Hi Leonard,
Great posts. I'll give them their due consideration when I have more
time.
In the meantime, in response to your question about cognitive load, I
thought you might want to investigate the following book, and edited
volume: Handling Complexity in Learning Environments: Theory and
Research. It has a few pieces which considers cognitive (over)load and
might prove useful to you. I wrote a review of the book for TLAR some
years back. You may also want to look at the work of Richard Mayer who
does high quality research on college learning/strategies and multi-
media--he has one article in the book I mentioned--but has many, many
more.
Best,
Nic
__________________________________
Dominic (Nic) J. Voge
[log in to unmask]
(609)258-6921
http://www.princeton.edu/mcgraw/us/
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By request
On Apr 3, 2014, at 11:42 AM, Geddes, Leonard G. wrote:
> I will dig up that PowerPoint and post it to the list serve. It may
> take a couple of days, as I am in the middle of a webinar series.
>
> In the meantime, I'd love to get feedback on this:
>
> I have asked students over the years about the concept of cognitive
> overload during the note-taking process. If you think about it,
> while note-taking is a routine task, it involves a variety of
> cognitive functions that must work collaboratively.
> * Listening (auditory) - students must listen to the presenter
> (and I don't just mean hear the presenter)
> * Viewing (visual) - students must be able to see the screen,
> board, etc.
> * Writing or Typing (kinesthetic) - students must record what
> they are hearing and seeing
>
> I call this "the triangle" because students' eyes tend to move in a
> triangle-like pattern during lectures: from watching the screen,
> listening to the presenter and down to their notes, watching the
> screen, listening to the presenter, then again down to their notes.
> Metacognitively, keep in mind that students must continually
> interpret what they are hearing and seeing before writing or typing
> it.
>
> Note-taking requires significant cognition. My fear is that
> presenters of information often make these functions compete, rather
> than complement each other. Specifically, I have wondered about the
> amount of load placed on students' cognition as they balance (or
> attempt to balance) the various mental faculties involved in note-
> taking
>
> Are any of you familiar with the Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants
> book? As a digital immigrant, I have explored my own cognition and
> found that writing notes first, and then transferring this to a
> computer screen is more freeing for me. I have tried to cut out
> the writing step to be more efficient, but have found that, at least
> for me, things don't flow as well. Even though I am a fluid typist,
> I believe my mind still requires an extra degree of effort to type
> what I am experiencing into a device, whereas I don't have this
> problem when writing.
>
> I have asked students, most of whom are digital natives, about their
> experience. I get a mixed bag of answers. The problem is that
> their responses are difficult to measure because they have built up
> a comfort-level with whichever method they use.
>
> Any thoughts on this?
>
> PS -- Research shows that the power of note-taking is in the
> review. Students who take notes but don't review them are not
> better off than counterparts who don't take notes.
>
> Leonard Geddes
> Associate Dean of Co-Curricular Programs
> Director of the Learning Commons
> Division of Student Life
> Lenoir-Rhyne University
> www.lr.edu
> [log in to unmask]
> (828) 328-7024
> (828) 328-7702 (fax)
>
> The LearnWell Projects Blog: http://www.thelearnwellprojects.com/thewell/
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Open Forum for Learning Assistance Professionals [mailto:[log in to unmask]
> ] On Behalf Of Becky L Varian
> Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2014 10:43 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Chron of Higher Education
> Importance: Low
>
> I'm very interested in seeing your presentation as well Leonard!
>
> Becky Varian, MS Ed
>
> Director, Center for Student Progress
>
> Center for Student Progress
>
> Office Phone: 330-941-1450
>
> Fax:330-941-1455
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Open Forum for Learning Assistance Professionals <[log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Bibins-Clark, Randi
> Y. <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]
> >>
> Sent: Thursday, April 3, 2014 10:11 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Chron of Higher Education
>
> Leonard,
>
> I am interested in the "Note-Making" presentation!
>
> Thanks for sharing,
> Randi
>
> Randi Bibins-Clark, LCSW
> Academic Success Practitioner | The Creighton EDGE Creighton
> University
> 2500 California Plaza
> Omaha, NE 68178
> 402.280.5532 | [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]
> >>
>
> On 4/3/14, 4:35 AM, "Geddes, Leonard G." <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>> wrote:
>
> Interesting topic and great comments thus far.
>
> Question: Why is it that whenever students are weak at something,
> they are always viewed as the problem?
>
> This mindset seems to foster powerlessness among educators.
> Education is a relationship between educators and students, so what
> one side does in the relationship affects the other. Students are
> not great note takers, but educators are not the best presenters of
> information. One of the original creators of PowerPoint created a
> short online booklet entitled "Death by Powerpoint" in which he
> described how the medium is misused. Educators were among the worst
> offenders. PowerPoint is a visual medium, yet educators often use
> it as a glorified Word document.
>
> A more effective use of the PowerPoint platform is to use visual
> imagery to complement the presenter's message. This way the message
> being seen by the audience does not overpower the message being
> heard. Students (and all other humans) operate best when they do not
> have to divide their attention among three different cognitive
> functions: listening, reading and writing at the same time.
>
> The metacognitive piece -- Students do not fully get how their notes
> will read to them later in the day or a few days later. Students
> must move from transcribing information to connecting what they are
> writing to how the information interacts with what is in their
> minds. This moves them from simply taking notes to making notes as
> Nic suggested.
>
> Taking too many notes is a very common problem; it is an indicator
> that students lack depth of knowledge. Distinguishing between
> important and less important information requires prioritization,
> which is a higher-order thinking skill in itself. To prioritize
> information, students must be able to effectively analyze the
> information and then make judgments about what is essential, not
> essential, the degree to which they grasp material, etc. And they
> must continually do this throughout class -- pretty tall order.
>
> I believe I still have an old presentation I used to share with
> faculty and our tutors on effective "Note-Making." I'll search for
> it if there is interest.
>
> Leonard Geddes, MA
> Associate Dean of Co-Curricular Programs Coordinator of the Lohr
> Learning Commons
> (828) 328-7024
> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> www.lr.edu<http://www.lr.edu>
> Personal Learning Assistance Blog - The Well: thewelledu.com
> ________________________________________
> From: Open Forum for Learning Assistance Professionals [[log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>] On Behalf Of cassandra.l.hawkins-
> wilson [[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]
> >]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2014 2:01 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Subject: Re: Chron of Higher Education
>
> Teaching all level of students, I have noticed that taking notes is
> a skill, which many of them lack. I no longer teach with
> PowerPoint. When I taught with PowerPoint, students would be so
> focused on the bullets, which were on the slides, that they would
> miss the actual lecture. I currently use the flipped classroom
> method to assist students with the retention of knowledge. I am
> interested in techniques that effectively teach students how to
> efficiently take notes.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Cassandra
>
>
> *Students: Please include your email address, phone number, and J ID
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>
> Cassandra L. Hawkins-Wilson, MA
> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]
> >>
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> On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 9:40 AM, Milligan, Teresa <[log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]
> >>>wrote:
>
> Many instructors at our college have told me that students simply
> don't take notes, and they aren't sure how to "get" them to take
> notes or see the value of them or use them, etc. I think this speaks
> to a couple of points.
>
> 1. Notes, as a topic in general, seem to be viewed as either right
> or wrong both in the content and the structure. In my view,
> electronic notes are tough for lectures, especially for struggling
> students, mostly because they don't (yet) easily allow for the on-
> the-fly structuring needed to match a speaker's thought path. If
> struggling students are afraid of doing something wrong, chances are
> they won't do it at all. We could use that ounce of preparation, as
> could our students, to scaffold for that fear.
>
> 2. Students do not seem to want to take the risk of ruling out a
> piece of information as unimportant, and then need to know it for a
> test or job. So, if they were to take notes, they'd write down
> EVERYTHING. Or, they don't take notes at all. What's more, writing
> is what we say + how we say it.
> Students can only last so long if they're struggling with both. We
> could do a better job of helping students sift information and
> teaching them how organize it.
>
> 3. Many of our instructors use PowerPoint for their lectures, and
> then encourage students to follow along during lectures. This is a
> great effort, but what a student might write down for notes is often
> already on the slide. We could explore how to use technology as a
> tool.
>
> 4. The issue of teaching teachers how to teach appears again! I see
> instructors too often simply ignore this and blame the student, or
> take a sort of sink-or-swim attitude; or, explicitly tell the
> students what to write down for notes. There are plenty of
> scaffolding strategies available to TEACH - not tell - students how
> to take notes without breaking from the normal curriculum. We could
> make that a part of a healthy professional development program.
>
> Whether electronic or longhand, the issues surrounding note-taking
> seem to be symptoms of a larger issue. That final quote in the
> original post - "...if the notes are taken indiscriminately or by
> mindlessly transcribing content...the benefit disappears" - hints at
> a starting point.
>
> Teresa Milligan
> Instructor, Elftmann Student Success Center Dunwoody College of
> Technology
> 818 Dunwoody Blvd.
> Minneapolis, MN 55403
> Direct: 612.381.3364
> dunwoody.edu/elftmann
>
> Let us not think of education only in terms of its costs, but rather
> in terms of the infinite potential of the human mind that can be
> realized through education.
> -John F. Kennedy
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Open Forum for Learning Assistance Professionals [mailto:
> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>] On Behalf Of Larina Warnock
> Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2014 1:24 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Subject: Re: Chron of Higher Education
>
> I find that many of my developmental students, regardless of whether
> they are using a laptop or taking longhand notes, take too many
> notes and take them on the wrong things (e.g. they write down the
> examples instead of the concepts). When they learn strategies to
> decide what they should take notes on and stop trying to write down
> everything the teacher says, grades begin to improve. Even so,
> students who take notes on a laptop also sometimes get distracted by
> the red and green lines of MSWord and try to correct their spelling
> and grammar as they type. This practice distracts them from actually
> absorbing the content. I think when we write notes longhand, we
> don't worry so much about format and we have no visible little lines
> telling us that we did something wrong. I wonder if turning off
> grammar and spell check while taking notes would alter the findings
> at all.
>
> Larina Warnock
> Developmental Studies Instructor
> WH214
> 541-917-2311
>
> We read to know we are not alone. -C.S. Lewis
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 1, 2014 at 7:02 AM, Nic Voge <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>> wrote:
>
>> Like all experimental designs, the application to practice is
>> under-conceptualized, but this is an intriguing finding. It assumes
>> that elaborated, organized encoding happens best at the time of
>> exposure, rather than, say, after class--which is dubious--and makes
>> no account of the "life" of the notes after 30 minutes.
>>
>> Nonetheless, it speaks powerfully to docile, mindless "engagement" in
>> class.
>>
>> Best,
>> Nic
>> __________________________________
>> Dominic (Nic) J. Voge
>> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]
>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>> (609)258-6921
>> http://www.princeton.edu/mcgraw/us/
>>
>> Associate Director
>> McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning 328C Frist Campus Center
>> Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08544
>>
>> Individual Appointment Times:
>> By request
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Apr 1, 2014, at 9:49 AM, Norman Stahl wrote:
>>
>> March 28, 2014 by Danya Perez-Hernandez
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Comments (30)
>>>
>>>
>>> Taking Notes by Hand Benefits Recall, Researchers Find
>>>
>>> Distractions posed by laptops in the classroom have been a common
>>> concern, but new research suggests that even if laptops are used
>>> strictly to take notes, typing notes hinders students' academic
>>> performance compared with writing notes on paper with a pen or
>>> pencil.
>>> Daniel M. Oppenheimer, an associate professor of psychology at the
>>> University of California at Los Angeles, and Pam Mueller, a graduate
>>> student at Princeton University, studied the effects of students'
>>> note-taking preferences. Their findings will be published in a paper
>>> in Psychological Science called "The Pen Is Mightier Than the
>>> Keyboard:
>>> Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note-Taking."
>>> The researchers' goal was to figure out whether typing notes--which
>>> is becoming increasingly popular--has any direct effect on a
>>> students' ability to understand a lecture.
>>> In a series of studies, the researchers provided students with
>>> laptops or with pen and paper to take notes. (The computers were
>>> disconnected from the
>>> Internet.) Students were then tested on how well they could recall
>>> facts and apply concepts. During the first test, students were told
>>> to "use their normal classroom note-taking strategy." Some typed,
>>> and
>>> others wrote longhand. They were tested 30 minutes later.
>>> The researchers aimed to measure the increased opportunity to
>>> "mindlessly" take verbatim notes when using laptops.
>>> "Verbatim note-taking, as opposed to more selective strategies,
>>> signals less encoding of content," says the researchers' report.
>>> Although laptop users took almost twice the amount of notes as those
>>> writing longhand, they scored significantly lower in the conceptual
>>> part of the test. Both groups had similar scores on the factual
>>> test.
>>> In another part of the study, some laptop users were instructed to
>>> avoid taking verbatim notes. Instructors explained that "people who
>>> take class notes on laptops when they expect to be tested on the
>>> material later tend to transcribe what they're hearing without
>>> thinking about it much." But members of that group received lower
>>> scores in both conceptual and factual tests than did their longhand
> counterparts.
>>> "While more notes are beneficial, at least to a point, if the notes
>>> are taken indiscriminately or by mindlessly transcribing content, as
>>> is more likely the case on a laptop, the benefit disappears," says
>>> the
> report.
>>>
>>>
>>> Norman Stahl
>>> flowercjs
>>> @aol.com<mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]
>>> >>
>>>
>>>
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