As laptop computers become more portable and affordable, they have replaced standard pen and paper note-taking methods for some
University students.
“That can be extremely effective because many people type more quickly than they write,” Academic Learning Services instructor Amy Nuetzman said. She added that computer notes are more legible than hand-written notes, and
computer note-taking works best for students who are visually and verbally minded.
“People can take notes in any number of styles and be really successful,” Nuetzman said. “Engaging is really the key. Some students are helped by not taking notes at all.”
Senior psychology student Ero Ruef said he became interested
in computer note-taking when he met someone on a train who said he had all of his class notes from
his entire college career saved on his computer and could link notes from classes he was taking at the time to classes he had taken in
previous terms.
“He’s the one who got me going on it; so I got a computer and did it,” Ruef said.
Ruef said the ability to edit notes
as his professors speak and easily find and search through notes are positive aspects of the computer note-taking experience.
“The main thing that got me doing that is I can’t fit more than one piece of paper on this desk,” he said, referring to small classroom desks.
Ruef said in his finance class
the teacher doesn’t allow computers in the classroom, but he is also taking a psychology class in which,
instead of using a textbook, the readings are posted on the Internet and computer use is allowed in
the classroom.
“That saved me a couple hundred dollars,” Ruef said.
Some software companies have designed programs to help students take notes on computers.
SubEthaEdit, available for free download at www.codingmonkeys.de/subethaedit, is a program that works
with wireless capabilities on Macintosh computers so users can edit the same document on many computers at the same time.
OneNote is a note-taking program made by Microsoft. In addition to standard typed text, OneNote allows users to add input from Web sites, audio-recording
devices and handwritten notes from Tablet PCs to their computer notes, according to the Microsoft Web site.
Ruef said he usually uses TextEdit, a simple word processor, but that Inspiration, a program that organizes information into flow charts and outline
formats, is useful for his more
conceptual classes.
However, computer note-taking may not work for all students.
“Some people remember better when they have actually formed the letters rather than just hitting a key,” Nuetzman said.
Ruef said it is sometimes difficult for him to spatially organize computer notes in his mind, and he is considering returning to paper notes for some classes next term.
Nuetzman noted that most students she encounters still take notes on paper, citing the expense of laptop computers and people being accustomed to handwriting notes as possible reasons.
“I think there are some people
who would hesitate to leave the notebook,” Nuetzman said.

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