Note Taking in the Digital Age
Friday, May 5, 2017 by Cyber Acoustics
When you were in school, did you ever misplace a notebook containing dozens of pages of important material just before a big exam? Or, did you ever spill coffee or juice on your notes in a rush to get out the door for an open-notebook final? While spilling coffee is a problem that will stand the test of time, many of today's students won't have to worry about these stress-inducing accidents in the digital age of note taking.
Digital note taking is already prevalent throughout university classes, and as kids enter middle school and high school, more and more classrooms are introducing students to using laptops or tablets to take notes in class. Studies show that students who furiously try to transcribe every word a teacher says on paper will not retain as much information as their peers who are more selective in what they take down. However, many teachers encourage their students to engage in digital note taking to benefit from the innovative options that it offers.
As this Education Insider article mentions, “You can redefine the digital note taking processing by recording audio, video, and screencasts, including screen snips, collaboratively writing with others and sharing notes." This is just one of the myriad of benefits that digital note taking offers.
Benefits of Digital Note Taking
Speed: There are two primary ways students can use technology to take and store notes -- either with a laptop or tablet with a physical or digital keyboard, or using a tablet with a stylus pen that is closer to the classic pen-and-paper model. For those using a keyboard on a regular basis, typing is often faster than writing. If students can pick out the useful information to take down, they can spend more time listening to the teacher and ultimately retaining what they heard. Additionally, when students are typing, it’s often easier to keep their eyes on the teacher instead of looking down, helping to increase their engagement in the class.
Legibility: Pen and paper notes are helpful for capturing information – if you can read it. Trying to keep up with writing while the teacher speaks without losing any of the information is incredibly difficult, and ultimately penmanship will suffer. Thinking back to your own education, when it came time to revisit your class notes, were there times you looked at something scrawled on a piece of notebook paper and thought, “what on earth does that say?” With technology, it's much easier for a student to get a sense of what they took down, plus the modern age of autocorrect functions can save a lot of typos.
Organization: Forget thumbing through pages of notes to find the one topic or data point you need. By taking notes on a laptop or other device, you can sort notes by topic and revisit them later. Many digital note-taking apps or programs allow the user to search by topic, date, keywords and more. Finding information using a search tool saves a great deal of time and allows the student to focus on studying, not searching.
Group work: By working with technology, sharing information in a group project becomes infinitely easier. Whether it’s email, Google Docs, or cloud-based apps, students can work together to share notes, make edits and communicate when combining their group work. Students can be in their own homes, yet still collaborate to make a deadline.
Convenience: By using a laptop or other device, students don’t have to carry as many binders or notebooks around with them wherever they go. Also, many teachers allow students to submit work digitally, so they can often do an entire project without needing to print a single sheet of paper. That convenience extends to the teacher, who doesn’t need to be buried in stacks of paper. Instead, they have their students’ work available digitally at their fingertips.
Digital Note Taking Tools – So Many Choices!
The note-taking revolution is here, but what product or tool is the best? In some respects, it comes down to personal preference, or quite often, recommendations from classmates.
Some students are more comfortable with a keyboard, while others prefer a stylus. Each has specific strengths -- the stylus is generally considered best for students using programs where there’s a strong visual element. Devices that utilize a stylus are much easier to use when drawing, diagramming and sketching are a routine part of the curriculum. Alternatively, typing notes on a laptop keyboard works well for students looking to capture information while listening to a lecture.
When selecting a digital note-taking method, there’s not necessarily a right or wrong answer, but it’s important to keep in mind the various apps and programs available. Here are details on some of the most popular programs:
Evernote: The leader in the digital note-taking industry is widely considered to be Evernote. With Evernote, everything you record -- from text to photos to notes -- is uploaded to the cloud and available for download on any device with an internet connection and browser access. It features a great search tool, and has a chat box where users can work in real time with collaborators. For a full review, click here.
Microsoft One Note: As a Microsoft product, One Note has the benefit of being easy to use for anyone familiar with Microsoft Office. If you’re not a Windows user, there are apps for Mac and mobile devices. One Note has much of the same functionality as Word, with the ability to drop in photos, illustrations and audio. For a full review, click here.
Google Keep: For people who prefer Google products, their Keep app is their contribution to the digital note-taking realm. The highlight of Google Keep is the ability to take an image of text (from a textbook, notebook, or anything else) and turn it into typed text. For a full review, click here.
Whichever device your school utilizes for your students' note taking, Cyber Acoustics has products to support them. For more than 20 years, we've been creating the best selection of tested headsets, headphones, speakers, cases and bags designed specifically for students in the K-12 environment. Check out our education page for details.