Alan Clarke (E-Learning Skills, 2004, p. 26) made my day today when I read this
E-learning does not provide an event at which you are required to take notes. All the content is presented in a form you could save as a file or print out. It would seem that you can capture everything. However, the danger is that, since you can save everything, there is no need to read the material or make any particular effort to understand the content. This can lead you into a false sense of security that you have a comprehensive record of everything and there is no need for you to do anything further.
A. Clarke has spotted and described the problem very well. Novice e-learners frequently have a lot of misconceptions as regards what they should or should not do, and note-taking or rather their belief that saving files equals note-taking is a topical one. You have to take notes whatever your mode of study, you just have more tools at your disposal when you choose to take notes on the computer.
What you actually need to do is read the content and then analyse it. Word processors allow you to annotate electronic text that you have saved or highlight the key phrases using the bold, italic or highlight functions.
Hehe:) I guess my blog is an e-note-book in that sense. In addition to the formatting tools that Clarke suggests, I also use quotation marks and embed media when I deem that necessary.
“However, the danger is that, since you can save everything, there is no need to read the material or make any particular effort to understand the content.”
The quote made my day too! This is exactly what I feel from time to time. And sometimes, when I manage to find something particularly interesting and save it, I really have this strange feeling of fulfillment as if I had already read the content. Though I don’t neglect note-taking, there’s too much information on the Internet, and I can’t help saving and saving files in order to read them… later. 🙂
P.S. Anastasia, thank you very much for your posts on the forum. I appreciate my virtual acquaintance with you. If you don’t mind, I’ll drop in from time to time.
Thanks for the comment, Julia! It is nice to see someone else reading the blog, really:) You are always welcome to comment and share your insights.