Which type of note-taking is better for school: Laptop or pen and paper?

Research shows that the kinds of notes students take when typing on a laptop differ from those taken with traditional pen and paper.

- Penny Van Bergen, Emma Burns and Hua-Chen Wang

Once upon a time, university lectures were accompanied by the sound of pens scribbling on paper. But if you go into a lecture hall today, you will hear students tapping on laptops.

Devices are now an accepted and important part of modern learning. But this does not necessarily mean students should forget the old-fashioned ways of taking notes.

Research shows pen and paper can help students learn and remember more from class.

BENEFITS OF NOTE-TAKING

Studies have long shown that students who take notes during a lecture, in class, or while reading are able to remember more of that content later.

One reason is that note-taking is more active than listening or reading, which helps us maintain attention.

And students often go beyond just recording the information being said.

Note-taking means students are trying to understand their teacher by making assessments about what is important in real time. They might also organise the content into themes and sub-themes, or highlight things that stand out. These activities are examples of active engagement, which strengthens the "encoding process": the way new knowledge moves into long-term memory and forms memory pathways.