Comparing the effect of ICT and longhand note-taking instructions towards learners’ comprehension test results

Abstract

With the advancement of technology nowadays, taking notes by hand seems old-fashioned to most students nowadays. They prefer typing using their various gadgets since it will be done faster, especially when there is a lot of information to be recorded. However, the use of ICT devices (such as laptops, smartphones, and tablets) in the classroom has a tendency to be distracting for the students – it is very easy for the students to take out their gadgets and click on Facebook or other applications during a dull lecture. The purpose of the present study is to find out whether note-taking using ICT devices affect the students’ understanding of the lecture. This study will use a quasi-experimental design, with 52 English department students of a private university as the participants. They will be divided into two groups as the control and experimental group. Participants of both groups were instructed to watch a video from TED talks twice. While watching the video, the control group was instructed to take notes by hand, while the other group was instructed to take notes using their various devices. After that, participants had to do a comprehension test of the lecture video. The results revealed that participants who took notes by handwriting performed better in comprehension test compared to those who took notes using ICT devices.

Taking Images of Notes by Smartphone (Tin-S): A Comparative Study

“…Karjo, 2018) were found to be common whereas students' success rates in using pen and paper method (e.g. Karjo, 2018), and the outcomes of using pen and paper method (Luo et al, 2018) were found to be different. In her quasi-experimental study, Karjo (2018) investigated whether note-taking by using ICT devices (e.g.…”

“…Karjo, 2018), and the outcomes of using pen and paper method (Luo et al, 2018) were found to be different. In her quasi-experimental study, Karjo (2018) investigated whether note-taking by using ICT devices (e.g. laptops, smartphones, and tablets) had an effect on the English Department students' comprehension.…”

“…Strategies such as 'selecting the most important information from the whiteboard', and 'revising strategies' like concept mapping, making diagrams or spidegrams (e.g. Karjo, 2018) were found to be common whereas students' success rates in using pen and paper method (e.g. Karjo, 2018), and the outcomes of using pen and paper method (Luo et al, 2018) were found to be different.…”

“…The results indicated that students taking notes by hand performed better in the comprehension test than students who took notes using their ICT devices. Karjo (2018) stated that the participants using ICT devices typed more verbatim like notes (verbatim copying). On the contrary, the students taking notes using pen and paper selected the most important information because they could not write everything they heard as verbatim.…”

“…Stacy and Cain (2015) argue that the way students take notes, consume and process information in class has changed with the introduction of tablet computers, note-taking applications (apps), and other education technology. Therefore, recent research has concentrated more on digital note-taking which covers the use of technological devices such as laptops in taking notes (e.g., Fried, 2008;Jansen et al, 2017;Lauricella and Kay 2010;), or other mobile computing devices such as the tablet, the iPod Touch or iPhone (e.g., Karjo, 2018;Kim, Turner and Perez-Quinones, 2009;Williams and Pence, 2011). However, best to our knowledge, no research has been conducted on taking images of notes by smartphone (TIN-S) for note-taking purposes.…”