Tell me if this sounds familiar: you arrive a couple minutes late to class because you overslept. Collapsing in your seat, you see that the class is taking notes. Frantically rummaging through your bag, you realize that you left your notebook at home. You have no choice but to pull out your chromebook to take notes on important class material. Your teacher notices you and gets upset, saying that usage of chromebooks is not allowed right now, even for note taking purposes. Does this make sense? Students should be able to choose how they take notes class.
Teachers should not be worried about students’ efficiency when taking notes on their chromebooks. Most students can type faster than they can write, typing at an average of 50-80 words per minute and writing only 13 words per minute. Teachers would also receive less groaning and complaining when they announce note-taking time, not to mention the paper it would save. Students can quickly search something online if they do not understand the material covered in class, or expand their knowledge on a concept without waiting for their teacher to call on them. In addition to web searches, the use of organizational and visual aids provided by computers, such as tables and graphics can help students divide information, making it easier for students to go back and understand notes before a test. Disorganized students do not need to keep track of various papers if they take notes on their chromebook, they only need to know where their charger is. Typing on computers also eliminates the prospect of painful hand cramps that detract from the student’s learning experience, and can eliminate the problem of illegible written assignments.
Given all of these obvious benefits, why wouldn’t teachers give students the option to take notes on their chromebooks? Reluctance to allow students to use their chromebooks without being under the watchful eye of Teacher Dashboard may stem from the simple fact that we cannot be trusted to actually take notes with the vast world wide web at our fingertips. It is a valid concern, but if kids really do not want to take notes, they will not take them on paper either. They may even go on their chromebooks anyway.
Taking notes by hand does have one major advantage. A 2014 study published in Psychological Science showed that students who wrote notes by hand retained more information than their counterparts who typed them. The students who typed their notes essentially transcribed the lecture, instead of paraphrasing and summarizing what they learned, as the students who wrote their notes by hand did.
At colleges and universities, almost every student takes their notes on their laptops. Especially in large lecture halls, students can pull up the PowerPoint their professor is using, and follow along, using interactive tools to help better their learning. We can start using these tools in high school as well, and gear students for the intensities of college and beyond. Computers are not a dangerous, ominous device. If they are used responsibly, they can further learning and research for students.
In the end, both methods of note taking have their benefits and drawbacks, but students should have the ability to weigh these pros and cons and make the decision for what is best for their own learning.
