Dave Ferguson is, I believe, the funniest blogger in learning and development. He’s also brilliant and well worth reading. In this post, Mr. Ferguson discusses the role of note taking in learning. He also discusses the tools he uses; which include Microsoft Word:
If I’m trying to capture a lot of information for later analysis and search, my first stop is… Microsoft Word’s outlining. I’ve created a few outline templates (one with I-A-1-a numbering, one with that technoid 1.0, 1.1, 1.1.1 format, and other with indents and various bullets for different levels). I type fast and can shift outline levels almost without thinking, which means I’ve got more bandwidth available to take in and reprocess whatever I’m outlining.
Evernote:
Especially when the knowledge stream’s wider than it is deep, I use Evernote. I like the idea that my notes are in two places–online, where I can access them from any computer, and on my own laptop, where my useful paranoia means I back my stuff up.
The big idea in this post is that note taking for learning should not be a transcription of what was said:
If you were into straight transcription, like a court reporter, then it’s possible you learn very little, because your focus is purely on the capture. But for notes to be useful, other than as a transcript, you’re doing things mentally while you’re doing things physically.
This is a timely post for me. Increasingly, I find my current technique of taking notes in pen in a lined notebook to be a major pain when it comes to retrieval. It’s a hassle to flip pages looking for something that was agreed upon in a meeting three months ago. So, I’m going to make a concerted effort to use Evernote. I gave it a passing glance about a year ago but never really used it. It’s been so long since I loogged in, I even had to use the “Forgot your password?” feature. (RN)
Note-worthy knowledge management | Dave’s Whiteboard | Dave Ferguson | 7 July 2010
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Richard, thanks for the kind words, though the fact that I use Word, let alone have custom templates for outlining, isn’t going to convince anyone of my brilliance. Even me.
I wouldn’t disparage your paper notebook. I’m fond of them myself, as you can see from the post. I have a one reserved just for blog and web tinkering (the mechanics, I mean), and another where I do self-assigned homework in French. In that last example, I find the slower speed of handwriting (no way I can hit 85 words per minute with a pen) allows me to focus on, say, when to follow a verb with de and when when à.
I was slow to take to Evernote, but I’m using it more and more. One example: I was at a client site without my own computer. The client arranged for me to view documents related to the project I was doing for them. I opened a browser and connected to Evernote, then toggled back and forth, pasting text or images into the online version of my notebook, adding notes to myself as I did. When I got home, launching Evernote on my computer fired off the synchronization, and I had all the information locally. Plus, I could search for text in things like diagrams.
Dave Ferguson´s last blog ..Note-worthy knowledge management
I’ve also been using Evernote more and more. It’s a great program. I love the web-clip function, which clips webpages of interest right into my designated notebooks. Mind you, it is hard to give up pen and paper habit for its convenience despite the fact those notes get quickly scattered!