I think everybody needs to practice <i>Precis Writing by hand.</i> In particular; students should be trained in this art. This will do more for knowledge retention and assimilation than any fancy technology (and i say this as a "techie").<p>All the greats wrote prodigiously. Its importance only sunk in for me when i read the <i>Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci</i>. Text, Symbols, Diagrams etc. are all brought together to express Thoughts and Ideas all of which can be revised and extended as needed. It is in the Refining/Clarifying/Modifying/Compressing process where "real learning" happens. You just need Pen/Pencil/Paper and a quiet place.
Some lovely thoughts in this article.<p>- Feedback mechanism: We construct our most deeply held beliefs by testing
them against our peers. Writing is a great way to do that.<p>- Keeping state: We aren't computer memory banks. Writing is a
technology that extends our minds in space-time. Many books/blogs
are written as a way to keep notes-to-self for later.<p>- organising thoughts: For me Org-mode is a key tool in my life. Code
and writing overlap significantly. I lean heavily on plain text,
simple markup, outlining and annotating reproducible code and docs
using Babel so I can literally "highlight and compile" my "writing"
into other forms.<p>One maybe missing in this article, writing as a portable pedagogical
tool, I wrote about it here:<p><pre><code> https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/joy-text-world-tech-zealotry
(sometimes this link works and sometimes throws up a paywall and I
don't know why, it may be a JS thing)</code></pre>