【推荐2】I was always that kid in school, the one whose notes were color-coded in shorthand only I could read. In college, everyone said taking notes on a laptop was superior. Recently, Princeton University treated up with UCLA(University of California at Los Angeles)to test this scientifically, and the results are puzzling.

Experimenters assigned college students to hear the same lecture, but either in a classroom equipped with notebooks or one with laptops. After 30 minutes of note-taking, students took quizzes on retestio, students took quizzes on retention(记忆力)of facts (dates statistics, etc)and concepts (comprehension, making connections).

While students using laptops were likely to take more notes and copy exactly what teacher said, they were less likely to retain the information. Laptop users memorized about the same number of facts as students who handwrote, but they performed worse when tested on ideas. This held true whether students were tested immediately or given a week to study.

The main benefit of typing notes: it’s faster. This could actually be the problem. Students who write their notes by hand are forced to paraphrase(释义)to keep up with professors’ speech. Experts say that summarizing forces students to engage with material. They think about lectures more deeply, processing and committing them to memory. But when students can copy down information as quickly as it’s given, they passively transcribe(逐字打出来)lectures without thinking about their meanings.

Perhaps because it remains so popular, many tips and technologies optimize digital note-taking. For example, apps like Evernote, FreeNote, and OneNote have been available for years. They keep notes organized and even allow students to include pictures. Experts also suggest using a stylus, which allow for extra speed while still committing notes to memory, a compromise between digital and handwritten notes. Apps like Noteshelf easily accommodate stylus users. And apps like ePaper allow students to customize(定制)their notes’ appearances(Which could have made color-coding much easier for me, back in the day).

This research by Princeton and UCLA does not suggest that students should never use keyboard to take notes. Rather, it warns against transcribing lectures rather than closely listening. This, they say, is what causes digital notes to slip through the cracks of students’ brains.

So, pen or keyboard? It isn’t clear. Technology can hurt students taking notes as much as it can help. But if apps and keyboards are used properly, not as a replacement for active thought but as an aid to it, the possibilities for note-taking are endless.

【推荐3】Simple Ways to Improve Your Written English

Many people think it is really difficult to improve their writing in English. Don’t worry, though. Here are some simple steps that you can take to improve your written English.

●Increase your vocabulary

To express yourself clearly, you need a good active vocabulary. That’s not just being able to know lots of words—it means actually being able to use them correctly.     1    

●    2    

People often say that we learn to write best by reading. Reading in English is useful in many ways. It is a great way to get an idea of the different writing styles.

Reading shouldn’t be boring.     3     You are more likely to remember the beautiful words in your favorite books and use them in your writing.

●Double check your writing.

    4     The first time, look for general mistakes and the second time look for mistakes with the grammar points you are studying at the moment.

●Just do it!

    5     The best way to improve your writing is to get a pen and paper and write. Be prepared to write several versions of each text.

【推荐1】While Jennifer was at home taking an online exam for her business law class, a monitor a few hundred miles away was watching her every move.

Using a web camera equipped in Jennifer’s Los Angeles apartment, the monitor in Phoenix tracked how frequently her eyes moved from the computer screen and listened for the secret sounds of a possible helper in the room. Her Internet access was locked－remotely－to prevent Internet searches, and her typing style was analyzed to make sure she was who she said she was: Did she enter her student number at the same speed as she had in the past? Or was she slowing down?

In the battle against cheating, this is the cutting edge and a key to encourage honesty in the booming field of online education. The technology gives trust to the entire system, to the institution and to online education in general. Only with solid measures against cheating, experts say, can Internet universities show that their exams and diplomas are valid—that students haven’t just searched the Internet to get the right answers.

Although online classes have existed for more than a decade, the concern over cheating has become sharper in the last year with the growth of “open online courses.” Private colleges, public universities and corporations are jumping into the online education field. spending millions of dollars to attract potential students, while also taking steps to help guarantee honesty at a distance.

Aside from the web cameras, a number of other high-tech methods are becoming increasingly popular. Among them are programs that check students’ identities using personal information, such as the telephone numbers they once used.

Other programs can produce unique exams by drawing on a large list of questions and can recognize possible cheaters by analyzing whether difficult test questions are answered at the same speed as easy ones. As in many university classes, term papers are scanned against some large Internet data banks for cheating.

【推荐2】Antony Aumann, a religious studies and philosophy professor at Northern Michigan University told Insider that he had caught his student submitting essays written by the Al chatbot, and Aumann had his student rewrite the essay.

It's not just his struggling with the rise of AI chatbots like ChatGPT. As a result of these tools becoming accessible to anybody with an Internet connection, education departments across the entire country are adjusting work process and redesigning entire courses, according to the NYT, forcing students to submit handwritten essays or introducing oral exams. The New York City and Seattle public school systems have already banned ChatGPT on their own networks and devices. “I think the consideration behind the ban is reasonable,” Aumann said. “They want to make sure that their students are learning the critical thinking skills that are part of learning how to write.”

But universities aren't likely to follow the ban. After all, going around these restrictions is quite easy. Even tools designed to assist teachers in catching students secretly making use of AI tools like ChatGPT will probably be of little use, because students can change a few words from what ChatGPT produced, add some grammatical mistakes on purpose, and the detectors no longer think it's written by a chatbot.

Besides, some professors including Aumann argued that the cat is already out of the bag. Once students are captured by ChatGPT's convenience and efficiency, it'd be pointless to fight ChatGPT in the classroom.

Instead of absolute prohibition, Aumann suggested encouraging their students to react to ChatGPT in the same way they react to learning source-they will be asked to evaluate its reasons and arguments.