Longhand Forever
I read that a study came out some time ago that proved that taking notes during university lectures on a laptop did not help final comprehension of the subject as much as taking them the old-fashioned way, by hand. I could have told them that.
It's true that typing on a keyboard let's you write faster than by hand. Yet, when I write on the computer, sometimes I forget what I wrote earlier, and have to go back and check. When I write by hand, which is becoming rarer, I tend to remember better. Some will argue that taking a laptop to class and using it for notes allows you to write down more, and more quickly. I will counter argue, and say that you can also write down more by hand; just learn to listen and discern which are the important points of a lecture and write fast. With practice, you can get it all down. Trust me, I learned to practically transcribe an entire class in high school.
It was a Latin class, where we had to translate passages of Cicero or Virgil for homework. No one did so, just grabbed a pen with plenty of ink, and started scribbling like crazy as soon as our teacher began reading what we should have done for homework. When he finished and asked if everyone had at least an approximation, everyone said yes. Then he checked notebooks and saw we had it all down. We didn't need keyboards. And if now I were to read Virgil or Cicero, I would recognize some of the passages, thanks to writing them down by hand.
Besides, to use a keyboard quickly, you need to have some knowledge of touch typing. That is not taught in schools anymore, at least, not in Spain. I had a class in seventh grade back in Boston, where we learned it on a typewriter. Yes, that was back in the Stone Age, and it was the last year it was offered, I think. But even before that, I was fascinated with office work, paper, pens, typewriters, and everything that had to do with writing. I begged my parents, and got, a portable manual typewriter for Christmas when I was six or seven. For years I learned to type with just one finger, until a friend of my father's included a Gregg typing book among old books he gave to me. I learned how to use the keyboard with nine fingers (no, you don't use ten; the left thumb sits it out), and where each finger went. With practice, I was up to 30 to 40 words a minute at my best. But, it's still not the best way to remember a lecture.
Increasingly, computers and laptops, and all sorts of media are being used in classrooms, from primary school on up. It is good to familiarize children with the instruments of the future, but it is not a better way to learn. Learning is not fast, it is slow, and constant contact with something is the best way to learn. Physically writing the words brings attention to the words, in the slowness of penmanship, which is also becoming a lost art. Reading the words on a page is much more memorable than reading them on a screen, even on a screen that swears it's just like a book. It's not the same swiping from one screen to another, as it is holding a page in the air, leaning it from one side to another. The continuity is felt in the printed page, rather than in the appearing and disappearing screen.
Books, paper, and pen are slow and call for longer attention spans. But attention spans are becoming shorter and shorter, as technology becomes faster and faster. People no longer have to go out to buy a newspaper or magazine, just pull it up on the screen and search for the story they want. The light from the screen tires our eyes, and if the article is too long, we start to skim through it, to reach the end. Sometimes we don't even read it, just the title and the encapsulated summary. But that does not an informed citizen make, much less a scholar.
Someday, schools might no longer ask students for textbooks, just give them a code and pull the book up on a computer screen. Writing may also not be taught, just the letters on a keyboard and how to assemble words from them. And if anything happens to the electric supply, and all the computers in the world go dark, no one will be able to transmit knowledge, because they won't know how to do so with paper and pen. How sad the future looks.
It's true that typing on a keyboard let's you write faster than by hand. Yet, when I write on the computer, sometimes I forget what I wrote earlier, and have to go back and check. When I write by hand, which is becoming rarer, I tend to remember better. Some will argue that taking a laptop to class and using it for notes allows you to write down more, and more quickly. I will counter argue, and say that you can also write down more by hand; just learn to listen and discern which are the important points of a lecture and write fast. With practice, you can get it all down. Trust me, I learned to practically transcribe an entire class in high school.
It was a Latin class, where we had to translate passages of Cicero or Virgil for homework. No one did so, just grabbed a pen with plenty of ink, and started scribbling like crazy as soon as our teacher began reading what we should have done for homework. When he finished and asked if everyone had at least an approximation, everyone said yes. Then he checked notebooks and saw we had it all down. We didn't need keyboards. And if now I were to read Virgil or Cicero, I would recognize some of the passages, thanks to writing them down by hand.
Besides, to use a keyboard quickly, you need to have some knowledge of touch typing. That is not taught in schools anymore, at least, not in Spain. I had a class in seventh grade back in Boston, where we learned it on a typewriter. Yes, that was back in the Stone Age, and it was the last year it was offered, I think. But even before that, I was fascinated with office work, paper, pens, typewriters, and everything that had to do with writing. I begged my parents, and got, a portable manual typewriter for Christmas when I was six or seven. For years I learned to type with just one finger, until a friend of my father's included a Gregg typing book among old books he gave to me. I learned how to use the keyboard with nine fingers (no, you don't use ten; the left thumb sits it out), and where each finger went. With practice, I was up to 30 to 40 words a minute at my best. But, it's still not the best way to remember a lecture.
Increasingly, computers and laptops, and all sorts of media are being used in classrooms, from primary school on up. It is good to familiarize children with the instruments of the future, but it is not a better way to learn. Learning is not fast, it is slow, and constant contact with something is the best way to learn. Physically writing the words brings attention to the words, in the slowness of penmanship, which is also becoming a lost art. Reading the words on a page is much more memorable than reading them on a screen, even on a screen that swears it's just like a book. It's not the same swiping from one screen to another, as it is holding a page in the air, leaning it from one side to another. The continuity is felt in the printed page, rather than in the appearing and disappearing screen.
Books, paper, and pen are slow and call for longer attention spans. But attention spans are becoming shorter and shorter, as technology becomes faster and faster. People no longer have to go out to buy a newspaper or magazine, just pull it up on the screen and search for the story they want. The light from the screen tires our eyes, and if the article is too long, we start to skim through it, to reach the end. Sometimes we don't even read it, just the title and the encapsulated summary. But that does not an informed citizen make, much less a scholar.
Someday, schools might no longer ask students for textbooks, just give them a code and pull the book up on a computer screen. Writing may also not be taught, just the letters on a keyboard and how to assemble words from them. And if anything happens to the electric supply, and all the computers in the world go dark, no one will be able to transmit knowledge, because they won't know how to do so with paper and pen. How sad the future looks.
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