Switch from pens to keyboards cuts student performance
Student learning has been diminished in the switch from writing with pens to using keyboards, according to Peter West, director of eLearning at Saint Stephen's College in Australia. Research indicates that students who take lecture notes using a keyboard are more likely to transcribe content mindlessly, which tends to reduce performance on factual recall and conceptual learning. Students prefer keyboards, but pens support performance better. West suggests teachers use digital pen and paper in order to realise the benefits of using pens as well as connected technology.

Dive Brief:

Peter West, director of eLearning at Saint Stephen's College in Australia, writes for eSchool News that humans have 40,000 years of communicating with pen-like instruments and that students lose something when they move completely to writing with keyboards.

Research shows students who take lecture notes on a keyboard are more likely to transcribe content mindlessly, which leads to lower performance on factual recall as well as conceptual learning in short- and long-term tests — and even though students say they prefer keyboards, pens actually support their performance better.

and even though students say they prefer keyboards, pens actually support their performance better. Additional research shows keyboards constrain subjects that use symbols, limit creativity and increase cognitive load, and West encourages teachers to consider using digital pen and paper to capitalize on the benefits of the writing implement as well as connected and collaborative technology.

Dive Insight:

Many have bemoaned the loss of handwriting among students. Many schools are no longer required to teach cursive. Perhaps the shift has been too complete with the advent of the computer. But technology companies aren’t throwing away the commitment to pen and paper.

In its release of upgrades for the 2016-17 school year, Microsoft Classroom expanded the number of color options for its stylus in OneNote and added a math assistant that can identify whether students are solving a math problem correctly, as well as show what method would lead to a correct answer. Teachers now have the opportunity to revive handwriting without foregoing the digital world.