Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

I'm afraid people will draw the wrong lesson from this research. The wrong lesson, of course, is that people should take notes by hand. Sure, this will improve learning compared to the way they take notes by keyboard. But " people taking notes by computer were typing without thinking," according tot he researchers. "It's very tempting to type down everything that the lecturer is saying...  But when taking notes by hand... students have to actively pay attention to the incoming information and process it—prioritize it, consolidate it and try to relate it to things they've learned before." So - I suggest - the real lesson here is that people should learn to take better notes when typing, to work with the content as it's presented, and not merely try to replicate it.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Oct 06, 2024 02:37 a.m.

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