1. What are the differential effects of text notes versus voice notes on 5th grade students' comprehension supplementary science texts?
2. To what extent is there a qualitative or quantitative difference between students' voice notes and their text notes?
3. Do students have a preference for using voice notes or text notes?
4. If yes, to what extent do student preferences match performance?

Update for 2009

Collier County Public Schools has finished implementing a two-phase research study that investigated the impact of two types of note taking supports. During Phase One, 20 students were taught to use WYNN software (www.freedomscientific.com) as a tool to read two supplementary science materials. Students were asked to summarize each paragraph and answer any embedded questions within the text. Students were randomly assigned to either voice notes or text notes. Students under the treatment condition used voice notes while the comparison condition used text notes. Both conditions were embedded in the electronic text format. Students switched groups for a second science unit. Data indicated that students with disabilities performed better on posttests after using voice notes then using text notes.
Phase Two research then applied the study design to ten 5th grade classrooms in schools with various demographic profiles. Students were randomly assigned to Groups within their classrooms, with students with disabilities randomly assigned separately. Pre and posttests were administered to the students during the course of using two different supplementary science texts over a 10-week time span. Most of the 210 students completed the project.

Following training on both note taking features in WYNN, and instruction on how to summarize text, students read a WYNN based version of Amazing Cells, Amazing Bodies (Harcourt, Inc., 2005). Students in Group A were instructed to write summaries of each paragraph using the Text Notes feature of WYNN, and Group B using the Voice Notes feature. The groups then switched note taking modalities when reading and summarizing paragraphs in the materials titled Heredity (Harcourt, Inc., 2005).

The pre and posttests have been scored, and statistical analysis is underway. Preliminary results suggest that while reading the Amazing Cells document, students using voice notes scored significantly better than their text note taking peers, although the difference was small. The differences between the groups when reading Heredity were not statistically significant. Results for the small number of SPED students were analyzed separately and were not significant. Further statistical analysis is being conducted. In addition, we plan to examine a sample of the student text and voice summaries from each document for differences that might help explain the test results.