tl;dr I always carry a pen behind my ear. This is why.
A Pen
When you ask people what they remember most about my physical presence, a few things may come to mind. I always carry my backpack just about everywhere I go. I legit will wear shorts year round. And I always carry a pen behind my right ear. When I leave my house without a pen, I feel a little naked. Having a writing utensil on hand at all times comes in handy often. I write notes on the back of my hand, sketch on the back of a napkin, or throw it to get someones attention. The most use that it gets, however, is when I take notes in my Moleskin notebook that sits snugly in the middle pouch of my backpack.
A Notebook
Writing things down is a crucial part of learning for me. Over the years, I’ve come to realize that I must have pen and paper involved to learn effectively. I take notes constantly. I did in college (and I have the full composition notebooks to prove it) and I act as the secretary for every organization I’ve ever belonged to. I have to write things down. I will opt for a textbook so I can highlight and write notes in the margins whenever possible. It’s just in my blood. As a technologist, people continue to point out how funny it is to see a programmer carrying around pen and paper.
But here’s the thing; hand writing notes has scientifically been proved to be better for students to learn. In a study titled “The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking”, Pam A. Mueller and Daniel M. Oppenheimer found that
“…whereas taking more notes can be beneficial, laptop note takers’ tendency to transcribe lectures verbatim rather than processing information and reframing it in their own words is detrimental to learning.”
Humans have spent thousands of years writing on papyrus, parchment, and now paper. We’ve had computer screens in our lives for all of 30 years. It’s hard to undo all of the evolutionary tendencies in a relative blink of an eye.
A learning journey
I try to teach as much as I can, for many reasons. I honestly believe that you never truly understand a concept until you can explain it to someone else. I also want to do my best to pass on my love for software development to the next generation. I recently took a night job teaching Web Fundamentals at the Midland University Code Academy. I got the pleasure to teach intro to HMTL/CSS/JS to 9 students who were starting their own adventure in the world of programming. I was amazed at how much I learned my self in those 12 weeks (I told them from day one that I was going to make mistakes and that those are the times when all of us could learn together).
I had never taught so many students together at once. Doing so really allowed me to see the variance in learning styles. Some of the students liked seeing examples over and over. Some picked it up the first time, no problem. Some wanted to see the same concept used in different scenarios. Another thing I noticed; many of the students were using pen and paper. That made my heart happy.
As the class was coming to a close, I wanted to try and cement the love of taking analog notes in the students. I held up my own notebook and told them that I had 3 more notebooks at home and I had filled up with mistakes, stories, and experience. Those pages tell the story of where you’ve been and will let you reflect on your journey. I bought each student their own notebook with an inscription inside the front cover. After the personal note, I wrote the phrase: “Never Stop Learning” in all caps in every single one of them.
Two hours after my daughter was born, I had a pen behind my ear. She also pooped on me…
Programming is like any academic endeavor. You’re going to have to take notes to be successful. You will also have to be on a computer for the majority of that time as you learn the tools of the trade. However, taking notes while on the computer may not be the best way to learn. Taking notes with pen and paper set you up for success more than any other method.