Handwriting V. Typing

Notetaking is used to gain information and develop good memorization strategies. There are many ways to take notes and it can be argued which is better typing notes or writing notes. Although we need to look at which method is more beneficial to students. In my opinion, I feel handwriting is more beneficial for students. When students handwrite their notes they have a less of a chance to take verbatim notes. Therefore, I feel its more beneficial to handwrite notes rather than type.

There are many different ways to write notes. James Doubek wrote an article that was published by NPR titled “Attention, Students: Put your laptops away”. In this article, he explains Pam A. Mueller of Princeton University and Daniel M. Oppenheimer of the University of California, Los Angeles test they ran to see how note-taking by hand or by computer affects learning. While writing this article he noticed that students that hand wrote their notes typically performed better rather than the students typing their notes. He wrote “The students who were taking longhand notes in our studies were forced to be more selective - because you can’t write as fast as you can type. And that extra processing of the material that they were doing benefitted them.” When students type their notes it is easier for them to get distracted because it is easy for students to click over to other sites in a lecture and not pay attention. Also when students type their notes they have a higher chance of writing verbatim notes. When students write verbatim notes it means they are writing the notes word for word and don’t have a chance to pick out what’s important and what's not. A study was done where they took university students and showed them a TED talks about various topics. It was shown that the students who typed their notes and a lot more words then the students who took notes by hand. When tested how well the students remembered information both groups did well on the simple facts questions that deal with dates.