Write Pam Muller Study

The article written by Timothy D. Snyder in 2010 titled, “Why Laptops in Class Are Distracting America’s Future Workforce” is a persuasive article. His purpose in writing this article was to persuade professors to ban laptops in the classroom because he feels they are a distraction. Snyder’s arguments against the use of laptops in classrooms are convincing, but he lacks evidence to support his stance and he uses emotionally charge wording to sway the reader.

I think the argument that Cindi May is trying to convey within this article is extremely important for young adults to understand. Taking notes is a skill that students will carry with them for the rest of their lives. The article specifies that Pam Mueller had conducted an experiment with students who took notes by hand and those who typed them out using a laptop. The study showed that students who had used a laptop actually ended up taking more notes, however, it didn't help with their comprehension of the material. The students who wrote their notes out had a much better conceptual understanding of the material they were being tested on.

There’s no denying that technology has grown to play a major role in education and learning. Students are using laptops, tablets, and smartphones to research, complete, and even collaborate on assignments, both in and outside of the classroom. Timothy D. Snyder and Thomas L. Friedman both have written articles expressing their opposing opinions on technology in the classroom. Timothy Snyder is a Professor of History at Yale University who has written five different award-winning books. In his article, “Why Laptops Are Distracting America’s Future Workforce”, Snyder explains to students and teachers why he is against technology in the classroom. Thomas Friedman is a reporter and columnist for The New York Times, author of six award-winning

According to Jame Doubek, in the article “Attention, Students: Put Your Laptops Away”, writing notes by hand is much more effective than typing notes in class.He used an example of Mueller and Oppenheimer’s study that published in Psychological Science to demonstrate that writing notes by hand can be more potent than typing on the computer.First, Mueller and Oppenheimer suggest that with the development of technology, students are relying more on the laptop because laptops are small and and typing notes is much faster than writing by hand, so students love to type notes in class and always “try to transcribe all thing they heard”. However, the more words they copied verbatim, the worse

In the article Attention, Students: Put Your Laptops Away by NPR gives the evidence that taking notes by hand helps you retain the information better than transcribing them on a computer. The went on to present the findings of a study by Mueller and Oppenheimer, two college professors. The professors write “ This is suggestive evidence that longhand notes may have a superior external storage as well as superior encoding functions” (NPR, 2). This clearly suggests that their findings lead to the conclusion that longhand notes are more successful. In cessation, NPR showcases the undeniable fact that handwritten notes receive a more preferable outcome for students.

Many of our students have smartphones, laptops, and tablets they use throughout the school day for school work. While some students depend on their devices to look up the current fashion trends and football stats, we feel that technology has also enabled students to think in a different way. Many students are quick on their feet to Google information to prove their friend wrong, send texts and emails in less than 10 seconds, and get excited when they are allowed to use their

Throughout school, students are taught to handwrite notes. In college, many students transition from handwritten notes to electronic notes, such as on tablets and laptops. In the article “Attention Students: Put Your Laptops Away”, National Public Radio, or NPR, explains that although many students prefer taking notes on their electronics, handwritten notes have been proven to be much more effective despite technology.

Many students in today’s society prefer to use laptops for note-taking rather than writing it down the old fashioned way. Laptops may sound easier to type your notes faster, but it can become a distraction towards learning. Students who use laptops take verbatim notes, meaning they copy notes without giving it too much thought. Students who take longhand notes process the material better than those who type their notes because they must be selective towards what they write. Longhand notes are called generative note-taking. Generative note-taking is summarizing, paraphrasing, and concept mapping a text. Students who use laptops take nongenerative notes, which involves verbatim notes. There are two hypotheses towards why note-taking is beneficial

This is a problem that is common among most colleges and universities today; according to studies conducted by Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer, in most college classroom settings where internet access is available, evidence suggest that when these students use laptops, “they spend 40% of class time using applications unrelated to coursework, are more likely to fall off task, and are less satisfied with their education (May).” However, the solution for this problem is relatively simple. The most sensible way to rid distractions in the classroom caused by the use of laptops and other personal technology is to no longer allow students to use this technology in the classroom unless it is absolutely required for a class assignment, and also with the exception that some students may have medical disabilities that might require them to have some sort of technological device in class. In the case of a disability or otherwise medically documented illness or academic need, a provision should be made to allow these students to still have the technology in the classroom. Clay Shirky endorses that students seemed to noticeably exhibit signs of relief when asked to put aside their devices when they were allowed in class, and additionally that it was “as if someone has let fresh air into the room (Strauss).” This demonstrates that the classroom environment becomes much more lively and engaged from the learner 's side of the room when technology is pushed out of the

The research article “The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking” was written by Pam A. Muller and Daniel M. Oppenheimer, and published by the Psychological Science in 2014. The article focuses on a series of previous research on the topic and studies with the goal of providing evidence to answer their two main questions. The first question is which one the two note taking strategies works better and increases academic performance longhand note taking or laptop note taking. The second question is how verbatim overlap (word for word) affects our learning. In the article, three studies were conducted similarly but as the studies were made something new was added to explore new aspects of learning.

Some researchers argue that the amount of time we spend on the internet has disenabled us from being able to the “deep mental connections that form when we read deeply….” (Carr 575). Some other personal anecdotes suggest that technology has lessened our ability to focus. For example, Carr includes the story of Bruce Friedman who confesses that he has “almost completely lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article” whether on the web or in print (Carr 574). If such hypotheses are true, than removing, or at least limiting, technology in the classroom might be beneficial to cadets, so that there can be an environment where we can learn without a world of

Writing overpowers in the success of students retaining the information that they are taught. It's easier for a student to retain information when writing it down individually rather than typing everything their teacher has said or shown. Even with that being said, high school students as well as college students, are most likely required to turn in typed assignments rather than handwritten or cursive written

Sources of National Public Radio (NPR.com) defend writing notes from a lecture by hand versus transcribing them on a laptop. The writers of NPR.com acknowledge that although “typing your notes is faster...when there’s a lot of information to take down...it turns out there are still advantages to doing things the old-fashioned way.” NPR.com cites research published by Pam A. Mueller of Princeton University and Daniel M. Oppenheimer of the University of California, Los Angeles to further assist its claim. Because of the paraphrased study and quotes by Mueller and Oppenheimer, the reader’s sense of ethos is appealed to. The study surrounds the benefits of handwriting lectures and the disadvantages which lead to why more people would prefer to write them on the computer: one is able to type faster than he/she can write, therefore there is more information to look at as opposed to miniscule bullet points obtained by handwriting a lecture. Towards the end of the article, NRP.com sources break down an experiment done by Mueller and Oppenheimer on university students taking notes. The results of the study reveal that students perform well on remembering factual evidence regardless of how the notes are taken, but students asked “conceptual-application”, those who handwrote notes did significantly better than those who used a laptop to type notes.

Writing an essay on the impossibility of multitasking and the learning setbacks caused by technology use in the classroom caused me to reduce my technology use while doing homework. Deak says, “If you are listening to Mozart while you are going maths, whenever your brain starts to hear Mozart it has to leave the maths part, and that takes time. When the brain starts to refocus on maths, it goes through the whole process again” (Morrison 1). Ever since writing this essay, I’ve began to pay attention more to my own technology use and productivity. I no longer take short, frequent breaks while doing school work. Instead, I take longer breaks after accomplishing more of my work before switching to another task. I find that I am now more efficient and less stressed ever since I allow myself to do more work. Prior to writing, I would have never considered such an anti-technology stance, no matter what

Furthermore, as communication and writing skills diminish our school performance begins to be affected. The entertainment of mobile devices distracts nearly every student in the classroom whether it is texting, or playing games, or surfing the net. Mobile devices also play a big role in communication by making it possible for students to easily communicate with each other when they should not be. The power to communicate with virtually anyone is a major distraction. Some teens are so attached to their technological devices they sleep with phones on and wake up to answer text messages they get at night. When kids have cell phones in their classrooms they are extremely distracted from what is actually being taught. They are looking down and playing their games or going on social networking sites instead of listening to their teachers. With the constant distraction of technology and teens short attention spans reading and writing skills have suffered significantly and vocabularies are shrinking. This relates to their education and their ability to do well in school. Another problem is that technology provides students with the ability to explore numerous search engines for any problem they come across and copy them word for word. It seems that students don’t spend time thinking; they are simply repeating information instead of learning concepts and ideas. When students do this, they do not actually learn the