Micro note-taking on smartphone : the learner experience

Note-taking is considered as one of the main activities for students during lectures in the classroom. Indeed, many educators have suggested that note-taking can significantly improve students’ educational performance. Therefore, there are many systems available to capture what the teacher presents or explains during the lectures. However, less attention has been paid to the great potential of integrating Web 2.0 technologies with the learning process at universities for note-taking purposes so as to make it more effective. As such, the purpose of this paper is to extend understanding of learners’ experiences specifically when short text – the 140 characters, often used in social networks – was used for note-taking. The paper presents findings on learners’ experiences of using such a “micro” note-taking approach involving just 140 characters and suggests a feature list for a future note-taking system. The qualitative approach focuses on learners from one university in the UK. The learners were at postgraduate level, and data were collected through focus groups with the learners. Findings indicate that the use of a short text feature leads to a positive learning experience