In the study published in Psychological Science, Pam A. Mueller of Princeton University and Daniel M. Oppenheimer of the University of California, Los Angeles sought to test how notetaking by hand or by computer affects learning.
"When people type their notes they have this tendency to try to take verbatim notes and write down as much of the lecture as they can," Mueller tells NPR's Rachel Martin. "The students who were taking longhand notes in our studies were forced to be more selective — because you can't write as fast as you can type. And that extra processing of the material that they were doing benefited them."
Mueller and Oppenheimer cited that notetaking can be categorized two ways: generative and nongenerative. Generative notetaking pertains to "summarizing, paraphrasing, concept mapping," while nongenerative notetaking involves copying something verbatim.

And there are two hypotheses to why notetaking is beneficial in the first place. The first idea is called the encoding hypothesis, which says that when a person is taking notes, "the processing that occurs" will improve "learning and retention." The second, called the external-storage hypothesis, is that you learn by being able to look back at your notes, or even the notes of other people.
Because people can type faster than they write, using a laptop will make people more likely to try to transcribe everything they're hearing. So on the one hand, Mueller and Oppenheimer were faced with the question of whether the benefits of being able to look at your more complete, transcribed notes on a laptop outweighs the drawbacks of not processing that information. On the other hand, when writing longhand, you process the information better but have less to look back at.

I've noticed lots of college students took notes using their laptops or tablets. But personally speaking, I prefer the "old-fashioned" way cuz the written words can somehow draw more attention from me. Consequently, reviewing notes can be more effective if they are in written form.

Writing by hand is slower than typing, and students cannot possibly write down every word in a lecture. But in the process they listen, digest, and summarize so that they can capture the essence of the information. So I prefer taking notes by hand.

As we all know,taking notes by your own hands is always the best way to master much information from professors.When you write the contents that you conclude down in your papers,you can remember and understand the knowledge with a more deep expression gradually.In contrast,using the laptops maybe more efficent in a way,but,in my opinion,I must claim that they will attract your attentions of the class.And this leads to a low acquirement from your excellent professors.Furthermore,you mostly won't review those notes which you have recorded in your laptops.

I have to say that taking note by laptops and cellphones are utterly convenient.It is fast and well-kept.But when I try to comprehend and recite it,I'll write it down by hand so that I can be focused.

Maybe i'm easy to click on a new page or open an app even a game involuntarily when i use my laptop to take notes.it will distract my attention to work.
Besides , how can make my laptop have electricity all the time without charge it anywhere and anytime?

With the universal of laptops and tablets,college students have more choices to take notes.The "new-fashioned" way was popular among them and become a tendency to instead taking notes by hand.We should have objective attitude on it. The advantage is we can boost the process of studying efficiently in a proper way.The drawback is we should be distracted by other information from it and addicted into games.We lose the motive power of listening to the instructor carefully.In my opinion,we should try to take note by hand and we can remember and understand the knoweledge in the process.The proverb "Write one time rather than see thousand times"means the most effective study way is taking notes by hand.

It's quite normal that college students are used to take laptops with them wherever they are.What 's more,they usually have reasonable reasons to do that,such as searching for professional information in need and making notes.But in the most cases,they just want to be online all the time so that they can check the messages from Facebook or Tweeter.