Technology and note-taking in the classroom, boardroom, hospital room, and courtroom

To date, technological interventions in note-taking have been generally unsuccessful in improving performance. One reason for this lack of success may be that developers focus on making note-taking easier, while neglecting how the technologies could affect the other psychological processes underlying effective note-taking. Importantly, since note-taking serves different purposes in different situations, the effectiveness of various technologies will also be situationally dependent. In this paper, we explore four distinct note-taking settings: the classroom, the boardroom, the hospital room, and the courtroom. In each section, we quickly review important past research before addressing the current state of note-taking in that arena, with special attention given to technological interventions. We conclude each section with a short discussion of what kinds of new technologies would be most helpful for note-taking in those situations.