I am not sure that I will ever give up taking notes on a pad of paper. Last week, I attended a conference with many speakers. Many of the speakers were really excellent and gave speeches filled with solid information that I would like to use someday. I found that I retained the key points better for those where I took copious notes.
While I fully accept most things digital, handwritten notes are my typical choice. I find that I can take notes on a tablet or computer, but it always feels a bit artificial.
When I was in high school, one of my language teachers actually recommended that we use as many senses as we could. He said it would help us remember things more effectively. If you take notes by hand, you are engaging your senses of sight and touch as well as your mind. It's even better if you can read your notes aloud, he reasoned. It would also get the sense of sound in your mind.
It turns out that he may have been on the right track. In a more recent comparison of handwritten notes versus their digital counterparts, a study compared two groups of students. One of them took notes using the traditional method. The other used keyboards to type their notes. The students who took the handwritten notes turned out to perform better on quizzes.
Here is a link to the article that references the underlying study: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/to-remember-a-lecture-better-take-notes-by-hand/361478/
This particular study examined the use of keyboards. I wonder how it might have done with some of the newer tablet apps that can actually scan your handwriting. The end of the article indicates that this would have to be the next step in the research.
To be honest, I believe that it is not the physical act of taking notes that helps with recall. I believe that in order to take good notes, you have to think about the material and then put down the most relevant pieces in your notes. It is that thinking that helps to solidify the idea in your brain!
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