# In-Class Notes



## FenderPriest (Apr 20, 2009)

I was wondering if you kind folks have any thoughts on note-taking in class? In my undergrad years, I just simply took notes by hand, and after a while developed a mild form of short hand (it's quite infectious, and causes loads of communication problems with non-me people). But I've noticed in classes that people take notes on their computers more and more. Is this really necessary? Any thoughts on this issue?


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## LawrenceU (Apr 20, 2009)

I'm not in school any longer, but in situations where I still take notes I find that the practice of writing them by hand helps to 'cement' them into my mind much more thoroughly than typing them into a computer. 

If I were in a seminary class today I would invest in a MP3 recorder and record lectures while taking notes with pen and ink. When I read back over my notes that evening I would listen to the lecture again.


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## Backwoods Presbyterian (Apr 20, 2009)

Frankly I find computers in classrooms to be exceedingly annoying in class. They are a major distraction in my opinion, especially if there is Wi-Fi available in the classroom.


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## Calvinist Cowboy (Apr 20, 2009)

I do believe it depends upon the student. I remember while visiting WSC, one student was playing solitaire on his computer during the lecture! It all depends on the mindset of the student and the method by which he most readily learns. If a student is committed to doing well in the class, he will be attentive and take notes. It doesn't particularly matter how he takes those notes.


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## A.J. (Apr 20, 2009)

FenderPriest said:


> I was wondering if you kind folks have any thoughts on note-taking in class? In my undergrad years, I just simply took notes by hand, and after a while developed a mild form of short hand (it's quite infectious, and causes loads of communication problems with non-me people). But I've noticed in classes that people take notes on their computers more and more. Is this really necessary? Any thoughts on this issue?



I personally prefer taking notes by hand than taking notes using a computer. There are practical advantages to this. If you take notes by hand, you don't have to always bring your laptop inside the campus or if doing a project outside. You will have to bring it only if you _really_ need it (e.g., actual writing of a paper or report). This is especially helpful if you are in a place where there is no way for you to re-charge the batteries of your laptop. 

People who do note-taking in their laptops in many cases end up printing their notes. But if you take notes by hand, you save up on ink. Also, many of the classmates I had who used laptops in note-taking sometimes ended up not listening at all to the professor. I would find them using the internet or playing a computer game or writing a paper for another subject. This is not true of everyone. And there is obviously a way for the persevering student to avoid this. But as totally depraved sinners, it is easy for college students (we Christians are not spared from this) to abuse the patience of some professors who are not so strict with what they require of students inside the class. It's much easier to lose attention when listening to a lecture if there is a laptop in front of you. Observe that I am speaking from _personal_ experience. 

I have also benefited from taking notes not only in school but also in church during the preaching of the Word. There are certain passages in Scripture which I have read many times. But I tend to gain greater understanding of them (during preaching) by taking notes. After a certain sermon, I get to see the broader picture behind the lesson taught by the text. The long-term benefit of doing this is that you also get to remind yourself again and again of the lesson learned from the sermon by going back to your notes _whenever_ you need it. Those who don't take notes don't have and won't have this long-term benefit unless they start taking notes themselves. After about a week or two, they will have forgotten what the sermon was all about. Finally, note-taking during the sermon also helps to focus one's attention. It's a good antidote if you feel like sleeping during the worship service something which I have been guilty of many times.


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## Skyler (Apr 20, 2009)

I personally have difficulty taking notes by hand because I can't write fast enough, and by the time I'm finished writing one thing the teacher's usually halfway into the next topic and I missed something. So, mainly, I listen and get what I can, then read the book/search on Google for things that I missed. If the teacher gives the answers to the homework/next quiz/etc., though, I usually make at least an attempt to write everything down. 

For me, computers have one drawback in that it's more difficult to lay out notes efficiently; I can't sketch important symbols on the computer either. However, I can usually type faster than I can write.


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## FenderPriest (Apr 20, 2009)

"Indeed!" to each of the post's thus far. I had a teacher in high school that recommended doing a line down the left side of each page about an inch and a half from the margin, taking notes in the large section, and then doing review notes in the created margin. The "Ampad Gold Fibre Project Planner" recreates this quite well. Anyhow, I'm a hand-note guy as well with the .mp3 recorder if I can.


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## Marrow Man (Apr 20, 2009)

I did the whole "take notes by hand" thing while at Seminary at Erskine. I didn't have a laptop at the time, though. I also noticed other students with laptops would sometimes surf the net during class. That's a problem.

I have a laptop now, and since I've been working on the M.Th., I've been using it to take notes in class. There isn't any wifi available (virus problems with the system is the rumor), so that's not a distraction. And I have Bible software available on the computer, so that's a plus. The clacking of keys can be distracting sometimes until you get used to it.


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## VictorBravo (Apr 20, 2009)

I've done it both ways, and in the end, I think taking on notes on computers has the edge. But, whatever you do, take notes, don't try to be a transcriptionist! When you transcribe you turn off your critical mind and switch to a stenographer's mind--not a great way to learn the material.

I finished an LLM in Tax Law in 2008. It involved 15 different courses. The first quarter I took notes by hand because I was "old-school." After that quarter I started taking notes on the laptop.

My notes ran from 50 to 90 pages per class typewritten, and the handwritten notes were about 50 pages per class.

All the notes contain valuable information that I refer to weekly. The typed notes are easily searchable. With the handwritten notes, I ended up scanning them and adding tags to the pages of interest in Acrobat so I could search them too, but that took a fair amount of time.

As for symbols and diagrams, I always kept a note pad during class for that sort of thing. If you date the notes, you can scan and insert them later into your typed notes if you have a decent pdf conversion program.

As for distraction, I certainly noticed it. The sound of typing didn't bother me at all, but something else did. I noticed a difference from my law school classes in the old days (1989-92): it was that class interaction seemed subdued. I think it may have been because of students having their noses in their screens, trying to get down every word, instead of trying to learn what was being taught. 

Finally, if you are going to get a new computer simply for school, you might look into getting a tablet computer with MS OneNote. Then you can take handwritten notes and have them already on your laptop. It even has fairly decent handwriting conversion to typed text.


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## Skyler (Apr 20, 2009)

> Finally, if you are going to get a new computer simply for school, you might look into getting a tablet computer with MS OneNote. Then you can take handwritten notes and have them already on your laptop. It even has fairly decent handwriting conversion to typed text.



Unless your handwriting looks like mine.


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## jawyman (Apr 20, 2009)

If any of you ever have Dr. Joel Beeke as professor, there is no way a person could take hand-written notes. It is hard enough to type let alone write notes by hand. Also, I have become a lot better typist too.


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## Kiffin (Apr 20, 2009)

I prefer typing my notes. My handwriting isn't fast enough and it's easier to edit with a computer. If I need to add something on a previous point, it's much neater to add with a computer than to draw arrows to indicate an insertion when handwritten. I have bible programs that remain open simultaneously so that if a verse is quoted or a reference to a commentary is made, I can easily copy and paste. If there is something I am unfamiliar with I can quickly google or wiki it for a quick reference. Also, say you miss a day, because of whatever reason, you can ask one of your classmates for the notes via email; or, you can exchange notes at the end of class with someone to ensure that both of you have most of the material.

My Acts/Pauline class (Carson) has only a handful of students without a computer. In my opinion, it's hard to keep up with Carson by just handwriting.


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## 21st Century Calvinist (Apr 20, 2009)

I prefer to do the handwritten notes in class. I would only end up printing them out anyway. I can write faster than I type. In some classes I take out my laptop. This may be to access the power point slides for that class or reference an article that has been emailed or available on the school portal. Of course, my laptop weighs less than the ESV Study Bible so I do access that from time to time.


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## Archlute (Apr 20, 2009)

Indeed, the clacking of keys, the playing of games/internet surfing, and going into transcription mode can all become problems, but if I could go back and redo seminary with a laptop (I took all of my notes by hand) I would do so.

I have been transcribing all of my class notes into word docs, and it is taking a long time. The benefits, though, are that you can search your notes, you can copy and paste sections for papers or sermon notes, etc. Also, if you take notes on a laptop while in seminary you also have the benefit, as has been mentioned, of having handy such programs as Bibleworks for quick reference.

The two benefits of taking notes by hand were that they "stick" in you memory longer, and that you can freehand diagrams and such. The second benefit is negated by the development of touch-sensitive notebook screens using a stylus. Before that, inserting diagrams could be a real challenge.


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## pepper (Apr 20, 2009)

When I went back to seminary in 2004 I had not been in school since 1978. I tried to take notes by hand, but after my first year I realized that the professors were too fast for me. They were use to the students being able to take notes much faster. I went to the lap top and that made a big difference. Also my typing speed has improved. Going on line during class was never a temptation for me. I believe the lap top is the way to go


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## R. Scott Clark (Apr 21, 2009)

Just so everyone knows, we have clear policies on the abuse of computers in the classroom. My students know what I will do to them if I catch them misusing a computer thus in my class. 

Here is some discussion of this question on the HB:

Computers in the Classroom…Not All They’re Cracked Up to Be? Heidelblog

More on Computers in the Classroom Heidelblog

There are good reasons (see the HB) why students should learn to take notes by hand. 

I'm tempted to ask who that student was, but I'll post a note reminding them to abstain.




Calvinist Cowboy said:


> I do believe it depends upon the student. I remember while visiting WSC, one student was playing solitaire on his computer during the lecture! It all depends on the mindset of the student and the method by which he most readily learns. If a student is committed to doing well in the class, he will be attentive and take notes. It doesn't particularly matter how he takes those notes.


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## chbrooking (Apr 21, 2009)

Took all my WTS notes (nearly word for word) on laptop '95-'98. It's a treasure I wouldn't trade for anything.

I do have to keep converting them to keep up with the software. They started out as Word 6.0 under Windows 3.1


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## Prufrock (Apr 21, 2009)

R. Scott Clark said:


> Here is some discussion of this question on the HB:
> 
> Computers in the Classroom…Not All They’re Cracked Up to Be? Heidelblog
> 
> ...




Good stuff in those links. Thanks.


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## Calvinist Cowboy (Apr 21, 2009)

chbrooking said:


> Took all my WTS notes (nearly word for word) on laptop '95-'98. It's a treasure I wouldn't trade for anything.
> 
> I do have to keep converting them to keep up with the software. They started out as Word 6.0 under Windows 3.1


 
I remember 3.1 (vaguely)!


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## Montanablue (Apr 21, 2009)

When I was in college, I tried to take notes with my laptop a few times, and I found handwritten worked best for me - even in my history classes where we were covering a lot of material in a short period of time. I just seemed to absorb it better by writing it down. I did have to come up with a shorthand though, or there's not way I would have gotten the information down. Having said that, I can see the utility of using a laptop, as long as you're not distracted by the web.

A rather off-topic anecdote - in one of my classes, my professor banned laptops because several students complained about another student who used his laptop to look up videos of animal slaughter during lecture. One student was actually made physically ill. I, fortunately, did not sit behind him and didn't witness the gory videos. It turned out he was an Ag student doing research on various methods of butchery. This is what I get for going to uni in Montana.


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## OPC'n (Apr 22, 2009)

I had to take history in college and I knew how bad I was in it. I wasn't about to read the book, so I bought a very small tape recorder (about 4in long and 2in wide) and sat in the front row and taped her. Then I went home and took my notes. By the time I had listened in class and re-listened while writing down what she said, I didn't even have to study for the test and I got "A's". That's from a "D" history-high-school student who had to draw maps etc for extra credit to get a "B" in the class. I like history now, but I really didn't when I was younger.


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## EricP (Apr 22, 2009)

Being an old guy, I survived college and med school (70's, 80's) through fellowship with pen and paper; when I lost my mind and went part time to seminary (RTS CLT) in the past few years, I started with pen and paper, then had to surrender after a couple of courses, particularly Dr. Kelly!! Since most profs now seem to hand out their lecture notes on disk at the start of term, and really since Personal Typing 2 was the best high school class I ever took, using a laptop is the fastest and neatest way I can take notes, by a country mile. The clacking of keys seems less distracting when YOU are clacking along with the rest! I'm still Luddite enough to print my class notes out before finals, and then annotate them as needed as I'm studying for the exams. Can't teach an old dog.....


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## Dearly Bought (Apr 22, 2009)

I think I have a plan that will capture the best of both worlds. When I have the means to finish seminary (Lord willing), I hope to get a digital notepad. Combines the memory enhancement and focus of handwriting with the digital storage of a computer.

Amazon.com: SolidTek DM-L2 DigiMemo L2 8-1/2-by-11-Inch Digital Notepad: Electronics


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## Reformed Thomist (Apr 25, 2009)

FenderPriest said:


> I was wondering if you kind folks have any thoughts on note-taking in class? In my undergrad years, I just simply took notes by hand, and after a while developed a mild form of short hand (it's quite infectious, and causes loads of communication problems with non-me people). But I've noticed in classes that people take notes on their computers more and more. Is this really necessary? Any thoughts on this issue?



I take my notes by hand. I have also developed a kind of shorthand since freshman year. It works for me, which is the bottom line. I have been tempted to get a laptop for note-taking, however. 

One thing holding me back from making the switch is that I know I would just be 'transcribing' the lecture (because I type very quickly) rather than make discerning, quality notes. I'd be listening/thinking less during the lecture, I'm pretty sure.

One thing making me think about getting one: Because laptops are so widely used for note-taking nowadays, and this trend is only going to continue and increase, I do wonder if some professors (the younger ones, who use laptops for everything) are -- consciously or unconsciously -- 'raising the bar' in terms of what they expect their students to retain from the lecture. Taking notes by hand you can get the important points and some extra stuff... with a laptop you can get _everything_.


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## Ivan (Apr 25, 2009)

Calvinist Cowboy said:


> I remember while visiting WSC, one student was playing solitaire on his computer during the lecture!



He'll make a GREAT pastor...then again, maybe he will. Still, bad form!


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