Taking educational notes: tips and tools

Taking notes can be very instructive: it can help structure it, (thereby) remember it better and it can then also be used for learning. How can you as a student take good notes now? In this article tips and tools, for both analog and digital.

Digital or Analog

Taking notes can be very valuable. By taking notes in a good way, you as a student are simultaneously processing the subject matter and you create a basis for continuous learning from and with. You can of course make those notes both on paper and digitally. What's better now?

Opinions are divided on this: this depends on several factors , for example the purpose of the notes. In general, you can see that making notes analogously is preferable, if only because it causes less distraction. Yet there are also a number of very good digital tools, aimed at building knowledge (see later in this article).

In any case, it is important that you help the pupils or students to make notes : explain how they can do it, demonstrate it if necessary and see if it is being applied correctly in the meantime.

Cornell method

On paper, an acclaimed way is the Cornell method. This method, originating from Dr. Walter Pauk of Cornell University ('50), focuses on taking notes in a structured way and then using them to learn from them.

Afterwards, as a student or student, you can use the notes to learn in a convenient way. You do this through the plane '2. Notes', for example with a piece of paper and to test yourself about the key words, concepts, etc. in the area '3. Keywords'. In this way you are actively engaged in retrieving knowledge , i.e. applying retrieval practice, a powerful learning strategy. A simple, effective way! Click here to visit scratch coding for kids in India.

Create digital notes

If you prefer to take digital notes, there are a number of tools on the surface, such as Evernote, OneNote, Apple notes etc. These are tools that are useful for meetings, but are not specifically aimed at memorizing or building knowledge.

Software aimed at building knowledge ('Knowledge Building Software') sometimes takes a little extra time to understand, but can then be very valuable for students (or yourself!). Below are 3 tools that are worth taking a look at.

Roam Research

Not cheap (€11/month), but offers some interesting options. Roam introduces a completely new way of taking notes. Instead of a collection of individual notes, Roam collects thoughts as a network ( like knowledge schemas in your long-term memory ). Briefly describing this tool is quite difficult, but think of a kind of Wikipedia, where you easily make connections between your notes. However, the notes are basically only stored online (although nowadays there are few places without internet). It is also interesting that there is an entire community around this tool, which together make the tools better and better. You can try the tool for free.

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RemNote

Basically similar to Roam Research, with slightly fewer options, but also cheaper (€0 or €6/month). Another advantage of this tool is that you can easily convert notes to flashcards: a handy way to learn concepts, words, sums etc. ( which can be done very well offline with the Leitnerbox ). In the image below you see a reference to the forgetting curve of Ebbinghaus . A handy and certainly not expensive tool, which you can also try out for free and use it fully for a small fee.

Obsidian

A tool that you install on your device and store the notes locally. This tool also offers some interesting options, such as converting the notes to a draft folder, creating your own note space (multiple notes together) and easily inserting links to other notes (backlinks) - something the other tools also can.

Obsidian has another advantage: it's free. For a one-time payment of €23,- you get earlier access to all updates, access to their community and support the makers. The tool sometimes feels a bit less 'natural' than the other tools, but in general it works very nicely. Again free, so give it a try and compare it with the others.