Best program for lecture notes

Posted by Slartibartfarst
Jun 5, 2016 at 08:20 AM

Lots of talk about OneNote in this thread.
I don’t particularly “like” OneNote either, and still rather dislike it.
For the purposes of taking notes and having that act reinforce one’s comprehension and retention, the pen/pencil and paper method would seem to have been established as the best notetaking method (according to recent research over the last few years, at any rate). I have used it thus and still do. I won’t go into a tiresome repetition of the pros and cons of manual notetaking here.

However, notetaking is only a first step in taking one’s learning into a knowledge repository, and for that there is a tool that, from my experience of an approx. 8-year experiment (can be had for approx. US$10 outlay) seems to blow the socks off anything else (including Scrivener, which I also use).

From a separate discussion thread on this forum: http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/6474/5
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I should perhaps point out here ... what I describe as my “21st century Zettelkasten” (Refer: Microsoft OneNote - how to make it your 21st century Zettelkasten PIM. - https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=31755.msg393032#msg393032).
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I would suggest that the thing to do here is draw a clear distinction between:
(a) taking notes, and
(b) incorporating one’s notes into a KM (Knowledge Management) system.

As a lecturer and IT techo from way back and as a concerned parent, I would have to say that, if one is NOT teaching one’s children to use efficient and effective note-taking and knowledge capture methods, including what would objectively and experientially seem to currently be the most flexible note book and KM tool on the planet, then one is arguably failing in one’s duty as a parent.
For this reason, I have taught my youngest (14½ y/o) daughter how to use MS OneNote and some of the other tools it integrates with in MS Office - including, for example, Publisher, Excel, and Word. (The ability to perform data analysis and documentation/communication of results and knowledge is increasingly important in this day and age.)
She has also learned how to capture information via Office Lens on her Windows 10 Nokia Lumia smartphone (given to her by her older brother, who is an IT network engineer).

Generally speaking, in advocating tools and methods for my children to use to assist their education, I try to avoid experimenting with their futures in my ignorance.
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