The Quest for the Perfect Notetaking Medium

This essay was branched from Laptops for Students and E-Note Taking to restrict the focus to just note taking - in order to use it for a College Application

Over the last few months, I have tried transitioning my note taking over to a computer. This essay is about my experiences trying to find the perfect note-taking medium. It is based on both my experiences at Haverford High School, and the Pennsylvania Governor's Schools of Excellence in Information, Society & Technology at Drexel University in Philadelphia. In both of these programs I used my own Fujitsu T4220 Tablet PC running Microsoft OneNote. The convertible tablet allowed me to either type or hand-write my notes using a special pen from Wacom.

Computer

Carrying a computer around in the first place is really useful in school. I am able to quickly look up words I don't know in an online dictionary. I can research more information about a topic by Google-ing or reading an encyclopedia. I remain connected to the outside world with email and the news. I can maintain my to-do list in one places as it is automatically synchronized between computers. I can get a quicker start writing papers, because I can start typing whenever I get inspiration, not when I get home.

But the most useful part of having a laptop is the ability to collaborate. During a group project, I can write or type what we talk about and then in 4 clicks, email it to the group. For the Decades Project, I set up a group discussion forums, where we could all post ideas. However, at this point in time, my other group members were not carrying around laptops. This slowed the discussion down, but it was still beneficial for me to have a laptop because I could integrate group member's work into our project when they sent it to me. This streamlines my day because I can take care of a simple task as it comes up, not save it for the end of the day, which I feel is less efficient.

OneNote Rocks!

OneNote 2007

For actual note taking, I use Microsoft OneNote 2007. Using OneNote to organize notes is awesome. I really grew into liking OneNote. It allows you to import content from anywhere, annotate that content, and then organize it, and search it.

You can import content into OneNote by pasting it in, clipping a section of the screen, or using its virtual printer to "print" it into your notebook. If the teacher made any of their notes available online, I could input them directly into OneNote. I could then annotate them and build upon them by adding my own. In addition, I could easily paste in research that I found online. I could then "scan" it as I was taught in World Cultures by Mr. Cobb. "Scanning" means highlighting important parts and writing notes in the margin which come to mind. This technique helps me read better.

In addition, with e-Notes, you can easily add things, including more space to write. With paper, if you want to add a line between 2 lines you already wrote you have 3 options:

1. cram it in - writing small and illegibly
2. write it somewhere else and draw an arrow
3. add it at the end and now your notes are out of order

With E-Notes you can rearrange and add notes, just like any document on the computer. You can also add space, for example with my "scanning" technique on paper I would have to cram my notes in the margin, on OneNote, I can add space between paragraphs and I have as much space as I want.

It is also easy to share notes with OneNote. For example, if someone missed a day of class, it is just 2 or 3 clicks to send them the notes. There is no need to track down a copy machine or transcribe them. (However, transcribing the notes could be beneficial, however, if it forces you to actually read the notes.)

The alternative to OneNote, for many, is to write each day's notes in Microsoft Word. The problem with this is that your notes are not organized and are scattered around in a bunch of Word files. With OneNote you can organize your notes into sections which are part of notebooks. There are no files to open, as everything is there. In addition, you can quickly search a section, notebook, or all notebooks for a keyword. With Word this is impossible, unless you use some sort of external desktop search.

Ink. Useful?

So now that I have established that OneNote is useful, is using ink handwritten on a tablet more useful?

After using a tablet PC with ink capabilities, I am recognizing that ink is more of a gimmick. I am using the pen less than when I first got my tablet. It is much slower to actually write on my computer than it is to type. Even just surfing the web feels faster using a trackpad. So I have found that when I am taking notes from scratch, typing is faster than writing using ink.

However I find that ink is useful in 2 cases: for drawling diagrams and writing on other documents. Drawling using a pen is much faster than creating diagrams using the drawling tools in Microsoft Office or even making something in Photoshop or InkScape. I need diagrams because, as a visual learner, I need to see things, and diagrams are the most efficient way to communicate. There is an old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. I can draw in 30 seconds (and have it digitally stored) what would take me 5 min using draw tools. This is necessary in order to keep up with a diagram drawn on the board or in a PowerPoint I don't have access to.

In addition, when I get content either from a teacher or off the internet, it is very helpful to be able to draw on top of it. First of all, using existing notes lets me skip recording the basic information and write more advanced notes or personal anecdotes which help my memory. Plus, being able to write on top of lets me add stuff without disturbing the original and lets me see where my notes stop and the given ones start.

In my AP Psychology class, the teacher handed out PowerPoints of each chapter in the beginning of the year. I did not have my tablet then, but I used this "write on top of" strategy on printer paper PowerPoints as I read the textbook. I found it very useful, because as a visual learner, I was able to connect my notes I created with the PowerPoint the teacher went over in class. As the teacher went over the slides, I added additional what he said around the margin of the slide he was talking about. Using this method, I had all of my notes in one place. I started with the basic information already printed, and added helpful explanations from the textbook, and finally I added the useful stories the teacher gave, all on one stack of paper.

Biology

I also found this method useful in Biology class, except that I used ink on a tablet. I was able to improve on my note taking from AP Psychology by being able to easily add more space if I needed it. In addition, when someone was absent, I was able to email them what they missed with only a few clicks. Also I do not need to print the notes a day in advance. In many cases the teacher posts the notes the day of the class, so I would not be able to take notes on top of the PowerPoint in class. With my tablet and an internet connection, I can download and import the notes in the first few minutes of class. This is the only way I am able to keep all of my notes in one place.

Types of Classes

I have discovered that using a tablet and e-notes is more helpful in some classes than in others. The Biology class I just described was more online than other classes. Because the other students in the class used laptops provided by the school, the teacher taught mostly from PowerPoints, some of which she also made available on her website. The class also included quick internet research and drew material from the web.

In my other classes that semester, the teacher did not let students use the provided laptops most of the time since they taught mostly from a textbook, or their own experiences. They did not use PowerPoint or the internet much. They also used many worksheets which they have been using for years. E-notes are harder in these classes because of the amount of paper which had to be scanned into my notebook and because of the lack of benefit from being able to quickly import internet research or teacher-provided notes.

Gov School

In the summer of 2008, I attended the Pennsylvania Governor's Schools of Excellence in Information, Society & Technology at Drexel University in Philadelphia. The Governor's Schools are free 5-week summer programs paid for by the Pennsylvania state government. They are open to rising high school seniors, and in some programs, rising high school juniors. There are 8 subject areas, each one held at a different university or college throughout the state. Tuition, as well as room and board, is paid for by the state. The entire program is free for the student. Admission is very competitive because, unlike most for-profit summer camps that tend to accept anyone willing to pay, there is no financial barrier to entry.

The reason I purchased the tablet was to try out how to streamline my note taking for college and I thought that Gov School as a college precursor, would be a good experience for me. I decided to try and take all electronic notes. The Gov School classes, for the most part, provided all notes online, or no notes. In addition, with computers, topics tend to have much information about them available online. For example, in Linux System Admin class, I imported tutorials from the internet into OneNote and highlighted the important steps and added notes in the margin.

However, some classes gave out notes on paper. This makes things harder. For instance, in UML/Systems Design class, the professor gave out his PowerPoints on paper. I found it is best to make the notes on top of the printed PowerPoint with a pen, and not make any notes in the computer, and then scan in the notes into my notebook at the end of the week. I realize that the scanning part is a major drag, however I've gotten better at it. I can scan about 50 page in an hour while also doing something else.

What I am trying to avoid is splitting my notes among paper and computer. I really want one centralized repository for my notes. I think that this is critical since one can quickly run into problems splitting information between two places for fairly obvious reasons.

Paper vs Computer

There are a few places where paper is outshines a computer. I think that E-Notes, even in ink, do not look as nice. My Headline Notetaking Format I developed in American Studies is dependent on the length of the line, which is not the same of the computer. I am very familiar with paper, and writing on a computer just feels different. In addition, being on a computer can be distracting. However the main disadvantage which I mentioned earlier is that paper given out by teachers has to be scanned in. In addition, items which have to be turned in that day must still be written unless I have access to a printer. Power and battery issues also do not exist on paper.

Lastly, some teachers may have reservations about a student using a computer in a classroom since many students are unable to focus if they are in front of a computer.

So over all, I think I will give computer note taking a try next year in 12th Grade. It worked really well at Gov School. However, if it becomes apparent that a class gives out a lot of paper, I may use a binder in that one class. Having all my notes on the computer will significantly reduce the weight and volume of stuff which I carry around. (closing with old ideas?) So overall, I am looking forward to moving to E-Notes next year using my tablet.

Paper	Computer
Heavy	Not heavy, use once
Uses paper	Uses electricity
Not easily searched	Easily searched
Does not crash	May break down
Not easy to backup	Easy to backup
I am more neat with it	Bit of a distraction
Find a copy machine	Easy to share

Stuff Not Talked about

Leaving binders home since don't want to carry - problem if I need it Easy to backup "I can also easily back up my notes to Amazon S3 using JungleDisk over the internet, so if something happens to my tablet, I will not miss any work." Laptop: lost or stolen risk

Notes in General

I hardly never go back and read them. Just the act of writing them helps (like Dr. Reilly). ThePlaz.com has turned out to be a trick for me to make my notes neat and organized (something I struggled with in Middle School) because I knew that I would have to scan, tag, organize, and post them for others to read.

I am currently debating which I will use next year during senior year. I've gotten quite good at making organized paper notebooks. I've been doing it for 5 years and I am proud of my organized binders, which neatly contain every paper handed out from the year or notes for every chapter of the textbook, even if it is not required to take them. I've even published some of my methods, for instance, my Headline Notetaking Format I developed in American Studies

(Prof. Song, the UML/Systems professor at Drexel's Graduate School in Information Science said that I would "graduate suma cum laude from Harvard" due to the quality of my notes.)

Add doc: Act of writing helps More natural thantyping one more... calc essential