Hey Students, Take Note

In 2009, the research article by Smoker et. al on Comparing Memory for Handwriting versus Typing, made the conclusion that “recall and recognition for common words demonstrates that memory is better for words when they have been written down rather than when they are typed.” I have personally tried both typing and handwriting and have found that handwriting notes helped me retain and recall information more effectively than typing. Based on anecdotal evidence and other research findings, handwriting notes has been my recommendation to  students for years. Observing the note taking habits of my students has shown me that study tools have greatly improved since my school days almost ten years ago. However, the overall principles of handwriting and typing have remained the same. .

Pen and Paper

While cursive writing is no longer part of the regular curriculum in Ontario, many students still prefer the tried and true method of writing their notes with  pen and paper. I was skeptical to believe that pen and paper was a personal preference as most teachers in our school provided printed handouts for students to annotate. Leaving the students with little choice on how they recorded their notes. Now that we have shifted learning to online, I realized that many of my students pre-print their lesson slides  ahead of time so that during our synchronous lessons, they are still following the slides and writing their notes by hand.

The drawback from a teaching perspective is that for those who have not learned how to cursive hand write, take longer to understand the words that are written on the board than those who know how to cursive hand write. In response, I find myself being mindful of my board writing for those students who have a difficult time reading cursive writing by consciously separating my letters.

Note-taking apps

A lot of my students also prefer to work on their own personal tablets and complete their notes synchronously during the lesson instead of writing with pen and paper. The advantage of taking notes electronically is that it still allows you to have the same hand and wrist movement  as handwritten notes but it is stored electronically, which takes up less physical space, and is less likely that the student will misplace notes due to most note-taking apps having an autosave feature. Students also have the benefit of sharing their notes virtually with ease. Below are a list of note-taking apps that my students frequently used:

• Notability

• Microsoft OneNote

• Dropbox Paper

• Apple’s Note

Typing

I have a small number of students with learning needs who prefer typing their notes. What’s great about typed notes is similar to note-taking apps. As a Google School, all of my students’ notes are stored remotely on their Google Drive which they have access to on any device that supports Google Drive, Google Docs, etc. The benefit of typed notes, especially with Google Docs, is that students can collaboratively edit notes easier than digitally annotated notes and have access to the revision history to see what has been added or modified. 

As a teacher, I still find typing the least effective way to learn as it does not promote as much “cognitive processing of the material” as handwriting or digitally annotating notes and causes more of a distraction than a benefit.. Students can be easily distracted by notifications, social media and online gaming Word processing tools with autocorrect are often a hindrance as students are unable to use shorthand during the lesson without spending time undoing the autocorrect function..

So Ms. Liu, what is the most effective study tool?

There are many available tools that can minimize printing, emulate hand-writing, and store notes on a cloud. It is most important for students to find what works for them. It is also important for us as teachers, to provide the appropriate tools and methods for students to be the best they can be.

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