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Everyone knows when you get to college your notes are some of your most important tools to success, but when your professors talk a mile a minute it’s not always easy to keep up. While taking notes on a laptop may have become the preferred note-taking method of most college students it may not always be the best. What if you were told that taking notes by hand is actually more effective? Here are 6 ways taking notes by is advantageous:
Helps to improve memory
Typing is second nature to students. It’s fast, easy and methodical. As long as you’re hitting the right keys, you really just have to hear the material, not actually listen. Taking notes by hand requires a little more effort, and the more you write the material down the better you remember the material. Something about taking notes by hand encodes the material into one’s memory better than taking notes on a laptop.
Protects you if your computer crashes
We all know someone who has had their computer crash without a backup and lost all of their notes. Or maybe you know someone who’s had their laptop stolen. It’s hard to recover from something like that. Papers, projects and homework from college and maybe even high school all gone if you don’t have it backed up. When technology gets a mind of its own, it’s always handy to have paper copies. With the Bamboo Slate Smartpad students have the best of both worlds, handwritten notes stored in the cloud for easy accessibility no matter what happens to your computer.
Simplifies drawing diagrams or pictures
There’s always that one teacher who loves to draw diagrams or examples from the notes. If you’re typing notes on a laptop you don’t have an easy way to copy these things down, and you’ll have to rely on your memory when test time comes around.
Allows creativity to flourish
Aside from the diagrams or pictures your professor may draw on the board, taking notes by hand allows students to organize their notes the way they want. Organization on a laptop can only happen in a few ways like bullet points, indentation or bolding. With pen and paper students can write information in the margins, next to each other, in multiple colors or in a diagram. The freedom a blank page can lead to increased creativity and learning.
Prevents laptops from becoming too distracting
With the world at your fingertips it’s tempting to check Facebook or shop for that new pair of boots when you’re supposed to be taking notes. Although our laptops are great for keeping up with fast-talking teachers and storing all of our notes in one place, they can be tempting to distract us from the task at hand: getting an education.
Improves long-term comprehension
A study published in Psychological Science found when students type notes they have a tendency to type everything down verbatim, but the student who take notes by hand must selectively choose what to write down because they can’t write as quickly as someone can type. This extra processing improves learning and retention of the material. Even when students were given time to study in between a lecture and a test, the students who took notes by hand performed better than the students who took notes on their laptop. Mentally processing information rather than just mindlessly typing lectures word for word contributes to long-term comprehension.
Today, note taking is moving to the next level. Companies like Wacom are combing the best of technology with the value of handwritten notes to help improve note taking behaviors. They offer tablets, smartpads and styli that bring note taking into the 21st century. Their Bamboo Slate smartpad provides the same benefits of pen and paper notes, but with the touch of a button your notes are transferred to the cloud and can be stored, shaped or shared through your phone or computer. With free creative software and a pen that can act as pastels, pencils or photo-editing tools the Intuos family puts art supplies at your fingertips while allowing you to expand your creative mind. Even the Bamboo Duo styli combines the best of both worlds since it can be used as a traditional ballpoint pen or stylus for electronic devices.
Image Credit: cover photo by Jessica Mayfield, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 by Jessica Mayfield