Opinions expressed in the Op/Ed section of The Knight Crier are not necessarily reflective of the views of the entire staff of the KC.

Notice how you are reading this online, rather than a handheld newspaper… that is one of the innumerable examples of how modern-day technology has revolutionized the way people learn and collect information. 

As time goes by and the functions of artificial intelligence grow, are we heading toward the extinction of pencil-and-paper learning? Do students learn better via modern-day studying methods of note-taking on computers and websites like YouTube, Kahoot, and Quizlet? Or is old-fashioned note-taking with pen and paper still the cognitively optimal method?

These will be the questions I will attempt to answer in this article. 

Now, to derive a direct answer for which method is more beneficial- I will delve into the most straightforward method of learning in school. 

Note-taking. 

I believe that high-quality note-taking best reflects the foundation of effective learning in school today. Notes are what build a student’s knowledge, and testing is that quantifiable score of how well a student can understand a set of concepts.

Note-taking

Through my personal experience, I’ve seen better results with taking notes with pencil and paper. Handwriting works best, Whether during lectures in class, during reading, or even while watching a video.

But don’t just take my word for it, per Oxford Learning “When students take notes by hand, it develops a stronger conceptual understanding than by typing… students have to process the information and summarize it in a way that makes sense for them.” 

Additionally per Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer of Princeton University, “When laptops are used solely to take notes, they may still be impairing learning because their use results in shallower processing.” Through three studies they did, Mueller and Oppenheimer found that students who take notes on laptops performed worse on conceptual-based questions than students with handwritten notes.

This rationale is extremely sound, taking notes with pen and paper requires a student to genuinely grasp a concept in their head and then proceed to write down a more concise interpretation of it. While on a computer, a student could just copy and paste said concept and not have to spend time grasping it. Or the student would type down verbatim what they heard a teacher say rather than conceptualizing it into their terms.

Not only does handwriting develop a “stronger conceptual understanding than by typing,” but it also has been proven to have increased recall of concepts. In other terms, students learn better and memorize better when handwriting notes. 

In a peer-reviewed journal written by Timothy Smoker and Carrie Murphy of the University of Central Florida, “recall and recognition for common words demonstrates that memory is better for words when they have been written down rather than when they are typed.” 

The Answer

Through personal experience, and the scientific literature presented, the old-fashioned pen-and-paper ways of acquiring knowledge still prove optimal in my opinion.

While websites such as Youtube, Kahoot, and Quizlet do indeed have their place in modern-day learning, they should all be used as a supplement to handwritten notes. 

Handwriting is proven to serve as the single most effective foundation for understanding and memorizing new concepts for students. Watching educational videos or using educational games to learn should be used as a supplement to handwritten note-taking rather than the foundation of it all.