Click, type, tap, swipe -- Is the speed and
efficiency of digital communication an improvement over the more
laborious pencil and paper notes, worksheets, letters and reports? More
and more research is demonstrating conclusively that, while typing and
tapping may be faster, it is shortchanging the learning process at all
levels.
Start with children learning their letters. In a 2012 study led by Karin James, a psychologist at Indiana University, children who had not yet learned to read and write were presented with a
letter or a shape on an index card and asked to reproduce it in one of three ways: trace the image on a page with a dotted outline, draw it on a blank white sheet, or type it on a computer.
They were then placed in a brain scanner and shown the image again.
The researchers found when children had drawn a letter freehand, they exhibited increased activity in three areas of the brain that are activated in adults when they read and write: the left fusiform gyrus, the inferior frontal gyrus and the posterior parietal cortex. By contrast, children who typed or traced the letter or shape showed no such effect. The activation was significantly weaker.
Dr. James attributes the differences to the messiness inherent in free-form handwriting:
Not only must we first plan and execute the action in a way that is not required when we have a traceable outline, but we are also likely to produce a result that is highly variable. That variability may itself be a learning tool. “When a kid produces a messy letter,” Dr. James said, “that might help him learn it.”
Our brain must understand that each possible iteration of, say, an “a” is the same, no matter how we see it written. Being able to decipher the messiness of each “a” may be more helpful in establishing that eventual representation than seeing the same result repeatedly. This is one of the first demonstrations of the brain being changed because of that practice,” Dr. James said.
Start with children learning their letters. In a 2012 study led by Karin James, a psychologist at Indiana University, children who had not yet learned to read and write were presented with a
letter or a shape on an index card and asked to reproduce it in one of three ways: trace the image on a page with a dotted outline, draw it on a blank white sheet, or type it on a computer.
They were then placed in a brain scanner and shown the image again.
The researchers found when children had drawn a letter freehand, they exhibited increased activity in three areas of the brain that are activated in adults when they read and write: the left fusiform gyrus, the inferior frontal gyrus and the posterior parietal cortex. By contrast, children who typed or traced the letter or shape showed no such effect. The activation was significantly weaker.
Dr. James attributes the differences to the messiness inherent in free-form handwriting:
Not only must we first plan and execute the action in a way that is not required when we have a traceable outline, but we are also likely to produce a result that is highly variable. That variability may itself be a learning tool. “When a kid produces a messy letter,” Dr. James said, “that might help him learn it.”
Our brain must understand that each possible iteration of, say, an “a” is the same, no matter how we see it written. Being able to decipher the messiness of each “a” may be more helpful in establishing that eventual representation than seeing the same result repeatedly. This is one of the first demonstrations of the brain being changed because of that practice,” Dr. James said.
Children
not only learn to read more quickly when they first learn to write by
hand, but they also remain better able to generate ideas and retain
information. In other words, it’s not just what we write, but how we
write.
Children not only learn to read more quickly when they first learn to write by hand, but they also remain better able to generate ideas and retain information. In other words, it’s not just what we write, but how we write.
The effect goes well beyond letter recognition. In a study that followed children in grades two through five, Virginia Berninger, a psychologist at the University of Washington, demonstrated that printing, cursive writing, and typing on a keyboard are all associated with distinct and separate brain patterns — and each results in a distinct end product.
When the children composed text by hand, they not only consistently produced more words more quickly than they did on a keyboard, but expressed more ideas.
And brain imaging in the oldest subjects suggested that the connection between writing and idea generation went even further. When these children were asked to come up with ideas for a composition, the ones with better handwriting exhibited greater neural activation in areas associated with working memory — and increased overall activation in the reading and writing networks.
The benefits of writing by hand extend beyond childhood. For adults, typing may be a fast and efficient alternative to longhand, but that very efficiency may diminish our ability to process new information. Not only do we learn letters better when we commit them to memory through writing, memory and learning ability in general may benefit.
Pinecone Learning and Pinecone Academy recognize the importance of pencil-to-paper writing in learning. The math, reading and, of course, the writing programs all require students to work problems out on paper, write answers on paper (or in books) and make all written corrections on these papers. The results are overwhelmingly positive. While the students may be learning fast and efficient ways to get things done at school, they are stimulating the learning centers in their brains a little differently at Pinecone!
