By Beth Holland
Few empirical studies may be more detrimental to advancements of effective technology use in K-12 education than Mueller and Oppenheimer (2014) and Carter, Greenberg, and Walker (2016). Both assert that students in lecture-style courses perform worse when allowed to use technology. However, neither mentions any instruction to help students capitalize on digital tools! Too often, educators project their own learning habits onto their students, applying paper-based strategies to digital contexts. However, what if we considered digital note taking as a completely new task? When students can harness the power of tagging, searching, and sharing as a new way to approach how they interact with course content, they will be able to ask better questions, build stronger connections, and engage in deeper inquiry. Ultimately, students need to not only be able to search for knowledge across disparate sources, but also within their own brains.
Presentation Slides
My Note Taking Articles
- Note Taking with Technology (Edutopia, 4 November 2014 – updated 7 August 2017)
- Take Note: How to Curate Learning Digitally (Edutopia, 8 March 2016)
- Beyond the Binder: 3 Strategies for Empowering Digital Tool Use in the Classroom (EdSurge, co-authored with Sabba Quidwai, 3 February 2017)
- Digital Note Taking Strategies That Deepen Student Thinking (MindShift, 17 August 2017)
- Note Taking Editorials – Groundhog Day All Over Again (Food for Thought…, 27 November 2017
- Note Taking: my most popular “innovative” topic (Food for Thought…, 12 September 2017)
References:
Mueller, P. A., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2014). The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking. Psychological Science, 25(6), 1159–1168. http://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614524581
Carter, S. P., Greenberg, K., & Walker, M. S. (2017). The impact of computer usage on academic performance: Evidence from a randomized trial at the United States Military Academy. Economics of Education Review, 56, 118-132. Retrieved fromhttps://seii.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/SEII-Discussion-Paper-2016.02-Payne-Carter-Greenberg-and-Walker-2.pdf