Effects of Technology-Assisted vs. Hand-Written Note Taking Methods on Academic Results on Science and History Tests

Overview

Objectives/Goals As technology advances as the years pass by, schools have gradually implemented increasing use of technology in the curriculum. Administrators believe the incorporation of technology in the curriculum will enhance and enrich the students# learning and education. However, we want to investigate whether technology has a beneficial effect on teens# academic performances. Methods/Materials We used these materials: science and history lecture videos/information, paper, pencils, exam papers, laptops. First, we presented the science lecture and had students take notes either by hand or laptop. They were given 20 minutes to study, and another 20 minutes to take the test. This was repeated for the history lecture. Results For the science and history assessments, we found that the students who hand-wrote their notes achieved better results on the assessments than the students who used a computer. The average science results for handwritten grades was an 87%. However the average for the computerized science grades was 61.3%. For history, the average results of computerized notetakers was 69% while the handwritten notetakers# results averaged out to 82%. Conclusions/Discussion According to our results, we concluded that students who hand-wrote their notes received better test grades than those who typed them. With our discovery, we can possibly help students improve their test taking skills. Some sources of experimental error: rowdy classroom behavior, inadequate number of test subjects, and some of the information in the lectures was too long and presented too quickly.

Competition history

• CSEF 2015 Cognitive Science (Junior Division Only) · Entry J0713

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