Journal to Journalism:
The Pen is Mightier than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking
As the years progress, technology has become a necessity for normality. Naturally, technology is being seen more commonly in classrooms - students take out their laptops at the beginning of lecture instead of a pen and paper to take notes. Pam A. Mueller of Princeton and
Daniel M. Oppenheimer of University of California conducted a study to see just how severely laptop note taking impacts the student’s success in a course compared to using a pen and paper.
This paper will compare and contrast how well the popular press article executed the findings of the original journal.
Popular Press Article Summary
Cindi May, author of “A Learning Secret: …show more content…
May relied on information from Mueller and Oppenheimer’s article, “The Pen Is
Mightier than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand over Laptop Note Taking”. Students who used laptops took more notes than those who took notes longhand - however, those who took notes by hand had a stronger conceptual comprehension and learned more. In addition, using longhand to take notes helped force the brain to comprehend and retain the information being taught. Admittedly, those who used laptops to take notes in class tended to transcribe the lecture word for word, which would be thought beneficial since the notes are more complete.
Unfortunately, when a student is writing down everything the professor is speaking, he or she does not have the opportunity to actually process the information in a personal way.
3
PEN VERSUS KEYBOARD
Original Journal Article Summary
Even with the distractors highly controlled, laptop usage can still affect the quality of in- class note taking. Three studies were conducted in Mueller and Oppenheimer’s experimental research, but for the purpose of this paper, I will only be focusing on the first
The Pen is Mightier than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking
As the years progress, technology has become a necessity for normality. Naturally, technology is being seen more commonly in classrooms - students take out their laptops at the beginning of lecture instead of a pen and paper to take notes. Pam A. Mueller of Princeton and
Daniel M. Oppenheimer of University of California conducted a study to see just how severely laptop note taking impacts the student’s success in a course compared to using a pen and paper.
This paper will compare and contrast how well the popular press article executed the findings of the original journal.
Popular Press Article Summary
Cindi May, author of “A Learning Secret: …show more content…
May relied on information from Mueller and Oppenheimer’s article, “The Pen Is
Mightier than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand over Laptop Note Taking”. Students who used laptops took more notes than those who took notes longhand - however, those who took notes by hand had a stronger conceptual comprehension and learned more. In addition, using longhand to take notes helped force the brain to comprehend and retain the information being taught. Admittedly, those who used laptops to take notes in class tended to transcribe the lecture word for word, which would be thought beneficial since the notes are more complete.
Unfortunately, when a student is writing down everything the professor is speaking, he or she does not have the opportunity to actually process the information in a personal way.
3
PEN VERSUS KEYBOARD
Original Journal Article Summary
Even with the distractors highly controlled, laptop usage can still affect the quality of in- class note taking. Three studies were conducted in Mueller and Oppenheimer’s experimental research, but for the purpose of this paper, I will only be focusing on the first