Going back to the Ancient times

With the advancement of society as a whole and the introduction of new devices that make our lives easier, such as smartphones, we've become more and more accustomed to the new methods of gathering information and actually putting It down into a physical record. Where before we had to take our pencil and notebooks out of our backpack to write what the teacher just said, now we just have to take out our laptops or just our phones from our pocket. Apart from the convenience and less space/weight that these devices represent, one thing that can be seen at first hand as an advantage is the amount of data that we can register with more precision and in a shorter timeframe, though not all that technology brings to the table is an advantage as I'll discuss in this article the comparison between the methods of writing on paper and writing on electronic devices. Though first, we'll have to learn what active learning and passive learning are.

Active Learning vs Passive Learning:

Active Learning refers Itself to the method of education based in applying strategies to engage students and their participation with the given material, via the promotion of Its analysis, discussion and posterior synthesis. Passive learning employs less involvement from the students, as they are just asked to internalize the information while It is being proportioned to them. Well, you may ask what this has to do with writing on an PC vs a piece of paper, and this is where we are headed with the concepts described, as two perfect examples for describing both processes are seen in the analysis and posterior writing (with our own words) in a notebook of the information just received and the writing in a direct form of what was conveyed using a keyboard and without much reflection.

Paper vs Keyboard:

Both methods have their good and bad points, though at the end of the day you'll decide which to us based on your priorities. We'll highlight the main utility of each medium. First, with Paper:

Analysis and Synthesis = More Effective Memorization

As straight up writing a concept we have just heard is quite a difficult task we resort to other strategy, which is to understand the overarching concept of the presented ideas, breaking them down and writing, as our own interpretation of It what we have understood. This will help us memorize the information in a quicker way and It will make It stick for longer.

And for the use of laptops, smartphones, tables and other devices.

More info in less time

As most of us by now are very proficient at writing with devices that form part of our life and daily interactions, we're able to type quicker than we actually wit with a pen, so using this will make you able to capture everything that has been taught to you for later use and analysis, though It will not be as profound in Its analysis and the quality of the retention of data as just using a notebook.

As we've pointed before, which method you'll use will depend in the type of writing you actually want, as sometimes you might need to write a long direction to pass out to someone without missing a detail and others you want to actually take time to ruminate on a difficult concept and understanding It better. If you're a student I highly recommend you to use handwritten notes over digital ones, as they will help you to process lessons in a more logical and direct way and will make you able to attach them to your memory for a longer time compared to word documents.

I hope that with this article you can learn the differences between two approaches in writing that are so common today and what you might use them for based on your necessities. Thank you for your support and good luck!