Note Taker Research Articles

Discovering the ozone hole

The article by Anne Douglass, Paul Newman, and Susan Solomon, “The Antarctic ozone hole: An update” (Physics Today, July 2014, page 42), made for an interesting read. I would like to relate an experience from the early days of satellite ozone retrievals. My first job out of graduate school in 1977 was with a small contractor for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. I was assigned to the ozone processing team and worked as a scientific programmer and note taker. With the best science and algorithms available, we were reprocessing the 1970–71 data from the NIMBUS 4’s backscatter UV experiment. In the winter of 1978, I was tasked with plotting the geographical distributions of where the retrieval algorithm failed. As I recall, there were eight failure modes, one of which was climatologically unreasonable ozone levels below a lower limit of, I believe, 200 Dobson units. The plot showed that the failure was predominantly over the Antarctic. When I displayed the plots at the next weekly team meeting, my presentation came to a halt while the senior scientists wondered what they all meant. I sat down and listened as they talked back and forth for the better part of an hour. Eventually, I finished my presentation with the matter unresolved.I like to say that I discovered the ozone hole. Of course, it was not the actual ozone hole but an early indicator that ozone was being destroyed in the south polar vortex.© 2015 American Institute of Physics.

The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard

Taking notes on laptops rather than in longhand is increasingly common. Many researchers have suggested that laptop note taking is less effective than longhand note taking for learning. Prior studies have primarily focused on students’ capacity for multitasking and distraction when using laptops. The present research suggests that even when laptops are used solely to take notes, they may still be impairing learning because their use results in shallower processing. In three studies, we found that students who took notes on laptops performed worse on conceptual questions than students who took notes longhand. We show 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.

Role of Fathers in Early Years of Child's Life

The study focus on investigating the perceptions and practices of fathers and its impact on children’s development. It attempts to establish the effect of father’s involvement in children life. Very few studies to date could be found on this subject area. In recent days, people are more learned and want to educate their selves on how they should deal their children and at the same time best practices for fathers should also be established by researches and studies. This study was done to involvement of fathers in child care as their involvement effects socio economic development of a child. Fathers are usually preoccupied in earning bread for the family however they should play their role in child care Purposive sampling was done for the purpose of this search after which focused group discussion (FGD) were conducted on 5 different locations to address all the socio economical classes of fathers. Father of a given sample were accumulated at a single place for the purpose of the research study and interviews/discussion were conducted in presence of a note taker and a principal investigator, prior consent was taken from all the fathers before the focused group discussion. According to the study it has been proved that fathers involvement had a great influence on children development. Children were good at schools and interaction with other where father’s involvement was high. Usually, fathers are ideal for child but studies shows that paternal involvement has been low in comparison to maternal but this perception is changing with time. The research identified that fathers are usually busy in earning bread for their family due to which they have fairly less stake in the child development however there is an increasing trend in fathers who understands the importance of their role in child care and child development and also they try to give maximum contribution in the upbringing of their children.

Note takers who review are less vulnerable to the influence of stereotypes than note takers who do not review

The current research investigated whether the opportunity to review reduced note takers' vulnerability to the influence of stereotypes when making decisions. Participants were presented with a trial in which a man or a woman had been charged with a stereotypically masculine crime. Results revealed that note takers who did not review were more likely to find a man guilty than a woman, and attributed a higher degree of offender relevant traits to a man than to a woman. Non-note takers and note takers who reviewed did not engage in stereotype-based processing. It was concluded that the provision of dedicated review periods reduced the extent to which note takers were influenced by stereotypes during decision making. Future research may consider investigating whether the benefit of dedicated review periods remains when jurors are presented with longer trials and when they are required to engage in deliberation.

The impact of laptop-free zones on student performance and attitudes in large lectures

The goal of this study was to determine if laptop use in lecture negatively impacts learning outcomes of surrounding students taking notes on paper. Two sections of a large introductory biology course (>400 students/section) were zoned into a laptop-permitted and a laptop-free area. Two sections in which laptop users could sit anywhere served as the Control. There was no difference in the attendance (∼85%) or percentage of students using laptops (∼29%) between Zoned and Control sections. Academic performance, based on exam points earned, was not significantly different for paper users in Zoned and Control sections indicating laptop use did not impair the overall achievement of surrounding students. However, there was a correlation between exam performance and note taking preference: paper note takers scored significantly higher and laptop users scored significantly lower than predicted by pre-class academic indicators (p < 0.01, paired t-test). The majority of both laptop (64%) and paper users (82%) in the Zoned sections supported a policy restricting laptop use to specific areas. Thus, while we further investigate whether the relationship between laptop use and performance is correlative or causative, zoning is an effective method for accommodating both laptop users and paper note takers in the same lecture hall.

Barriers to accessing water, sanitation and hygiene among people living with HIV/AIDS in Gomba and Mpigi districts in Uganda: a qualitative study

To explore the challenges that people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) experience in accessing water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) so as to inform policy and promote pro-HIV/AIDS WASH programs as well as equity in WASH investments. This was a descriptive study that utilized qualitative methods for data collection. The study population comprised of PLWHA as well as environmental health officers, water officers, medical doctors and HIV/AIDS care providers in Mpigi and Gomba districts, Uganda. Six focus group discussions (FGDs) with PLWHA (three for men and three for women) and twelve key informants (KIs) interviews were conducted. A moderator and a note taker facilitated the FGDs, which were tape recorded with consent from participants. Qualitative content analysis was done. The KIs interviews and FGDs revealed that PLWHA in the study districts were facing serious challenges in accessing and utilizing WASH services. It was realized that the safe water coverage in the study area was low and PLWHA had limited access to improved water sources. Additionally, they experienced social prejudices that left them in a position where they felt like they were not good enough, inferior and isolated. Such feelings were affecting access to and utilization of WASH services for some PLWHA. Many PLWHA reported that the cost of water per 20-L jerrican (0.04 USD at some improved sources and 0.4–0.6 USD from water vendors) was high and unimproved sources such as ponds and dams were the alternative. They also had a bad attitude towards water guard noting that it causes a bad taste in water and does not reduce the turbidity. PLWHA face financial, attitudinal, knowledge, social, physical as well as institutional and sustainability barriers to accessing and utilizing WASH services. There is, therefore, a need to design and implement appropriate WASH sensitization programs for PLWHA. Water treatment using disinfectants that do not alter taste and can reduce turbidity of water should be promoted and such disinfectants should be made available in health facilities for PLWHA to get either for free or at subsidized prices.

Traces Historicized: Beckett Traced

Andrew Gibson's intellectual biography of Samuel Beckett explores the main features of the writer's life and works. By highlighting key points of Beckett's intellectual development at elite Irish schools and at Paris's Ecole Normale Superieure, where the young man found a community of wittily ironic individualists of ethical strength, Gibson presents us with a writer who grew from being a scholar, a diligent note taker and a list maker to one of the leading intellectuals and writers of this past century. Beckett's distillation of melancholia, misericordia and caritas shows that his texts do not retell history but rather reflect the difficulty of telling it.

Reducing Barriers to Students Reporting Sexual Assaults

Reducing Barriers to Students Reporting Sexual Assaults

Sexual functioning along the cancer continuum: focus group results from the Patient‐Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS®)

Cancer and treatments for cancer affect specific aspects of sexual functioning and intimacy; however, limited qualitative work has been done in diverse cancer populations. As part of an effort to improve measurement of self-reported sexual functioning, we explored the scope and importance of sexual functioning and intimacy to patients across cancer sites and along the continuum of care. We conducted 16 diagnosis- and sex-specific focus groups with patients recruited from the Duke University tumor registry and oncology/hematology clinics (N=109). A trained note taker produced field notes summarizing the discussions. An independent auditor verified field notes against written transcripts. The content of the discussions was analyzed for major themes by two independent coders. Across all cancers, the most commonly discussed cancer- or treatment-related effects on sexual functioning and intimacy were fatigue, treatment-related hair loss, weight gain and organ loss or scarring. Additional barriers were unique to particular diagnoses, such as shortness of breath in lung cancer, gastrointestinal problems in colorectal cancers and incontinence in prostate cancer. Sexual functioning and intimacy were considered important to quality of life. While most effects of cancer were considered negative, many participants identified improvements to intimacy after cancer. Overall evaluations of satisfaction with sex life did not always correspond to specific aspects of functioning (e.g. erectile dysfunction), presenting a challenge to researchers aiming to measure sexual functioning as an outcome. Health-care providers should not assume that level of sexual impairment determines sexual satisfaction and should explore cancer patients' sexual concerns directly.

A case study: Problem-based learning for civil engineering students in transportation courses

This paper describes two case studies where problem-based learning (PBL) has been introduced to undergraduate civil engineering students in University College Dublin. PBL has recently been put in place in the penultimate and final year transport engineering classes in the civil engineering degree in University College Dublin. In this case study, the paper describes how PBL was introduced, the impacts of its introduction and the feedback received by students regarding PBL. PBL was introduced in these years to help students to become deep and active learners and to help them in the transition from passive note taker to researcher and lifelong learner.

An Examination of Police Officers' Notes of Interviews with Alleged Child Abuse Victims

This study provided a critical examination of handwritten records (notes) of interviews contained in a sample of 89 police case files about alleged child abuse. Some of the notes examined related to initial disclosure (complaint) interviews which were not electronically recorded and were meant to be recorded verbatim. Notes of electronically recorded interviews, which merely constituted a convenient summary of the case details, were also examined. Collectively, the analyses focused on the accessibility, completeness and accuracy of the notes, and the degree to which the interviewers' questions and witnesses' answers were differentiated. In relation to the disclosure interviews, a substantial proportion of these were not accessible. Of those where the notes were obtained, the detail recorded was not a complete record of conversation, and there was often poor delineation of questions and responses. Analysis of the electronically recorded interviews showed that these were not an entirely accurate summary of event details even though the note takers' sole task was to document the interview. The implications of these findings are discussed.

“Teaching Blind”

[1] Imagine this-it's a week before the beginning of the school year and you've just been told that a blind student will be in your sophomore theory class. What do you do? In late August 2007, I found myself in this situation. This essay is intended to enable someone in a similar situation to save some time in investigating available technology and in devising methodology. It will focus on teaching blind students, but resources for the visually impaired in general are also included.[2] According to my university's Academic Resource Center, we are required by the 1973 Rehabilitation Act and the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act to provide reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities.A reasonable accommodation is a modification to a non-essential aspect of a course, program, service or facility which does not pose and [sic] undue burden and which enables a qualified student with a disability to have adequate opportunity to participate and to demonstrate his or her ability.(1)[3] Some schools will provide extensive aid for the purpose of accommodating visually impaired students in the music classroom, including spending a significant amount of money converting textbooks to Braille. My university did not do this, but it did provide excellent peer tutors and guides.[4] The more time one has to prepare for a visually impaired student, the better. Hardware, software, Brailled textbooks and scores need to be ordered ahead of time, tutors need to be found, and teaching aids may need to be constructed. I have found that the more one can think through what the student needs and the best method for providing it, the more successful the teaching experience will be. Whether or not the student comes armed with the latest technology, the teacher should be ready to spend extra time, either preparing class materials or working together one-on-one.[5] Because my student had transferred from another local school, she did not come through our first-year theory class, which would have given me a lot more notice, and I could have drawn upon the experience of my colleagues. Our Academic Resource Center also did not have the experience to help me with any specific music-related accommodations.(2) It turned out that the most information came from colleagues who had encountered the same circumstances. I had sent a message to the SMT-talk discussion group that expressed my predicament:I'd ... welcome any suggestions you might have for helping a blind student in the second year of a two-year theory sequence. She's a transfer student, so I have little information about how things were done at her previous school (more discussion with her is in order). Somehow I need to find ways to do written and aural skills with her. We do have a resource center to help out, but they apparently haven't had to deal with a blind musician before. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!Many responses advised me about types of available resources, and about issues that might arise.(3) This information enabled me to seek out further resources, some of which are contained in Figures 1-4 below.[6] The following discussion will focus on the individual skills usually incorporated into a core music theory curriculum, how I dealt with them with my particular student, and other methods to deal with them.Dictation[7] At first, I gave dictation quizzes to my blind student privately or had her tutor administer them, since she did not have a laptop or other electronic note taker (see Figure 2) to use in class. Had I known about it at the time, a slate and stylus (Figure 1, item 1) could have worked as well. I would play the examples, she would tell me the answers, and I would notate them. After she acquired her laptop, we worked out a method by which she took the quizzes with the rest of the class. She does not read Braille music notation,(4) so we used a system by which she notated the pitches and rhythms separately in two different lines. …

Facilitating Access: What Information Do Texas Postsecondary Institutions Provide on Accommodations and Services for Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing?

Students who are deaf or hard of hearing often require accommodations in order to participate in essential functions of college life. Although federal law mandates access to campus activities, real access for these students varies by site. The present study investigated the level of access of students who are deaf or hard of hearing at Texas postsecondary institutions. These schools' online accommodations policies were reviewed in fall 2006. A systematic review of published policies was used to summarize accommodations and services available for instruction, assessment, and campus life. About half of the 157 schools provided information online. Examples of classroom accommodations included note takers during class lectures and extra time for tests. Nonacademicservices included referrals to community resources and course registration assistance. Results are discussed in the context of information that prospective students may need to make informed choices regarding postsecondary education.

Assessing readiness for post-secondary education after traumatic brain injury using a simulated college experience

Approximately 1.4 million Americans sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI) each year with approximately two-thirds of these injuries affecting people between the ages of 15 and 24 years. Consequently, many adults with brain injury sustain their injuries during a time when they are making important decisions regarding future vocational activities, including return to school. Cognitive impairments resulting from TBI present as a significant barrier to return to school and it is difficult to predict those persons who will succeed in school after a TBI and those who will not. This article presents a college simulation experience currently used in a rehabilitation setting. It involves lectures and examinations that test an individual's ability to learn new material. Lecture content focuses on the nature and effects of brain injury and on study skills. In addition, compensatory strategies commonly used in university settings (note takers, extended time for exams, taped lectures) may be used to assess potential benefit of these services. The simulated college experience provides a realistic appraisal of the individual's ability to learn information in a lecture-oriented class setting. It also provides information regarding the benefits of specific study skills and compensatory strategies. Case studies of three individuals with severe TBI are presented.

Early Experiences of Employing Consumer-Providers in the VA

Following guidelines in the mental health strategic plan of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), VA began in 2005 to fund a number of new positions for consumer-providers (CPs)--that is, individuals with personal experience of serious mental illness who provide support services to others with serious mental illness, typically as clinical team members. This study explored the challenges of CP implementation in its early stages within the VA. Four focus groups were conducted with a total of 59 VA CPs and 34 VA supervisors from across the United States. Group notes were coded by using a modified grounded theory approach to generate themes. Data from the groups suggest that hiring and employing CPs within VA has been feasible, beneficial, and acceptable to a majority of teammates. CPs reported experiencing some role confusion and resistance and fears among professional staff about how CPs would fit in. The authors make three recommendations on the basis of the focus group findings. First, CPs, traditional staff, and administrators need to be adequately prepared so that CPs can be effectively incorporated into clinical teams. Second, training for CPs varies widely, and efforts should be made to determine the best training package. Third, systems that are considering using CPs should establish a continuous quality improvement system to help evaluate CPs' performance and patient outcomes and to gather data to improve the knowledge base about CPs and their functions. CPs provide a wide range of recovery-oriented services and are valued by staff and consumers.

Children’s note taking as a mnemonic tool

When given the opportunity to take notes in memory tasks, children sometimes make notes that are not useful . The current study examined the role that task constraints might play in the production of nonmnemonic notes. In Experiment 1, children played one easy and one difficult memory game twice, once with the opportunity to make notes and once without that opportunity. More children produced functional notations for the easier task than for the more difficult task, and their notations were beneficial to memory performance. Experiment 2 found that the majority of children who at first made nonmnemonic notations were able to produce functional notations with minimal training, and there was no significant difference in notation quality or memory performance between spontaneous and trained note takers. Experiment 3 revealed that the majority of children could transfer their training to a novel task. The results suggest that children’s production of nonmnemonic notes may be due in part to a lack of knowledge regarding what task information is important to represent or how to represent it in their notes rather than to an inability to make functional notes in general.

Don't Be Afraid to Explore Web 2.0

WEB is a hot topic. The term refers to the next generation of Internet applications that allow (even encourage) the average Internet user to collaborate and share information online. It signals a major change in Internet use, since in the computer world 2.0 indicates a major upgrade to an original program. Web sites allow anyone to contribute content and to participate with other users in editing and even combining or remixing existing content with other material to repurpose it for additional uses. Thus content on the Internet is no longer static; it is changing and dynamic. A distinguishing Web feature is the increasing significance of the individual user, as anybody (even a fifth-grader) can create and upload text, as well as audio and video, to the Internet. Another characteristic is the reliance on user participation, often referred to as the wisdom of the crowd and the architecture of participation. Web has an inherent trust in people and what they can contribute when working together toward a common goal for the greater good. If Web (even though we did not know it was 1.0 at the time) was a read-only medium, today's Web is read/write. The Internet's first era of mass use required users with programming skills to contribute (upload) material to the Internet. Early Internet users found that material in a manner similar to going to the library to find and take home a book. In contrast, Web users still go to the library (i.e., the Internet), but instead of figuratively just taking home a book to read, they now enjoy other possible uses, including contributing comments, changing the contents, and having others simultaneously read the material in real time. So perhaps you are thinking that all of this is very interesting, but you're wondering, What effect can Web have on me and how I do my job? Maybe your favorite FM radio station is WII-FM (What's In It For Me?). Read what educators are saying. Kim Estes, a secondary instructional technology specialist in the Burleson (Texas) Independent School District, says Web is shifting the focus from individualized work to collaborative efforts, from individual learning to collective knowledge, from passive reception to active creation. Kathy Schrock, a technology administrator in the Nauset Public Schools in Orleans, Massachusetts, and keeper of the Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators website, relates that the ability to add to the body of knowledge about a topic, offer additional information, or state an opinion via public commenting on a blog or social networking site allows students to understand the importance of producing information for an authentic audience. Several thousand Web applications have become available in the last few years. These applications are generally free to individuals. One suite of online applications that promotes creating, sharing, and collaborating is Zoho (http://zoho.com), which offers a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, and note taker, among other services. Another increasingly popular and diverse online productivity and collaboration application is Google Docs (http://docs.google.com), which requires a free Google account. Google is increasingly becoming more than just a search engine. Google Docs is a suite of applications that allow you to import existing documents or create new documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. As with other Web applications, it is Web-based so you can create, edit, and store your material online. Using online applications instead of programs installed on your desktop or laptop computer is a hallmark of Web applications, so much so that it has acquired its own name: cloud computing. The all-encompassing Internet is the cloud. However, Google recently announced that it will begin permitting word processor users to store files on their personal computers in addition to using Google's online storage, thereby giving you access to your work when the Internet is not available, such as when you are on a plane. …

Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students' Memory of Lectures with Speech-to-Text and Interpreting/Note Taking Services

In one investigation with 48 deaf and hard-of-hearing (hh) high school students and a second investigation with 48 deaf/hh college students, all viewed one lecture with an interpreter and one with the C-Print® speech-to-text support service. High school students retained more lecture information when they viewed speech-to-text support, compared to interpreter support, and when they studied note taker notes or a hard copy of the text after viewing the lecture, compared to no opportunity to study. For college students, however, there was no difference between retention with these two kinds of support or with study of notes, compared to no study. For the college investigation, there was a three-way interaction due to markedly better performance on a multiple-choice than on a sentence-completion test when students viewed an interpreter and did not study notes. This result may have reflected difficulty in comprehending unfamiliar terms. Reading proficiency was also related to retention.

Handouts in the Classroom: Is Note Taking a Lost Skill?

Handouts in the Classroom: Is Note Taking a Lost Skill?

Surviving the Tornado of Mental Illness: Psychiatric Survivors' Experiences of Getting, Losing, and Keeping Housing

Surviving the Tornado of Mental Illness: Psychiatric Survivors' Experiences of Getting, Losing, and Keeping Housing