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If you're a student looking for the most advanced learning machine available, give laptops a pass—and pick up an age-old notebook.
You'll absorb and retain more information if you take notes by hand, according to a study by UCLA, giving you an edge on your tests.
That spiral-bound stack of paper has other advantages, too: You can't zone out on Facebook and Instagram during a lecture, so you are more likely to stay focused.
Putting pen to paper requires a different kind of mental processing than typing does. Sure, typing on a laptop gives you the power to record a lecture nearly word for word—but transcribing verbatim is associated with what's called "shallow cognitive processing." The words may be captured on your screen, but they basically went in one ear and out the other.
Also, your notebook doesn't run Fortnite.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Immerman on Thursday May 09 2019, @02:32AM (6 children)
Perhaps you have your reasons, but might I suggest making the notes available *before* the lecture? Provide plenty of whitespace and students can then print out your notes before the lecture and annotate them with the details they find relevant to themselves.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Kell on Thursday May 09 2019, @03:04AM (5 children)
I have actually toyed with this, and some of my colleagues attempted it. It was found that if the lecture notes are provided ahead of time, students do not attend the lectures as much (and thus do not ask questions to help with their understanding). Though we record all our lectures and attendance is not compulsory, attendance is strongly correlated with a good outcome in the course. Correlation != causation, of course, but from my own observations the students who are questions most definitely understand the work better than those who don't. Subtly manipulating students into attending the lecture in person is therefore my goal in releasing notes after the lecture.
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 09 2019, @09:32AM
In my day, 20 odd years ago now, if you wanted the notes you had to turn up to the lecture to pick them up.
This did not stop some people from turning up just for the notes then leaving. It did improve attendance. Of the I'm Here So May As Well Stay kind.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Thursday May 09 2019, @04:34PM (2 children)
Curious. I suppose reviewing the notes beforehand might make them think they already understand the topic and would be wasting their time attending class.
In principle I like AC's idea of having them available in class - but having done some teaching myself I shudder at the thought of the mountains of wasted paper, or inevitable shortages.
Of course there's also the fact that it seems that something about the process of taking notes actually improves comprehension and retention, so perhaps it actually would work better having them take their own notes in class, knowing that they'll be able to supplement them with your comprehensive ones, so they can focus their own notes on the things they find difficult or counter-intuitive rather than trying to capture everything.
One idea I'll pass on from one of my favorite chemistry professors: He'd put up an outline of the day's lecture on one edge of the board before class, and then stick to it (pretty well, obviously questions tend to interrupt the linear flow). I'm not sure how much was him publicly committing to following his lecture notes, versus students knowing the structure of what was coming, but I found taking useful, well-organized notes in that class easier than in any other. And it did seem to reduce the number of interruptions by questions of the "I'll be getting to that shortly" variety.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday May 09 2019, @05:59PM (1 child)
That should be the standard way. Students are supposed to read ahead, so if they come to class you should already have read what is to be the topic of the day. That way it is easier to follow what is said and taught and they can also ask suitable questions.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday May 10 2019, @12:42AM
The topic is one thing - the specific path of coverage is another.
I suspect a large part of the benefit was that he always had a (seemingly at least) well-planned path to cover the topic, while many professors tended to meander across it, sometimes revisiting the same or closely-related topics several times over the course of a lecture, making it all but impossible to take well-organized notes.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by dw861 on Saturday May 11 2019, @05:32PM
I getting around this by taking a hybrid path. I post my slides in advance of the lecture. That way, students can write all over them during the class, if they choose.
However, I also make a point of telling students in our first meeting, that my slides are in no way a substitute for being there in person. When lecturing, I provide more detail than is written on the slides. Some slides are simply a photo with little to no written commentary at all.
By slides alone, a student can pass my classes. However, they can only get a high mark if they attend and reflect on the more detailed commentary.
This may not work for other disciplines, but it works quite well in mine.