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Taking down the lesson/lecture does relatively little, you can do it on autopilot. If anything, it distracts from listening to the content. When I took computer

Taking down the lesson/lecture does relatively little, you can do it on autopilot. If anything, it distracts from listening to the content. When I took computer science at university (mid naughties) we were given digital lecture notes anyway. (Mathematics lectures did have to be written down but there were no typed notes to start with so it was just out of necessity.) It's the exercises afterwards that are useful for learning. Or summarising notes in your words.

arethuza 3mo ago
When I did a CS degree in the 1980s we had one lecturer who handed out copies of hand-written notes but then would talk about stuff that wasn't really in the notes - sort of verbal annotations. Guess what he would ask about in the exams?
1718627440 3mo ago
> Taking down the lesson/lecture does relatively little Not my experience. > you can do it on autopilot Huh, that sounds magically to me, I certainly can't. Actually taking notes down does the opposite, it forces you to get out of the autopilot, because you must think about the content. Taking notes down, helps you learn better, because you use way more brain areas to process the information. Instead of just hearing, you need to hear it, understand it, try to rephrase it in your own words, use you motoric skills to write it down, and then see it and the placement of element on your page. > we were given digital lecture notes anyway Which you don't learn anything from, because by downloading you processed exactly none of the content yourself. Yeah they are way better to eventually search the information later on, if you already no the topic, but for learning you need to start with understanding it and structure it in your brain, which you would have already done for the first time, if you have taken notes. > but there were no typed notes to start with so it was just out of necessity The necessity was created by the teachers in order to get the students to learn. It didn't fell down from the sky. > Or summarising notes in your words. Which is what you do, if you take down notes. And that on a real time loop, so you can't slack down or miss something, because the information won't come again.
- quietbritishjim 3mo ago
  Fair enough. We all learn differently. For me, having printed lecture notes meant I could listen (imperfectly!) in lectures rather than focusing on copying. It was a revelation after years of exhausting lectures doing nothing but writing. I now realise that sounds a bit like a contradiction. I said I could copy on autopilot but also I had to focus on it. I suppose it was more like the second one: I was so focused on copying verbatim (as furiously as I could as there was barely time to do it before it was rubbed out!) that I didn't have a chance to think about the content. > > Or summarising notes in your words. > Which is what you do, if you take down notes. I certainly disagree with this. No one I knew was rephrasing the lecturer's notes in their own terms. There was no time for that. That is something you'd have to do in your own time afterwards, at a much slower pace. > > but there were no typed notes to start with so it was just out of necessity > The necessity was created by the teachers in order to get the students to learn. I assure you, the main reason those maths lecturers didn't spend countless hours typing up their handwritten notes in LaTeX was not the best interests of the students!

arethuza 3mo ago

When I did a CS degree in the 1980s we had one lecturer who handed out copies of hand-written notes but then would talk about stuff that wasn't really in the notes - sort of verbal annotations. Guess what he would ask about in the exams?

1718627440 3mo ago

> Taking down the lesson/lecture does relatively little Not my experience. > you can do it on autopilot Huh, that sounds magically to me, I certainly can't. Actually taking notes down does the opposite, it forces you to get out of the autopilot, because you must think about the content. Taking notes down, helps you learn better, because you use way more brain areas to process the information. Instead of just hearing, you need to hear it, understand it, try to rephrase it in your own words, use you motoric skills to write it down, and then see it and the placement of element on your page. > we were given digital lecture notes anyway Which you don't learn anything from, because by downloading you processed exactly none of the content yourself. Yeah they are way better to eventually search the information later on, if you already no the topic, but for learning you need to start with understanding it and structure it in your brain, which you would have already done for the first time, if you have taken notes. > but there were no typed notes to start with so it was just out of necessity The necessity was created by the teachers in order to get the students to learn. It didn't fell down from the sky. > Or summarising notes in your words. Which is what you do, if you take down notes. And that on a real time loop, so you can't slack down or miss something, because the information won't come again.

quietbritishjim 3mo ago
Fair enough. We all learn differently. For me, having printed lecture notes meant I could listen (imperfectly!) in lectures rather than focusing on copying. It was a revelation after years of exhausting lectures doing nothing but writing. I now realise that sounds a bit like a contradiction. I said I could copy on autopilot but also I had to focus on it. I suppose it was more like the second one: I was so focused on copying verbatim (as furiously as I could as there was barely time to do it before it was rubbed out!) that I didn't have a chance to think about the content. > > Or summarising notes in your words. > Which is what you do, if you take down notes. I certainly disagree with this. No one I knew was rephrasing the lecturer's notes in their own terms. There was no time for that. That is something you'd have to do in your own time afterwards, at a much slower pace. > > but there were no typed notes to start with so it was just out of necessity > The necessity was created by the teachers in order to get the students to learn. I assure you, the main reason those maths lecturers didn't spend countless hours typing up their handwritten notes in LaTeX was not the best interests of the students!