[tomlong]

I've learnt recently (not much former higher education) the power of making long hand notes on pen and paper. It helps me connect with and think through the material and take it in at a pace I can process it.

It's not quite the same, but I recently studied for a technical exam/certification where the syllabus included about 400 slides (about 10 days of teaching & lab work). I failed the exam just reviewing the slides, even when it was sat quite quickly after I had taken the courses.

The next time I sat it several months after doing the training, I spent about a day and a half writing out the slides. I went through two A4 pads and a couple of pens. I will never review my notes (I have the searchable PDFs), but I found that exam really easy the second time round.

[dghughes]

There is a reason for that I've seen articles on it. If you take notes using a pen to write on paper you retain more. Using a computer to type notes into a text application is terrible. There is a disconnect between listening, then looking to type (or at the screen).

I've noticed it myself. I went back to school late in life (48) and at first I wrote in notebooks. Feeling a bit old compared to my much younger classmates I went digital. In class I typed notes into Word. I convinced myself it was neater, safer and I could make backups. In reality I discovered I learned the material better if I wrote my notes by hand in cursive, block printing was too slow.

I'll see if I can find the article about it.

edit: this isn't the exact article but it is similar: https://www.npr.org/2016/04/17/474525392/attention-students-...

[npsimons]

> then looking to type (or at the screen)

If someone is looking to type or at the screen, whoever taught them to type failed them. This sounds like the same stupdity of pair programming where "one can type while the other thinks." I'd be curious to see differences in note-taking retention between those who can touch-type and the hunt and peckers.

For me, the benefits of digital are too many: sorting, searching, organizing and of course the backups. I'm also left-handed and do not miss my school days where I would end up with smudges on my hand. I might buy that scrawling something out by hand leads to slightly higher retention rates than touch-typing notes, if only because the ROM is much higher, or it forces you to either go more slowly, allowing more time for reflection (Neal Stephenson wrote the Baroque cycle this way because of this), or have to condense lecture notes more, which would require more active thinking.

[joyeuse6701]

I've experienced something similar though I find that I hate my handwriting and messy notes.

My wife and coworkers have found a solution in using a tablet like the iPad with stylus or something like reMarkable. The technology may be at the point where it is a satisfactory solution to the digital type vs note writing problem.