The value of Note Taking
I taught furniture design to college students for 45 years. I oversaw the use of three small CNCs that I had optimized for making furniture parts and cutting joinery details to connect the parts. Every semester I let the students know that if they wanted me to cut anything on the CNCs for them they should submit a 2D .DXF file, laid out where they wanted it cut in an included outline of the board it would be cut from. The home point where the (0,0) X axis and Y axis should be at the bottom left corner of the board outline. When I started receiving files it was rare that the students had followed those instructions. When I did get a file laid out as I had requested I asked the student how she got it right when the rest of the class hadn't. She replied "I took notes". This is just one of the many times I could correlate that instructions were followed because the student had written down the instructions I had given. Students that didn't take notes would send me files that when opened I had to zoom way out to find. I'd see a spec in a corner that was their vectors. I'd have to select them all and move them to the center area where home (0,0) lived. Many times they would forget to add the perimeter of the board.
That reveals a flawed assumption by students that they can remember details of a lecture exactly just listening to them. The very act of writing down the details helps you focus and remember it later. The notes are just insurance that you have the information to refer to when the time comes.
My advice to college administrators is that this should be on a credit card sized handout to all freshmen students on the very first day of classes.
"Take Notes!"
Add a fresh new notebook and pencil along with the card. No excuses left.
4D
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