Is the pen mightier than the laptop?
Many professors believe that computers (and the Internet) serve as distractions from class discussion and student learning, while students often self-report a belief that laptops in class are beneficial. Even when students admit that laptops are a distraction, they believe the benefits outweigh the potential downside.
A study from Princeton University and the University of California has shown that the professors might just be onto something. It suggests that students who took notes on laptops performed worse on conceptual questions than students who took notes longhand. They show that laptop note takers’ tendency to transcribe lectures verbatim rather than processing information and reframing it in their own words is detrimental to learning.
The researchers conducted three experiments to investigate whether taking notes on a laptop versus writing longhand affects academic performance, and to explore the potential mechanism of verbatim overlap as a proxy for depth of processing.
The three experiments show that laptop use can negatively affect performance on educational assessments due to the inclination of laptop users to take long notes by mindlessly transcribing content. The study concluded that laptop use in classrooms should be viewed with a healthy dose of caution; that despite their growing popularity, laptops may be doing more harm in classrooms than good.
For Ashna Basu, 4th year medical student at the University of New South Wales, it’s all about what she does at home that has helped her to learn in a high-yield, effective way.
Ashna says “I go to the lecture and listen. If I spend time worrying about writing everything down, then I don’t really take in what’s being said. So, as I listen I write down key headings and phrases that are important.
Later, when I go home, I take out that list of headings and try and explain them to myself. If I can’t, I watch the video recording of the lecture (at double speed, because I swear lecturers talk in slow motion!) and then give it another go. I keep watching the lecture until I can confidently explain all the different terms and concepts that I wrote down. The internet is a beautiful thing, and if I have any other questions or things I didn’t understand then I’ll have a read about them online, or try and find a YouTube video that illustrates the concept in a different way!
After reading a few books about how to learn most efficiently, I realised that once you can explain a concept to yourself (or a friend) sans notes that means you’ve consolidated it in your memory. It’s important to revisit concepts every few days (after learning a lecture, I revisit the one before). But that info is more or less in your brain now!
I’m all for efficient learning. It took me a long time to realise that just studying for a long time isn’t enough, but I’m glad I finally had that epiphany. You can study for half the time, but learn the same content (or more!) just as solidly. It’s all about high yield, and learning things in the most effective way.
Earlier on in my degree I used to print out the lecture slides and annotate them (so I didn’t need to worry about writing down what was already on the slide), but it used a lot of paper and printer ink. My current method saves $$$ and trees, and it had a pretty dramatic effect on my grades! It’s pretty different to the norm, but it forces you to think about what the key concepts in the lecture are and – through explanation -forces you to actually understand them (not just memorise!).
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2 replies to “Is the pen mightier than the laptop?”
So inefficient
What do you find to be more efficient John? We’d love to know!