Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Note Taking Apps: Top 5 Best Apps for College Students
collegecandy.com: There are times in college where you don’t want to bring your laptop and would rather use your iPad or Tablet to do your writing. They are easier to carry around and much more convenient for the active student. In today’s world that’s what you need more than anything to keep your notes organized and up to date.
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I would be interested to see a survey that showed the percentage of people who wrote all their notes by hand, typed all their notes on the computer, and who didn't care. As technologically savvy as I think I am, I think writing notes by hand in a spiral notebook is one of the last significant uses of my handwriting skills. For a while, I tried to take notes on the computer. And it really does have it's pluses! You can obviously reformat or shift information around to make more sense on the fly. I can type way faster than I can write, so I'm not always constantly struggling to keep up with the speaker. Yet, for all of that, I find writing my notes by hand to ultimately be more effective for me to remember what was actually talked about. Somehow, the actual struggle to keep up and write all the important information down is significantly more valuable. I can only speculate this is true because writing is a much more active activity for me than typing. I can type pretty much anything that comes out of the speaker's mouth, but when I write I have to be much more selective.
I wonder if these apps would ever help me in during my time in college. I not much for taking notes on my computer and/or iPhone but for those moments where I don't have a pen and paper with me and need to jot down notes for a class, a teacher, or even about an event that is going on around me. These seem like very interesting apps, but I can't tell how good they really are unless I actually download them and see them for myself. However, my iPhone and computer already have note taking apps that are included with the device. So how much better are these apps from what is already provided? Is it worth the extra space on my device? This article would be a great conversation starter for those who are interested in advances in technology and are interested in app designs and what makes an app good or bad. I would be interested to see what others have to say about this particular article.
I had a couple thoughts after reading this article. First, I try to take notes on the computer, but time and time again there is research that proves that the mere physical action of using the muscles in your hand makes you remember things better than using your technology. And the hard part about this is that I love technology and want to integrate it well into my life, so that's why I was interested in this article. Second, I was surprised not to see Evernote on this list. Evernote is an extremely powerful application that is free and has so many different abilities now than just note taking, but there is an argument that apps that distract too much aren't as useful but more distracting, as demonstrated by Simple Note on this list. Additionally, the appearance of Penultimate on this list was intriguing. I’ve used this app before, but not for note taking, it was for sketching. I however have to disagree with the description that it is easy to use, because I had a fairly difficult time finding the tools within the app, not because the app was too busy but because it was too hidden.
I have not really seen people take notes on their phone before because it would look like they are texting or doing other things on their phone and not paying attention. Many teachers do not like phones in class and they are very easy to get distracted on especially if you get a message. I think most people use laptops to take notes because it is easier to type on t full keyboard and organize documents that way. People that do not take their notes on the computer, usually handwrite their notes. Handwriting gives you the most freedom to customize your notes because you can write anywhere on the page and draw or write in anyway you want. Also the muscle memory of writing down your notes is better for your brain to remember what you are writing and can retain the information. If you draw doodles on your paper, that is also helpful to remember notes because you associate them with their location on the paper next to a drawing you made.
i often take notes on my iPad, especially in PTM and I use an app called notability. It is AWESOME! it is free and it does everything these apps do and more. I can handwrite in all sorts of colors, line weights, i can type I can highlight, import PDFs, pictures, charts, ANYTHING!. It is extremely helpful because I can type when I can but if I need to handwrite or draw something I can do that on the same page. My biggest issue is its not super easy to write on it. You need a stylus and those usually are hard to write with. There are some better ones but seeing as i go through 5 pencils a day on average I don't want to buy an expensive stylus because I will lose it. Besides that, taking notes on my iPad is really helpful because I have everything in the same place that I can have on multiple different devices.
Personally, I take my notes by hand during class because it is easier and faster for me to write and keep up with what the teacher is saying. I write in script too, so it is also more fluent than typing. I also never had the ability to just teach myself how to type. I use one hand to type and still have to look at the keyboard for letters as I do so. It would take me double the time to type it out on my computer that to just get a new notebook and write it out. However, I do re-type my hand written notes onto my computer sometimes for the sole purpose of never losing them. But I agree with Ben, it would be interesting to see a survey done to see what method everyone uses for taking notes and what is the most effective in the long run. There is an app for everything these days, this one was going to hit the spotlight at some point.
I am a little conflicted on this note taking and study easing apps. Aside from the fact that technology is making us so lazy that we can’t even write things ourselves now (we have to dictate them) but are you really absorbing the lecture when your professor is just talking at your device? And for the ones that say you can type them, you can’t type as fast as someone speaks and you also can’t draw as you type. People spend more time formatting their notes then they do actually learning from them. I do, however, like the note taking apps that allow you to write with a stylus or finger. I’ve found that still having handwritten notes online not only makes sure I remember what’s been said but is also easier to locate later. And I can diagram directly with in my notes unlike the typing and dictating ones. But in the end who am I to dictate t others how they learn. One other comment, I’ve read several studies on “brain training” sites like Lumosity and such. They don’t actually do anything. People should focus on increasing their knowledge, not their capacity for it.
I do not use any of these note taking apps. When I need to take notes on my phone I just use the notes app that comes pre-loaded on to the iPhone from Apple. I find it pretty easily to use, and very effective when I have to take notes on my phone. However, I really try to avoid having to take big notes (like meeting and class notes) on my phone. I do this for two reasons. The first is that I do not want people to think I am being rude and that I am texting or scrolling Facebook or Twitter when I am really taking notes. Secondly, for whatever reason it might be, if I take the notes on my phone or iPad I am less likely to look at the notes, than if I right them down in the sketch book that I carry around with me. I guess this proves that you really do remember what you do right down by hand.
While all of these apps seem great, I am disappointed that there was not more of a variety amongst the different apps. The author seems to have chosen all but one of them because they have the same features. I was excited about the app that allowed for you to switch languages, as it would be great for students who are not taking all of their classes in English. I also thought that the dragon Dictation app seemed extremely useful for students that don't type quickly. Several of these seem like they would be useful in the classroom, but I also have noticed that the trend of teachers allowing student to take notes electronically is disappearing as quickly as it came. In fact most of my teacher do not allow computers in their classrooms at all. I wonder if an app that allowed you to take notes through hand writing on a tablet and then manipulate them from there would be appeasing to both teachers and students.
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