#To make a note how to

Note-taking becomes note-making: an active involvement in making sense and meaning for later reflection, study or sharing of notes to compare understanding with lab partners or classmates. By contrast, taking notes by hand involves cognitive engagement in summarising, paraphrasing, organising, concept and vocabulary mapping - in short, manipulating and transforming information that leads to deeper understanding. Researchers have found that note-taking associated with keyboarding involves taking notes verbatim in a way that does not involve processing information, and so have called this вЂњnon-generativeвЂќ note-taking. While your laptop might seem faster and more efficient, there are good reasons for having a paper-bound notebook and pen - any kind you prefer - at the ready. But keyboarding does not provide the tactile feedback to the brain that contact between pencil or pen and paper does - the key to creating the neurocircuitry in the hand-brain complex.

Automaticity in keyboarding is an important skill too, and the tools and applications for digital communication will continue to evolve and have their place. We live in a digital age where daily functioning involves digital communication.

#To make a note how to

Learning how to take notes by hand effectively, and how to ingrain note-taking as a key learning and study tool, can begin as early as grades 3 or 4, but itвЂ™s never too late to begin. Taking notes by hand is a win-win, and belongs in every studentвЂ™s cognitive tool kit. And secondly, when you take notes by hand, your hands create a robust external memory storage: your notebook. Handwritten notes are a powerful tool for encrypting embodied cognition and in turn supporting the brainвЂ™s capacity for retrieval of information.

Whether or not youвЂ™re picky, know that tools for the hands are tools for the brain. This article originally appeared on The Conversation, and is republished under a Creative Commons licence.Дo you pick up any old notebook and pen when you need them, or do you have a thing for Moleskines or Montblancs?