[programminggeek]

Screens are designed to distract, not educate. A screen is a great place to learn if you are not in a classroom or if you are trying to avoid class. It's a terrible way to be "in class".

I learned this in college back when laptops were expensive and relatively rare.

[y4mi]

So, you learned it before moocs were invented? The internet was a very different place 15 yrs ago.

I admit that it's easy to just use screen time for distractions. But not everyone does and there is an increasing quantity of learning material available nowadays.

It's actually become hard to find quality material because of the quantity available.

Also: taking notes with a pen takes ages. typing is quicker and needs less attention

[greggyb]

> Also: taking notes with a pen takes ages. typing is quicker and needs less attention

Unsure if this is in praise of writing or of typing, or if it is a neutral statement.

I much prefer paper note-taking, except for its inconvenience. I notice better retention when I use pen and paper. When I take notes on a computer, I'm taking dictation, rather than processing what I hear.

[y4mi]

i notice better retention when i add content to an Anki[0] deck as cloze type question and actually repeat the content a few times.

just writing it down was pretty much useless for me. but everyone has their own way of remembering, i'm sure just writing it down with a pen works for you.

[0] https://apps.ankiweb.net/index.html

[asdkhadsj]

Agreed. The difficulty is in the details here. Arguably TV was largely, almost entirely entertainment in days of old. Yet, the internet screens are a step back from that, offering both more entertainment potential and far more education potential. It's a dangerous and powerful tool, but one that we need a certain resolve to use productively.

I still hope one day we can find a way to tie productivity into the addictive brain centers of the brain. Ideally customizable such that whatever you want to be productive on, be it work, exercise, study, etc, we can use that system to achieve our goals.

Our brains do not seem designed for this age of entertainment overload. We need help, and it's becoming increasingly concerning. I hope we can hack our brains to do good, because largely our efforts seem to be going to "bad".

[friday99]

Note-taking is a learned skill. When I was in school, they actually taught us several different techniques for taking notes and I am not sure that is a universal part of education. They told us that studies showed people typing notes just write down verbatim what was being said because they can type so fast, which then is useless information as far as later reference is concerned. Writing notes properly actually forces one to distill the important information and take note of particularly confusing parts so that when you come back to the notes they are a helpful recall mechanism for important information.

[twtw]

I would advise standing in the back of a university lecture hall so you can learn just how rare your "not everyone" is.