I love to write my notes by hand for more ways than one. Mainly because I hate to carry around the extra weight of a bulky laptop but also I can do everything it can, on my phone. Now I recognize about 1/3 
maybe even 1/2 of some of my classes are filled with people who bury their face in their laptop. I still prefer the old fashioned way or writing my notes, and after searching for studies on this topic, I’m glad I still do. As stated by The Journal, 1/3 of high schools and middle schools now provide their students with mobile devices.
According to Medical Daily, two psychological researchers performed two experiments to actually test whether it is good/bad for us to use technology in the classroom. For the first study they set up a classroom students who were told to listen to a presentation and takes notes however they typically do. Shortly after the participate were then asked to complete a test based on the material that was just taught. The researchers looked to observe whether the students had a deep grasp of the concept and topics that were spoke about. While observing the results they noticed that whether the used a notebook or a laptop, they both were able to retain facts the same amount. It also showed that students who used a laptop took many more notes and tended to copy them down word for word. On the flip side those who took notes by hand tended to comprehend the topic and summarize it in their notes, showing a deeper understanding. They used this study to see if it effects students immediate comprehension. In this case we would reject the null hypothesis because there was an effect of handwritten notes compared to a laptop.
To further the experiment they conducted it again, but instead of taking the test almost immediately the students were given a week to prepare for the exam. The again tested the students on the facts of the presentation as well as apprehension and the 
concepts overall. This study had the same results showing a significant difference with those who write by hand being ahead. Even those who used a laptop and wrote the lecture word for word (even though told not to) scored significantly lower in comprehension. They concluded by the study that students who took notes by hand had a different reaction in the brain and were able to process the words and letters they were writing. In this case they were could accept the alternate hypothesis.
Overall, I think we have data to say that taking notes by hand cant not be substituted by using a laptop without affecting ones comprehension. As always even though it is convincing, correlation doesn’t equal causation.
Sources: Source 1 Source 2 Source 3
Images: Image 1
Very cool post. I prefer taking notes during class in a notebook rather than a laptop. I get easily frustrated with technology so maybe that’s the reason why. I have noticed, however, that in many of my large, lecture classes that people who use their laptops are usually not using them for their intended purpose. Many students are often using the internet to online shop or browse through their social media notifications. In my opinion, I find the laptop to be another distraction, only standing in the way of a student’s education during class time. However, it is up to the student to decide which note-taking method is better for them. Here is an article that discusses both sides of the laptop/notebook debate.
http://www.campustimes.org/2016/10/05/laptops-in-lectures-a-mixed-bag/
I take notes the old-fashioned way too. I never really found typing notes to be an attractive substitute to hand writing notes. I find it to be too distracting since I could easily access the internet. With that being said, could that be a contributing factor to it being less effective? In the experiment, were those students using laptops monitored to make sure that they were just taking notes? Why does summarizing notes help someone comprehend what they are writing more? And why do those typing notes tend to copy word from word?
I always think about if taking notes in a notebook is better than taking notes on a computer. In my opinion, common sense would suggest that notebooks would be more helpful as computers provide many distractions for the student. In the experiment that you discussed in your blog, the students were allowed to pick which note-taking method they preferred to use, and it was not randomly chosen, this is an observational study. This study cannot be considered an experiment because the x-variable was not manipulated.
Nevertheless, I think there is a major confounding variable that influenced the results. The third variable that could have affected the results of the study is that, possibly, the smarter or more responsible students chose to take notes, while the lazier or more easily distracted ones chose to take notes on their computers. Here is an article (link below) that gives an example of a study where the participants are randomly given laptops or notebooks to take notes with. Still, the results remain the same. There is, once again, a correlation between people who use a notebook to take notes doing better on tests than those who use a computer to take notes.
https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/take-notes-by-hand-for-better-long-term-comprehension.html
It is a very good post! I was always hand writing notes before college, but now, I am more comfortable to write notes by laptop. There are serval reasons for that. The first one is laptop can provide me preserve for all eternity. I can save them permanently, because sometimes it is easy to loss your writing notes. The second reason is that my hand writing is awful! Lots of times, I do not even understand what I write about, that makes lots of trouble to me. But as you cited the experiment, I have the same problem. When I write by hand to take notes, I will think about it and to fullly understand what I am writing. If I use laptop, I probably just type and forget to understand what I write. It is easy to reslove, just review the notes after class, which can provide you better understanding! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-GY2Av8EA This video can help you to orgnazed your notes on laptop which can makes you more effient to study! hope that can help you!
It is funny to think about how note taking has changed over the years. I never came across using technology for notes until I was a freshman in high school. One thing that I noticed was that kids who brought in their computers or tablets played games instead of actually taking down the notes. Though there were some kids that did well on tests, most kids in my class that used technology during class ended up not doing well on the test. I am old fashioned, and even though hand writing notes is extremely annoying, I do believe that it causes you to remember and not get distracted as much in class. Here is a article that talks about kids being distracted in class due to technology. What you want the link to say
Here
It is funny to think about how note taking has changed over the years. I never came across using technology for notes until I was a freshman in high school. One thing that I noticed was that kids who brought in their computers or tablets played games instead of actually taking down the notes. Though there were some kids that did well on tests, most kids in my class that used technology during class ended up not doing well on the test. I am old fashioned, and even though hand writing notes is extremely annoying, I do believe that it causes you to remember and not get distracted as much in class. Here is a article that talks about kids being distracted in class due to technology.
Hey Jason! I also only write my notes in notebooks and have often looked up to realize I am the only one doing so. I have tried taking notes on my laptop in class before and will I can’t say I have felt myself comprehending less, when I look back to study them, I don’t feel like I’m seeing information again as it would in a notebook, it all feels new. I think this post does a great job showing the difference in the affects of the two; It’s too bad we don’t know why the brain doesn’t retain typed information as well because I’m sure that’d be very interesting to see. Along side the theory of being forced to reword lectures, one theory could be that physically writing it adds a small amount to our muscle memory and the information is more engrained in our mind from both rewording and writing it.
Great post! I can definitely agree about preferring notebook or laptop for taking notes in class. Theres many reasons why I prefer notebook and you pretty much summed them all up. Even though I am in love with my laptop I wish I had the will power to leave it at home during class. I found another link that provides proof why notebooks are the preferred note taking method for class. Scientificamerican.com did a study on why notebooks are better than laptops and I thought it would be a good addition to your explanation. Here it is, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-learning-secret-don-t-take-notes-with-a-laptop/ Thanks for the post!