Writing has always been an integral part of learning and development, however as the education landscape changes in Singapore with the advent of digital transformation of the classroom, it is important to understand the power of digital inking.
Digital inking is referred as technology that enables handwriting to represent in its natural form. Any pen enabled device with a digital pen can facilitate in digital inking. The digital pen or a smart pen is a battery-operated writing pen that has a look and feel of a regular pen. It enables the user to digitally handwrite on a pen enabled device such as Microsoft Surface Pro or HP ProBook X360, HP EliteBook 360, HP Pro X2 612 G2. The pen provides a natural way to handwrite and hand draw. Annotation, doodling, writing, sketching is some of the common usage of the digital pen.
Pen enabled devices have proved to increase student’s ability to solve problems, communicate and learn during note taking. Research suggests that retention rate of students is higher when they write instead of type. OneNote offers real-time annotation of notes (Notes and course materials are stored in Microsoft One Drive) that are delivered directly to student’s personal devices and are sent to teachers for real time assessments and feedback.
Think of subjects like science, technology, engineering, and mathematics that are non-linguistic subjects in nature, pen interfaces are better suited for visual–spatial content. Grid papers, equation solving and the ability to annotate diagrams and draw not only enhances learning of the students but it also offers a single delivery system for the educators. Devices such as Surface Pro, HP EliteBook 360, HP ProBook (Windows 10), HP Pro X2 612 G2 with a digital pen and learning tools in One Note provides a collaborative learning experience. Both teacher and the student can enjoy the collaborative benefits in a digital environment. In addition, you can get creative with a variety of other tools and effects and the best part is the natural feel of pen and paper fulfills the importance of learning and retention through handwriting.
As we look around today’s classroom, we may begin to see less and less physical paper however, it does not mean that learning and retention has to be compromised due to lack of actual handwriting (lack of cognitive skills) among students, the pen enabled devices provide a balance between typing as well as handwriting.