I will attempt to understand later. For slides: ideally I will have a copy of the slides and take notes overtop. If I don't have the slides before but I will have them after, then I will try to understand the information and take extra notes. If I will never have the slides I'm unlikely to really benefit from the lecture, I might actually buy the textbook.
Tutorial: If the TA is good I'll sit still and pay attention to the problem solving. Otherwise I won't attend. No notes.
Reading: Highlighting and margin notes on the first pass, and then very very terse notes on paper on the second pass. I might end up with 10 pages of notes for a one semester course.
Other non-student situations:
For keeping track of actions taken from the command line I use a text file, emacs org-mode, and keep track of every command run, issues that I ran into, and commands used to verify. After a few run-throughs this may get boiled down to a shell script or some other type of program. I initially developed this habit working on EC2 before EBS existed, but now I deliberately destoy VMs and start from scratch often so I can be sure that I have a working process for getting up and running.
For some type of programmatic data processing, I will usually use a python file. As I'm working I won't revise anything, I'll just keep adding on the bottom. I will then run it like "% python -i scratch.py" so I can examine failure at the prompt and continue to add the the file and re-run as I figure things out.
For memory augmentation while thinking, for example for design work, I personally generally use letter (A4) size paper along with a pen, so I can spread out the paper on my desk while I get to grips with the problem. Typical to fill 3-10 pages. At this point I'm mainly using the computer just to retrieve reference material and the verify things. Ideally these notes get scanned later but I probably won't use them again. Stage 2 is to take the notes and try to distil it into a 1-page coherent top-down design. Sometimes I will cheat by using 11x17 notepad and a mechanical pencil, which allows an extravagant amount of detail an a single sheet.
I currently have a fresh A3 170-page moleskine that I'm saving for some kind of massive project that needs this much space. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/8862931956/ )
I take notes using my tablet and a wacom like device, it works great.
Why? Are you perfectly capable of making the best decisions without any external input?
Or you'd rather make your own decision (even if its BS in some cases), than an externally informed one?
PS: I regularly take down notes on my phone during work meetings.