It is often remarked that the pen is mightier than the sword, but how does it really fare against the keyboard? Or tablet? Smartphone or laptop?

According to a recent study, when it comes to better note taking and recall in the classroom, the pen might just be better for students than the electronic devices that are increasingly becoming more and more common in schools and lecture theatres. In research carried out last year on taking notes, scrawled or neatly-joined longhand notes were shown to promote better learning.

The researchers issued quizzes to students as they filed out of the classroom, revealing that the ability to remember factual information was equal for both hand-written and hand-typed notes. But conceptual information was remarkably better recalled by students who’d put pen to paper. Then the same information was tested a week later in classroom environment, where the pen note-takers outperformed their device-suing classmates in both factual and conceptual questions.

The researchers, Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer of Princeton University, believe that the pen wins out because it forces the note-taker to synthesise and summarise information in place of noting it word for word digitally. Verbatim note writing does allow the brain to take on board large amounts of factual information, but over time, the recall of factual and conceptual knowledge dwindles because the learner wasn’t obliged to shape it to their own comprehension when writing it down.

On this evening’s The Right Hook, the technology-embracing George will talk to Dr Vincent Mulrooney, former educational psychologist with the Department of Education, about the use of technology in the classroom and what influence it is having on pupils and students’ abilities to learn?

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