1. BYOD Notetaking
Feel free to use your iPad or other device or a
laptop from the wall

3. Notetaking is Crucial
●
Many of our students are not good note-
takers
– Tend to be very passive
– May take the “it'll be up on Moodle”
attitude
●
The process of creating notes is at least
as important as the notes themselves
– Looking at a photo or PDF after the fact
doesn't cut it

4. Working Memory Model

5. Encoding in LTR
●
To get something into Long-Term Recall,
you have to work actively with it
●
Notetaking processes are one way of
getting there
– Unless we're doing something else
intentionally, we need students to take
notes!

6. Why Take Notes
on Your Device?
●
Organization—everything is there
– Tagging
– Searching
●
Variety of media—some devices support
this better than others
– Drawings
– Pictures
– Text
●
Some students compensate for learning
disabilities (dysgraphia) with device

7. Why NOT Take Notes
on Your Device?
●
Does taking notes on computer help
students less than hand-writing them?
– Some research (1996, 2013) shows no
differences between hand-written and
laptop notes
– Some recent studies (2012, in press)
show students are more likely to take
notes verbatim on computer, and their
recall suffers for it
●
In one study, even telling students
not to take verbatim notes didn't
work

8. Why NOT Take Notes
on Your Device?
●
Some devices are not well-suited to
classes that require a lot of diagrams or
equations
– Less a concern for tablets than laptops

9. Minimizing or
Preventing Distraction
●
Move around the room
●
Hold students accountable for their
notetaking
– Have them turn in notes for grading
– Have them share Google Docs notes
with you
– Let them know they may have to bring
their notes in front of the class

10. Improving Notetaking
●
Model and scaffold: Provide partial
notes that students fill in—over time
reduce the amount you're providing
●
Share student notes
– Share a student's notes anonymously
and have the class critique/compare
them
– If you see a student taking good notes,
put the notes in front of the class to
discuss what's good about them

11. Improving Notetaking
●
Collaborate: Let students work in groups
in shared Google docs; let the weaker
notetakers learn from the stronger
●
Compete: Offer praise or rewards for the
best notes (group or individual)

12. Notetaking App: Evernote
●
Cloud-based: Notes are not tied to one
machine
●
Not collaborative: Notes ARE tied to
one user account unless you pay for
Premium
●
Searchable: You can search for text
●
Taggable: You can add keywords to your
notes, and then view all the notes with
keywords

13. Notetaking App: Evernote
●
Organizable: You can have multiple
notebooks to keep related notes together
●
Other notes:
– Not exactly the same on all platforms
(Win8 terrible, web-based better)
– More features on tablet:
●
Ties in to Penultimate and Skitch
●
Allows photos and audio recording

14. Notetaking in Google Docs
●
You can use a word processing document
for note taking
●
Cloud-based
●
Collaborative: You can share with
others. Teacher could make a document
and share with the entire class.
●
Searchable
●
Organizable: You can put into your own
folders

15. Notetaking in Google Docs
●
Not as full-featured on tablets, but
getting there
●
Allows for chatting between editors, at
least in web version
– Back-channel communication, both good
and bad