For learning it is better to take hand written notes

Scientific American shares A Learning Secret: Don’t Take Notes with a Laptop.

I find this interesting as my second daughter will be heading off to college this fall.

The article starts with:

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“More is better.”  From the number of gigs in a cellular data plan to the horsepower in a pickup truck, this mantra is ubiquitous in American culture.  When it comes to college students, the belief that more is better may underlie their widely-held view that laptops in the classroom enhance their academic performance.  Laptops do in fact allow students to do more, like engage in online activities and demonstrations, collaborate more easily on papers and projects, access information from the internet, and take more notes.  Indeed, because students can type significantly faster than they can write, those who use laptops in the classroom tend to take more notes than those who write out their notes by hand.  Moreover, when students take notes using laptops they tend to take notes verbatim, writing down every last word uttered by their professor.
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The study found that when taking notes by hand the student processed the information more deeply.  And a big negative of those who had laptops was too many got distracted and used their computer for activities not related to their classes.

Hat tip:  Instapundit