It seems that note-taking by hand (and reading traditional printed books) may increase student performance on demanding, conceptual application questions. It appears that when students decide on the most relevant information to record as they do when writing - or when they remember where in a book they found a particular concept - that this slows down and reinforces the process of learning.

BUT ... !

Students who use digital devices make more notes and have been shown to be just as good if not better at remembering facts and lower-order concepts. Digital text has also been shown to be much better for scanning, reading around topics and searching for key terms. It's also perfect for collaboration and multi-media activities, which have been shown to enhance and reinforce the process of learning.

SO ... !

Analogue life experiences can enhance digital outcomes - and digital tools can improve analogue life experiences. We don't have to choose between the two. We should choose not to choose and instead decide when each one is most appropriate in our learning!