It's not really how my class takes notes. I put up an assignment and said if you want to write it down, go ahead, but if you want to take a picture, go ahead.
This was the result.
What I found interesting was the response to the picture. Most found it interesting or loved it. But a few former millennials weren't quite sure of it. One said he didn't know whether to it was cool or scary. The other thought it was sad. Another, rightfully so, worried about their ability to take notes in college.
I can see both sides. As a life long note taker, I think it's an important skill. Though I wish I would have been taught how to properly take notes. Yet, I know how college professors lecture and toss up notes, and it's nothing like the "proper" note taking format.
Yes, I have old tablets from college (and a few from high school even) chalk full of notes. Will I ever look at them? Doubtful. I can just Google whatever information I need. Did I ever retain all of the information I took notes on? Nope.
While I am all for teaching students how to capture their thoughts (or the thoughts of their teachers) and putting it down for use later to make meaning or write a paper (as opposed to just memorizing it to take a bubble test), I am not at all a supporter of notes just for notes sake or to cram to pass a test.
And this is coming from someone who takes notes all the time.
Oddly, last Thursday I was in a meeting where I was taking notes. We were trying to remember some of the topics that we decided on. While I was scrambling to find my notes, others were taking out their iPads and looking for the pictures they took on the sheets we wrote our ideas on.
So this isn't just something that the millennials will have to deal with.
In fact, when it comes to lectures and note taking, I prefer this definition of a lecture "the process by which information goes from the teacher's board to a student's tablet . . . without touching the brains of either."
Amen.
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