Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

76 Studying online 
Use digital paper for notes 
One way you can integrate your handwritten notes with your dig-
ital fles is to create handwritten notes using digital paper. Tere 
are various ways in which you can do this, but it means that you 
can write on paper, and your notes are then converted into digi-
tal fles, which you can then attach to the information you have 
stored on your computer. 
One of the most popular methods of digital notetaking is a system 
called Livescribe™. Tis is a special pen that uses specifc paper in 
notepads or notebooks. Te pen and the paper work together so 
that the system records precisely where on the page a particular 
note was made. It can also record the audio of a lecture and con-
nect a specifc note at a particular point with the relevant time in 
the sound fle. As a result, you can press on the page and listen to 
what was being said at the precise time you made that note. Te 
handwritten notes are also converted by software to appear on 
your computer or mobile device app. Several studies of the use 
of Livescribe™ have shown it to be of beneft to students. For ex-
ample, research at Southern Connecticut State University found 
that students who used Livescribe™ for notetaking had improved 
focus and higher performance (Tucker and Zamfr, 2021). Studies 
have also shown that for students with dyslexia and other learning 
difculties, digital notetaking systems like Livescribe™ can be of 
signifcant help (Belson, Hartmann, and Sherman, 2013). 
However, other digital notetaking systems do not require special 
paper. Tese allow you to use any notepad or notebook. When 
writing your notes, you attach a small camera-based device to 
the top of the page. You then write your notes with the special 
pen, and the system can track what you are writing. Like Live-
scribe™, these systems convert your notes to digital form, allowing 
you to store your handwritten notes together with all your other 
computer-based notes and resources. 
An alternative is to buy a special notepad that has special marks 
on it to allow you to store your notes digitally when you snap a 

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