Evidence mounts that laptops are terrible for students at lectures. Time to reconsider the notebook and pen. Time to reconsider the notebook and pen. by Thuy Ong. Nov 27, 2017, 10:14 AM UTC ...

Once upon a time, university lectures were accompanied by the sound of pens scribbling on paper. But if you go into a lecture hall today, you will hear students tapping on laptops.

Normally she used her laptop to take notes, but, without it, she’d have to rely on a more traditional approach. So she put pen to paper—and found something surprising. Class just seemed better.

The debate continues over whether students are better served by taking their class notes longhand or on a laptop. The research is in, but the jury is still out.

Dust off those Bic ballpoints and college-ruled notebooks: research shows that taking notes by hand is better than taking notes on a laptop for remembering conceptual information over the long term.

Students in a lecture class can give the impression of lethargy: Maybe a student sleeps in the back of the classroom, maybe others fidget and doodle. The students who are paying attention may be ...