As technology progresses and classrooms become increasingly digitised, perhaps it’s time to consider what handwriting can offer growing minds both young and old?
We can probably both agree that if you write out a paragraph of poetry ten times in a Word document, you’re likely to remember a lot less than if you wrote it out by hand. This is supported by studies such as that performed by the University of Science and Technology in Norway. This study used ‘high density electroencephalograms in a group of young adults and twelve-year-old children to study brain electrical activity’ and it found that ‘when hand writing… sensory experiences create contact between different parts of the brain, and open it up for learning so that we both learn and remember it better’.
So what does this mean for us in our everyday lives? For students like me, who are told to create endless revision materials using solely Microsoft PowerPoint so it can be quickly dismissed as complete in the assignments on Teams, it means that we should be taking initiative and creating better and more organised notes if teachers don’t allow us to complete our work on dead wood. This, as previously proved in the study, benefits learning and recall much more than reading over a PowerPoint. Of course, this varies by tutor as two of mine actively encouraged us during our A-Levels to write our own flashcards and notetake carefully, but others were less accommodating even when writing worked better for the student. This stems from personal experience – it may be different in other colleges and schools across the country!
Of course, digital skills are equally important and in some cases, a student may only be able to work digitally. This was the case for me last year and during exam season as I suffered from a condition that had developed in my dominant hand (which conveniently cleared completely up by the time I actually managed to get a hospital appointment). As a result, I couldn’t write very much at all without pain and I had to complete my final exams using a laptop rather than writing by hand. I’m extremely grateful that we live in a world where the technology is available to let students do this as I can only imagine how badly this would have impacted my exams if I hadn’t been able to use a laptop, but in first year (when my hand was healthy), I would have much preferred to be doing something else other than creating endless PowerPoints in class.
I think what I’m really trying to get across is that if possible, you should try to integrate more handwriting into any kind of learning you undertake. A new language, an Open University course, almost any kind of education will benefit from handwriting and you may find that you retain information much better than you do by just answering questions or watching videos.
If you’re an educator yourself, consider encouraging your students to write by hand more often. Writing out flashcards is tedious but possibly one of the best study techniques I’ve ever used, next to past papers and Cornell notes (I loved my Cornell notes!). Of course, everyone learns differently, but if you encourage students to at least try analogue learning they have the option open to them rather than feeling forced to do everything digitally just so they can check of that assignment on. Microsoft Teams.
SOURCE: The Importance of Cursive Handwriting Over Typewriting for Learning in the Classroom: A High-Density EEG Study of 12-Year-Old Children and Young Adults
