Advantage of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking 1

The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantage of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking by:

Mueller and Oppenheimer

Paraso, Ira Eichel

Quijano, Medween

Philippine Christian University - Manila

The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantage of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking 2

Abstract

In today’s generation, students often have their own personal computers or laptops. Laptops have

advantage and disadvantages in life. Laptops can be used in lectures for more faster way than

traditional taking down notes longhand. Many researchers study the benefits and drawbacks or

laptops. In this present research, suggest that even though the use of laptops helps students to

make life more easy access. Laptops can still be a big distraction when it comes to retaining

lectures. In this study researchers use students who uses laptops in note taking and those

traditional longhand note taking. By exposing each in different conditions and scores are tested

using conceptual and factual questions where those who take longhand note taking have higher

score on conceptual question. This means that longhand note taking helps students to retain more

information during class lectures.

Keywords: note taking, retaining lecture, longhand, conceptual questions, factual questions
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Review of Related Literature

Laptop note taking has been rapidly increasing in prevalence across college. Researcher

have studied the effect of Laptop note taking in class is not good. Studies have found that the use

of laptops is linked not only to poor classroom discussion but also to decreased bar passage rates

across the country. (Yamamoto, 2007) It means that the laptop are causing problems at school

because many students are using it as their own notebook. Researcher found out that banned

laptop use in the classroom to see the effects on classroom discussion, students’ performance

when called upon, and their proficiency with the material on the final. (Yamamoto 2007) and

Yamamoto found out that banning of laptops in class increases grades and he was pleased by the

result. Heavy restrictions of laptops in class have effect on significant cognitive learning studies

that restrictions on students use of laptop will give the students more encouragement to study.

According to Yamamoto, some professors encourage the use of laptops in the classroom

and feel the aid in the educational process. Of those who want students to use laptops, a smaller

subset encourages internet use during class. These professors believe that web access allows

students to look up supplementary material during class to explain words or concepts they do not

understand. Yet, this ability to look at other material during class may hinder students from

learning the assigned material even though the web search is on point with the lecture.

(Yamamoto 2007). With computers and wireless Internet connections, students are free to surf

the web, keep up with the latest social media, or even play online games. Educators are left with

the decision of what to do with laptops, and whether students should have access to Internet-

capable devices. Many educators have considered simply banning the use of laptops in the

classroom (e.g., Maxwell, 2007; Yamamoto, 2007). Others have argued for disabling or limiting

Internet access (e.g., Adams, 2006), and yet another proposed solution has been to separate
The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantage of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking 4

lecture halls into laptop-approved and laptop-free zones (e.g., Aguilar-Roca, Williams, &

O'Dowd, 2012; McCreary, 2009). Researchers have studied the effect of laptops in students

focus. Because laptops or computers can have full access of distraction that can be provided to

the students who are studying. Activities like the use of internet, or games that can be played in

the laptop. And some movies that can be viewed by a student is the student gets bored. With

these evidences showing that students often use computers for purposes unrelated to the class

lessons (e.g., Fried, 2008; Gay, et al., 2001; Wurst, et al., 2008).
The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantage of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking 5

Methodology

Participants. One hundred (100) college undergraduate students enrolled in the Philippine

Christian University – Manila were randomly selected to participate in the experiment.

Participation was restricted to students who ages from 18 to 25 years of age. <Percent of female>

of the participants were females, while <percent of male> of the participants were male. The

participants were recruited by asking them if they have time to participate in the study.

Materials. The researchers selected one TED Ed video “What is Depression” by Helen Farrell

(https:// www. youtube.com /watch?v=z- IR48Mb3W0) for length of five minutes that will cover

topics that are familiar pressing issue in today’s society. Laptops had full-size (13-in. x 10-in.)

keyboards and disconnected from the internet. And projector and speaker for the TED Ed video

clip. And researches used 10-item questions about factual and conceptual questions.

Methods and Procedure. Students generally participated 2 at a time. The room was present with

either laptops or pen and paper, according to condition. The study Participants were instructed to

use their normal classroom note-taking strategy, because experimenters were interested in how

information was actually recorded in class lectures. Then a short Ted Ed clip entitled “What is

Depression” by Helen Farrell were projected onto a screen at the front of the room. The

experimenter let the participants do their note-taking the room while the lecture played. Next,

participants were told that they will be filling up the set of questions more likely about their

biography. At this point, approximately 30 min had elapsed since the end of the lecture. Finally,

participants are asked to answer to both factual-recall questions (e.g “How many weeks does

depression linger?”) and conceptual-application questions (e.g “Why is it not helpful to share

your experience of getting over feeling depressed to a person who is clinically depressed?”)

about the lecture “What is Depression) , the questionnaire are consists of ten item questions (Odd
The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantage of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking 6

number are factual questions while Even numbers are conceptual questions) and lastly,

participants are asked what do they think the experiment is all about. Then the participants are

debriefed, incentivised and thanked for participating in the experiment.

The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantage of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking 7

Results

The researchers wanted to determine whether there is a significant difference between

laptop note-taking and longhand or pen and paper note-taking, and if the latter is generally more

efficient in learning retention. Independent samples T-test was conducted and the results

suggested that laptop note taking (M=7.560, SD=1.296) does not have a significant difference

with longhand note taking (M=8.160, SD = 1.730, t(98)= -1.962, P= 0.053).

Although the results showed that both note taking modes does not have a significant difference

with each other, the descriptives plot showed that longhand note takers had higher scores on their

learning retention test than with the laptop note takers.

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Discussion
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References

Mueller, P.A (2014) The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantage of Long Hand Over

Laptop Note Taking. Psychological Science Online First.Retrieved from: https://

classroom.google.com/u/0/c/MTEzMjQ5NTk1MjBa/a/MTQ1NDg2MDk1ODZa/details

Yamamoto, K. (2007) Banning Laptops in the Classroom: Is it Worth the Hassles?. Retrieved

from: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oRT3EtsBnvWOU2slcoMjTDJ7gosOlad2/view

Ragan, E., Jennings, S., Massey J., Doolittle,P. (2014) Unregulated Use of Laptops over Time in

Large Lecture Classes. Retrieved from: https:// drive.google.com/file/d /1PD6A_tk8YUeV 1

0nG_ TJ 6Py2DDum_rmMT/view