My notes (using an effective note taking technique) and summary on the following video

I've often taking notes in a lecture and by the time I'm home, I have no idea of what I wrote. So it's very important to have an effective method of note taking.

The importance of note taking,

• It can aid study.
• Comprehension, the ability to understand.
• Help assist with exam preparation. (Cooke, D. 2012)

Every lecture I go to I take notes in, I put a date and the name of the lecture on the top of the page. Throughout the lecture I take notes that I think are relevant to me to help me learn. I also find that this helps me concentrate more throughout the lecture. As we all learn differently, it's important to develop a method of note taking that suits you.

Our lecturer Mr David Cooke gave us a lecture on "note taking" and told us about the four "note taking" formats, they are;

• Cornell Format.
• Outline Format.
• Sentence Format.
• Mind Mapping. (Cooke, D. 2012)

Normally in a lecture I would use the "Sentence Method", so basically I try to take down a lot of information from the lecture, I find this also helps me learn. Disadvantage with this method is that if a lecturer speaks to quickly it can be hard to take notes.

To summarize the following video, this is available here. (Turkle, S. 2012) I have decided to use a different format compared to my usual method. I am going to try the "Mind Mapping" format.

The "Mind Mapping" format is to place a key word in the middle of the paper and to link key words that are relevant to the topic. This can be done with smaller circles which branch off the main key word.

                                      My Mind Map

To be honest, I found this format a bit difficult to do will trying to summarize this video, I found myself constantly writing sentences and found it hard to just use key words. I think this format would be an ideal way of structuring as essay, but I don't think I could use it for taking notes. Mainly it's trying to find which method suits you as everyone will have their own way of taking notes.


References
Cooke, D. (2012) Effective Note Taking. Communications and the Learning Environment, Moodle. Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown. F025, 4th December 2012.

Turkle, S. (2012) Connected, but alone. [Online Video]. Available at: http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together.html?quote=1458. [Accessed 1st December 2012]