Have you ever attended a presentation, class, or meeting and watched another attendee use their phone, tablet, or camera to take pictures of PowerPoint slides, posters, or whiteboard lists instead of taking the time to write down or type out that information for later reference? (And have you ever done the same?)

I’m not saying this is a wholly bad thing. I’ve done it myself when a teacher’s diagram on the board was incredibly complex and replicating it on the spot seemed impossible. Technology has its advantages and, correctly used, can help make our learning lives easier.

But I am fearful that if students (and language learners more specifically) start to increasingly take notes simply by taking photos of things instead of recording information in some more engaging and personal fashion, such lazy note taking will result in numerous negative outcomes. Here I will share three of them.

• Students will be less likely to really recall information later. For many learners, there is something that connects in our brains when we both listen and write or see and write at the same time. This opportunity to more actively process the information even as we are introduced to it makes a way for us to remember things longer and in a more meaningful way.
• Student listening abilities will continue to decrease. At this point, I’m not necessarily speaking of a student’s language listening level. Rather, when students are busy taking a picture, they are often not listening closely to what the presenter or instructor is saying. As with many aspects of our technologically-driven world, the art of listening seems to be lost while we stare at devices and develop consistently shorter attention spans.
• Students will not develop the ability to effectively organize and summarize information. The student who tries to transcribe a fast-speaking lecturer’s speech in her notebook will often become very frustrated, since the point of taking notes is to listen closely and write down things that are key, useful, or thought-provoking. In order to listen well and take good notes, a student must practice. By doing so, she can gain valuable experience in organizing information, prioritizing what she hears, and summarizing a speakers main points. All of these skills are useful in both professional settings and effective daily communication with relatives and friends.

When I start teaching a new set of classes later this month, I’m going to offer my students notebooks and pens, because I have a feeling some of them will come to class without these inexpensive but important tools. Whether or not they accept my offer, I will stress that they are to either write things down or type them instead of simply capturing screenshots. In this way, I hope that they will learn more in terms of both language and content throughout the term.

Feel free to comment below. What are your thoughts about “lazy note-taking”?