As anyone who has been either a student or teacher in class recently, there is a steady movement away from taking handwritten notes and toward note taking on a laptop computer. This shift seems quite natural given how technology is being used more often in every facet of our lives.

But you may take pause of this practice when you read this eye-opening article describing a series of research studies demonstrating the superiority of handwritten note taking over note taking on a laptop. Not only was using a laptop more distracting (40% of students’ time on their laptop was spent on non-class distractions), but they also performed less well on learning, retention, and testing of presented material. Taking notes by hand encouraged active listening and filtering of relevant information where as note taking on a laptop tended to be verbatim and too much information.

So, my suggestion is to go ‘old school’; put away your laptop and take notes the old-fashioned way, with decidedly ‘low tech’ paper and pen in hand.