Note-taking policy: laptops, or by hand? My students are all highly inclined to take notes on their computers.  There are some obvious advantages:


The students absolutely prefer it.
They can easily search through their notes later.
Since their computers are out, we can easily do code-alongs or other short coding exercises.


However, I also read that taking notes on a computer leads to poor retention and comprehension.  I have been considering banning computerized notes, and requiring either handwritten note taking or telling students to forego notetaking altogether, and simply giving them my powerpoints after the lecture is over.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of such a classroom policy.  Which is better?
Neither is better. What is true for one student may not be for another.

Studies can show trends. Students are not trends; they are individuals.

As an example I encountered today that seems to go against that wisdom, I caught a news piece about a local girl in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. As she spelled the word she was moving her fingers in a weird fashion. Half-way through the word I recognized what she was doing. She was "typing" the word as she spelled it. She was able to remember how to spell the word by remembering how she would type it.

I have personally attended classes with someone who "doodled" their notes. She drew random-looking doodles, not pictures or pictographs, as the instructor presented. Later she was able to translate her doodles better than I could translate my long-hand notes. She also scored better on the fact-based questions than most of the class.

There is one major drawback to laptop note taking in class, however: noise. Few keyboards are truly silent, and the key noise, even if it's just the sound of fingernails hitting the plastic, can be very distracting to other students.

If you're willing to allow it, and school policy does not prohibit it, a third option is audio recording.

I've only been in one classroom where computers were allowed to be on, and it was distracting. I've never allowed them to be used when I lecture, or even during study time unless it's also lab time.

What seems to work best for situations involving lots of data, especially where layout and syntax can be significant, is to provide the lecture material in some manner after the lecture has been delivered. That could be done via Google Drive, or some other online source. Online access allows the student to retrieve it when they need it without having to access it immediately after the lecture. It also helps for the disadvantaged students that may not have laptops to bring to school. They can access it from the library, or any other source of online access.