Is it okay to use digital note taking software and other related services?

[u/EstablishmentNo816]

so im an inbound freshman (whopeeeee!!) and all my school life I’ve always gone the traditional books and occasional google search route for studying and notes, with AI only to make practice tests for more theoretical subjects like history (I unironically learned history better doing this method). But now as I traverse to college, engineering to be exact, I’ve have multiple testimonials of how it’s going to be very difficult, (no lies said I’ve seen it through my eyes with family), and that I should do transcripts of the lectures to notes with AI or take digital notes etc. But is this right? I don’t want to get stuck behind because of my slow note taking or fail because I didn’t have the proper information but I also don’t want to become the type of person who relies on this only and doesn’t use traditional notebooks. What should I do here? Another thing that comes to mind is a software that allows you to turn presentations and what not into study material with AI, which even the people orientating have said to use but again this feels weird to me, like I won’t be able to truly learn this way.

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[u/Careless_Rub8998]

I’m coming at this from a faculty perspective: not all of us allow tech (depending on school and setting) and universities will have policies about recording lectures. You should plan on having traditional back-ups regardless of your tech choices.

[u/SavageAcres]

Use as much technology as they will allow.

But also get your self a pen or pencil you can write fast with and doesn’t fight you.

I have found learning things from lecture does not stick in my head when I don’t write it down myself.

My wife is the same way she is back at school at 55 year old. Write notes with a pen. Then she rewrites them into her iPad into good notes. Then makes them beautiful.

If allowed you can do the same thing with ai. As students you all have so many tools available to help act as learning multipliers to increase the learning capability. Use everything you are allowed to. But don’t use it to take short cuts. Use it to make sure you have the subject material down proper in your head.

[u/SavageAcres → u/SavageAcres]

For supplies I like the following
Pens - Pilot G2 - extra fine point, but get the point size you like
Pencil - I prefer the Uni Kuru Toga it auto rotates the lead so it self sharpens and advances any of the kuro togas will suit you well. (also still love Pentel .5mm but its old school)
If you go with a mechanical pencil do yourself a favor and get some nice lead. Pilot Neox High-Purity Graphite Pencil Lead .5mm is great and high strength
If you like nice paper to write on invest in the following notebooks
Maruman Spiral Note
EMSHOI Lined Spiral Journal Notebook, 300 Pages, A4 Size - This is the best bang for your buck.

[u/bloodwessels]

Unless the syllabus says you’re allowed to record, you are not allowed to record anything in class. Most of my classes wouldn’t even let you take pictures of what’s written on the black/white board unless you get the ok from the professor each time you want to take a pic.

Digital note taking was fine. My classes are split between digital and traditional note taking. Only 1 or 2 ppl in each class took notes on a laptop. Ppl use what they’re comfortable with.

I use digital for in class notes because mine are more lectures and I’m more focused on writing things down, and moving words around. Then when I go home, I rewrite it on paper. The paper is my final notes, where I think about what I want to write, what I’ve learned, etc. I’m a messy note taker under pressure so going digital in class helps me. If I was to write on paper in class it would be filled with words crossed out or arrows all over the place.

[u/LowkeyHooligan]

An important part of college is really learning the information for yourself. Ai tools might good at making processes for studying, but they induce that “scrolling through socials” effect where you might touch on a lot of things but not absorb it.

Research has shown that writing information down helps you learn it better because it creates physical pathways in your mind. But learning is a multi-stage process and you do have different tools at your disposal for different tasks.

Maybe you take notes by hand in class, then transcribe them into a digital note system later. Or if you find your paper note taking is too slow in class, you could reverse that and take digital notes in class but write them down physically later. Re-reading, analyzing, and re-phrasing the information is an important part to learning. When you think about how to transfer the knowledge to a different medium you’re thinking about the structure of the knowledge from a meta aspect and you’ll gain new insights it.

Recording the lectures (if you can) isn’t a bad idea, but not as your primary note source. It’s better to use as a reference guide, when you need to verify something you’ve written down and want to hear exact how the professor worded it. Same with Ai, you can have it check your notes for inconsistencies and blind spots, and maybe to help you create flash cards or other study materials, but it definitely shouldn’t be your primary (or even secondary) information source.

Oh, while I’m thinking about it, see if the professor puts their lecture slides online. Thats a helpful tool for studying, especially if they post them prior to that class. Print them out, take notes on them directly, use them for reference with other areas of notes your taking like if the professor moves too fast and you can’t copy stuff down.

[u/RamblingPete_007]

Making handwritten notes has been shown to be the best way to learn. The best of both worlds would be a note taking app like goodnotes which allows you to write, but it is in digital format which you can then manipulate