Note taking lies at the heart of curricula around the world. Beginning in elementary school, we teach students to “take notes” so that they can maintain a record of the content disseminated to them by the teacher. And yet, with mobile devices replacing paper notebooks, this process has become increasingly complex as students (and teachers) struggle to apply previous strategies to new tools.
In the past, I wrote about the 4Ss of Note Taking With Technology. Students should choose a system that:
- Supports their learning needs
- Allows them to save across devices
- Possesses search capabilities
- Can be shared
While I realize that younger students need scaffolding to learn any system, older students need to think beyond just transcribing information. In an age when simple facts can be Googled and students create with a combination of analog and digital tools, they need to think about note taking as an opportunity to curate and synthesize information so that they can make conclusions, build deeper understanding, and construct new knowledge. Whether students choose to handwrite, sketch, or type their notes, the challenge lies not in choosing, but in creating a system that allows them to ultimately curate, synthesize, and reflect on what they learn.
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