Technology is having an impact on
children’s handwriting ability. But what does this mean for learning and
development? Cast your mind back to the most recent thing you’ve
written. Maybe it was a document for work, a message to a friend, or a simple
shopping list. Did you use a pen? Or did you type it?
The Situation
In many schools, students
come prepared to learn with their devices in tow. I am able to instruct
students to research topics in class using their computers instead of sending
them to the (gasp!) library. I am able to ask students to type essays and share
documents quickly through Google Classroom and Turnitin.
Recently we are writing all vocabularies and notes by hand. But we
are more rely on devices.
But now Students
regularly take pictures of the slides in presentations or the notes on the
board. They download notes from a website to read over it later. They rely on
text that is given to them instead of processed by them.
The Research
Research has proven that writing notes by hand creates
more neural pathways in the brain. Mental stimulation in the brain occurs when
we write, and brain imaging suggests a connection between idea generation and
handwriting.
According to Associate
Professor, Anne Mangen, “Writing by hand
strengthens the learning process. When typing on a keyboard, this process may
be impaired.”
When students take notes
from the board by hand, they are processing the information as they read.
Through this processing, they are internalizing more information than if they
were to just snap a picture to look at later.
As most of us know, writing
something down creates a physical engagement with the information we are
learning. Typing does not create the same engagement. Typing might allow us to
copy down a larger quantity of information, but this is detrimental to students
who need to learn to be selective in processing the information they receive.
After all I would say that we need to give more opportunities for students to
practice writing rather than typing.
