Pen Still Mightier Than the Laptop For Notetaking?

theodp writes "While waiting to see if the iPad is a game-changer, this CS student continues to take class notes with pen and paper while her fellow students embrace netbooks and notebooks. Why? In addition to finding the act of writing helps cement the lecture material in her mind, there's also the problem of keeping up with the professor: '[While taking notes on a laptop] every five minutes I found myself cursing at not being able to copy the diagram on the board.' So, when it comes to education or business, do you take notes on a notepad/netbook, or stick with good old-fashioned handwriting? Got any tips for making the transition, or arguments for staying the course?"

I do _everything_ with pen and paper.

[John Hasler]

Why, I wrote up this very comment with a quill pen on foolscap before having my secretary type it in to this new-fangled "analytical engine" thing.

Re:Notes

[brusk]

I've never met a fountain pen that was trusty.

Re:Both

[Anonymous Coward]

"I do both; I'll usually take notes with pen and paper, but if there's a lot of math and I feel like my handwriting isn't going to be legible enough, I'll do them in LaTeX"

Math turns you on so much that you have to be in latex to be in class?

And I thought that I was the only one...

Re:Notes

[Shin-LaC]

The question is whether taking notes with a pen is better than taking notes with a keyboard. The article is about how taking notes is better than not taking them at all - a completely different question. Maybe if you had taken notes while reading you would have remembered that key point. ;-)

(The author of the article does touch upon "pen vs keyboard" in the comments, but he says: "I didn’t come across anything on typing, but I would guess it would have the same effect.")

Re:Predictive handwriting

[nacturation]

I'm working on integrating my handwriting with T9 for notetaking purposes.

How does that work? You write "tgd ppmgpam" on a piece of paper when you're making a note on "the program"?

Re:Train Your Hand / Arm Muscles

[DeBaas]

About 45 minutes into the three hour exam in the freezing cold gym at University of Toronto, I just about gnawed my hand off.

But that was the test. If you manage not to gnaw your hand of, you've proven to be smarter than a rat....

(maybe I should ease up on the Dilberts)