Old guy encounters digital age

The cyberspace seminar is the first I’ve attended where everyone is encouraged, and expected to be using laptops. That runs counter to the thinking that taking notes by hand improves retention. In fact, some colleges, including Whitman College, encourage students not to bring laptops to class. The rationale, with which I have agreed, is that students become typists or stenographers at the keyboard instead of analytically thinking through what to include in their notes.

The challenge, I think, is to treat people to apply that same standard of note-taking to computer notes. I’m one of few people taking notes by hand. I need to learn to take notes by computer and NOT be a stenographer. That should transition in analytical note-taking also should be goal for educators.