Today, people rely on technology. It is a form of communication that many people use. People communicate through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, emails, and so much more. It can be seen that paper sources are slowly disappearing. For example, the book aisle at the local Target is getting smaller, and students are using more tablets and computers in school.

In an article in NPR, Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer conducted a study that identified difference between the people who take notes by hand and by computer. Mueller explains, “When people type their notes, they have this tendency to try to take verbatim notes and write down as much of the lecture as they can.The students who were taking longhand notes in our studies were forced to be more selective.”Generative and non generative note-taking were groups that Mueller and Oppenheimer divided them into. The difference between generative and non generative note-taking is that generative is the form of summarizing the information, while non generative is copying information the exact same way it was written or explained.

They conducted several tests to see which one had the better outcome: taking notes by hand or computer. The tests included showing students videos and seeing who could remember the information better, one where the students on the computer could not take non-generative notes, and the final test was to look over the notes before a test and see who did better. In the end, the students who took notes by hand excelled at the tasks more than the non generative note-takers. 

Achieve teacher Katherine Devnich has taught Achieve for ten years. “Next year,” she says, “Achieve will become Avid, which is a nationally recognized program that Achieve was originally modeled after.” Avid stands for Advancement via Individual Determination. According to AVID’s website (avid.org), its goal is to “prepare students for success in high school, college, and a career.” This program consists of research strategies for the different levels of education (elementary, middle, and high school). These strategies help develop their skills in critical thinking, literacy, even math (avid.org). .

In Achieve, Devnich states that note-taking is one of her components for the class. She says that the different types of note-taking include: split pages, outline, mapping, charting, sentence, and Cornell notes. Devnich went on to say, “My favorite and I believe the most useful as a tool is Cornell note-taking.”