Make Your Notes Last 📝 A Practical Guide for Students

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Well? What do you think? Is there such a thing as critical thinking, or is that just what naturally occurs when you know a lot of stuff about the world? And what should the goal of university instructors be: to train critical thinking skills or to share a wide foundation of fact-based knowledge? Regardless, the zettelkasten is the most holistic method for learning, notetaking, and knowledge management I've found!
This video by @JJMcCullough inspired the critical thinking angle of this video: • You should learn facts...
Why I put dashes in my note names: • Note Naming in a Zette...
Introduction to the Zettelkasten method: • The FUN and EFFICIENT ...
A different software that works for zettelkasten: • How I'm Visually Organ...
Thanks again to Skillshare for sponsoring this video!
✨TIMESTAMPS✨
0:00 - Intro
1:12 - what the heck is critical thinking
3:44 - you just need to know lots of information
6:02 - what your notetaking system needs
7:38 - grow your knowledge on Skillshare!
9:08 - start a zettelkasten for school
16:56 - an example
18:41 - a better example
20:52 - so, does critical thinking even exist, then?
21:26 - important final thoughts
Bloom’s Taxonomy image:
Armstrong, P. (2010). Bloom’s Taxonomy. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved 9 Jan. 2024 from cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub....
Videos by:
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Cottonbro Studio: www.pexels.com/video/writing-...
Cottonbro Studio: www.pexels.com/video/women-da...
Marc Mueller: www.pexels.com/video/people-h...

[@matr00n]

I wish I had seen this video 3 years ago and not 3 days before the deadline of my undergrad thesis. It would've prevented the crippling feeling of not having learned anything during my time in uni.

[@morganeua]

Oh dear, sorry to hear you feel that way! Maybe once your thesis is submitted you can go through all your notes and document them in some lasting way so that you don't feel like that in the future!

[@arii4514]

Wth I’m literally experiencing the same thing, down to the 3 days😂😭

[@JustinDMorehead]

As I begin on my master's thesis journey, I'm immensely grateful for this video's release! Your simplified approach to Zettelkasten is a game-changer. The idea of creating temporary folders for classes is an elegant solution to a significant struggle I faced in organizing my class notes during the academic quarter. Your solution blends organization within the academic term with integration with broader knowledge. Thank you!

[@morganeua]

That was the goal! But you said it much more eloquently than me 😅😛 Thanks!

[@2ngel2v]

4:12 Oh, I didn't know about Sue Young and Robert Wilson's learning model. It looks less rigid than Bloom's. Thanks for sharing, Morgan! ❤

[@morganeua]

I find it so helpful in both my teaching and my learning because it's so easy to remember!

[@JotaPalma]

This was a great intro video to Zettelkasten for students. I was lucky to have found the method a couple months before starting my Uni course in Psychology. I have such a rich knowledge base with all my course notes and personal notes from media I've consumed, and whenever I have to write an essay, I don't really start from scratch! I always have some notes and articles read about the subject.

[@rubenromeroruiz]

Greetings from México!!

[@arvendal]

Great video! 👍

[@carlospolesso6649]

I wish i discovered your channel years ago, you've been of great help to me on the writing of my Masters Thesis. Thank you so much!

[@JimShingler]

This video was very helpful in adding to my understanding of Zettelkasten. Thank You very much

[@yohanesliong4818]

Very helpful. Thank you.

[@brendanmullaley2359]

Amazing Video!!!!! :) great insight and I love your editing skills!

[@morganeua]

Thanks! I actually had to edit this one super fast and wish I had more time to make it even more fun and clear!

[@MariadeJesus-hj1so]

I really like your videos. Thank you

[@metanoiete55]

Another instance of excellent teaching! Clear statement of the question (and the target audience), helpful broadening of the frame of reference, excellent specific examples, and clean walk through of practical path to now-and-future active learning. Lovely to experience! Thank you for doing this.

[@morganeua]

Helpful breakdown of effective teaching, thanks! I'm always trying to learn a better format for my video scripts and make my ideas more clear without diluting them

[@giepc8887]

Great job. Thank you very much! 😃

[@chidiogoezeugwu8501]

Thank you Morgan your video has helped me see taking notes in a much better light. That it can prove to be immensely useful in building my critical thinking in the future!

[@xiu2828]

Im trying to find a good structure for my undergrad and this was super helpful!

[@flowingblaze]

This was a very informative and well made video, Thank you so much for making it morgan!

[@morganeua]

I'm glad you thought so! It combines two things I've been wanting to talk about on the channel for a while now!

[@anapaulafaurasalgado9928]

At least I'm not the only one who wishes they learn this back in Uni or high school. I know I've learned but pretty sure what exactly haha 😅😅

[@timbushell8640]

"Don't do as I did, do as I say." Said every parent, teacher and mentor. : )))))) ICE, nice...

[@cedargrace]

Yet another extremely helpful video. I love how you explain things in a way I, as a beginner, can understand. This is so helpful for me as I take notes for all of my classes. I have a funny concern. For every article I read for class, I end up creating so many notes because there is so much rich information I want to explore and capture. Is this ever " a problem"? I only started my ZK a month ago, and it is expanding quickly. I guess I fear it'll get unwieldy but I guess that's the beauty of it, it's all interconnected. As I'm "note-making", I'm thinking "I'll definitely want to explore this more later." So I save almost everything. LOL

[@morganeua]

I think that's great! At first. From my experience, you'll create a lot of NOTES at first and then, when you have a big mass of notes, you'll start creating CONNECTIONS. And the connections will deepen your relationship with your zettelkasten. Also, the connections will encourage you to create more notes that are closer to your own original ideas!

[@chrismoellering695]

Great video. I butted heads a fair bit with the "critical thinking" crowd when I was in instructor, because, as you show, you can't critically think without knowledge to think critically about!

[@Myyoutuba]

Thanks a lot this video was very helpful if you could make similar ones that would be great ! Also if you could do a video on how to actually study those notes and make use of them that would be awesome thanks again

[@lobb0108]

Not morganeua, but as an undergrad student trying out zettelkasten maybe my thoughts will help. For me, I actually don't study my permanent notes directly, but instead do most of my studying using the notes i took during a lecture/reading, which I make into a review note while studying that acts as a literature/source note. My system goes: take notes during lecture (i do this on paper, but you also could just make a folder for these notes in obsidian) --> when I want to study, make a review note for a section of content, like a week's content for a certain class, which contains a summary, study questions I make myself, ideas for potential permanent notes that stuck out to me, and a link to a quizlet/flashcard set if I made one --> make permanent notes from important/interesting ideas from this section of content, linking back to that review note. This means you can use whatever study strategies you want and put that in your review note, which acts as a literature/source note that you can go back to later while studying for a later exam or years later. the permanent notes are helpful if you need to write for an assignment, when you are connecting between ideas, or if you're searching for an important or specific fact.

[@StellasVegetablegardens]

What is amazing is i just added critical thinking to my zettelkasten as an area i need to explore and this was in my suggested videos 😮

[@morganeua]

Wooooah, that's uncanny.

[@StellasVegetablegardens]

@@morganeua Extremely 😄 I’m still struggling with my numbering system but i’m not letting it stop me as i’m realising how much my analogue system is helping my learning. I have obsidian but it is not triggering thought the way my analogue system is.

[@morganeua]

@@StellasVegetablegardens That's so interesting to hear. I always promote the physical version of a zettelkasten, because I figure it would be better for some people, so I'm glad to hear it is!

[@janechapman7801]

You can do one of those parts of the pyramid how exactly would you memorise facts without connecting it to other parts of you knowledge.

[@morganeua]

So so so true. Fostaty and Wilson don't conceptualize it as a pyramid, I don't think, that's my addition for this video. I think they imagine it more as a kind of cyclical process. People's comments about ice on this video make me think I should make a whole video just about that!

[@nkechicharles3559]

This was helpful as I revisit how to structure my notes in obsidian for my dissertation proposal. Do you ever track in Obsidian when you have used a specific idea or quote for a paper/article to avoid self-plagerism? Or just to note how many times you’ve referenced a note? (Backlinks would probably address the second question)

[@AurynBeorn]

Hi, Morgan: Thanks so much for these videos. I have now a clear idea of what should I use Obsidian for, and some of the _hows_. I have one question: Which criteria would you use, if any, to create different vaults? I am considering to document many cultural resources, for my own memory (books, movies, graphic novels, manga, videogames, etc.) which I understand, they belong together because it is easy to find connections among them. But, say, I now want to stablish connections among my language studies (I am currently learning English and French). At first glance, it would seem that all the knowledge belonging to languages learning, but not each language as a separate vault in itself, for we could miss relationships among, for instance, idiomatic expressions in several languages. Do you agree in that this could be a separate vault, or would you put languages together in that culture vault I mentioned first? How about if I now wanted a "hub" of mathematics knowledge? A vault on its own, separate from the other two? I can see many interconnections and not needing to use subject topic titles to relate all these concepts. But in order to create these big sets of knowledge, where do you draw the lines to decide what deserves to be a vault on its own? Any suggestions? Thanks so much in advance. Have a great day!

[@margaretshih3519]

Love this video, thank you! I am using this note taking technique for my grad school program. QUESTION: what do you think about tagging in Obsidian? #class100 instead of [[]] for categories like classes?

[@morganeua]

I totally think that could work if that's what makes sense to your brain! I guess one reason to use a note would be if you have general class information you want to put somewhere, like the class's location, time, teacher, etc. in case you want to refer to the class in future. Or if you want a place to dump all of your notes for the class before turning them into specific notes. And either way, I'd still also make a temporary folder for the class so you can keep things together while you're in it!

[@lobb0108]

this was so so helpful! i've been using your videos to try to figure out zettelkasten for school for quite a long time now, but i was getting overwhelmed by how complicated I was making it. this makes it so simple! a question though: i'm a big fan of handwriting notes during lectures, as i feel typing makes it too easy for me to write way too much info and forget about it, instead of summarizing real time. What would you recommend I do about using lectures as source notes in my zettelkasten if my notes are handwritten? My current plan is to put my *review* notes in zettelkasten as I summarize and study my initial handwritten notes from class. This would include a summary of, say, the week's content with review questions I make, potential ideas for permanent notes that stuck out to me, and maybe a link to flashcards. This would act as my source/literature note? My goal is not to overcomplicate things, so I'm not sure if that's basically what you would recommend (and if so, I hope this helps any other handwritten notes fans out there!)

[@vishank7]

Hi! I am facing a similar struggle, did you find a solution that works for you?

[@arii4514]

I’m going to have to watch this video a couple of times to really get this😢😂

[@timbushell8640]

"Uncritical thinking" is an oxymoron, no? ; )))))) The Zettlekasten/Obsidian process makes it so much clearer for the inter/intra disaplinary reading, than 'old' style school notebooks, one for each subject, etc. Nicely example driven explaination of the idea and process. Thanks again...

[@morganeua]

Absolutely. I should talk more about the interdisciplinarity aspect of zettelkasten more on the channel!

[@user-sn2we1kk7k]

Morgan, what is your source for ICE by Sue Fostaty-Young? Her book with Wilson is out-of-print. Th other one with stories in the title does not describe the ICE framework. Thanks StephT

[@SeekingBeautifulDesign]

Thank you for bringing up the critical thinking topic. Perhaps in the areas you described facts are a bit more solid...Shakespeare wrote this, the movie "Romeo and Juliet" exists and you can watch it. In most other areas the solidity of facts is much less sure. e.g. I'm only 75% sure that this compound causes this effect. Critical thinking elsewhere isn't just the ability to use basic formal logic and have good reading/interpretation skills, but forming conclusions/generating ideas requires an ability to weigh the goodness/reliability/usefulness/veracity of ideas/facts in addition to knowing them in the first place. You showed the connections between ideas/facts in the PKM tool graphical display. I haven't seen in Obsidian or Logseq the ability to weight connections and ideas/facts. Granted these PKM tools seem to be more about recording and retrieval than decision support, but AI techniques use this node and connection (neural net) approach, so maybe it's come to PKM. How do you manage generating amazing ideas using "critical thinking" based on sources with varying relationships to the truth? How do you teach your students to do the same?

[@morganeua]

Great points and question! For me, the weight of connections in obsidian comes from how many connections a node has, so I guess I care more about the weight/quality of a note, which is determined by how many unique things it's connected to. And, the fact that Romeo and Juliet exist is 100% true, but the fact that Shakespeare wrote it is not 100% true and the fact that it's a sad story is maybe not 100% true and any argument worthwhile you make about it is definitely not 100% true, otherwise it wouldn't be an argument. But each of those things would still get a note in my zettelkasten contextualized by other notes that help build them as arguments which are more or less true. Honestly, I guess that's what critical thinking is, too - accepting that nothing that seems like a solid fact to you truly is for everyone, or couldn't be proven wrong. And that becomes more obvious the more you know. So you still want to "know" lots of stuff, even if that stuff may prove to be false the more you know. I could probably articulate this all more eloquently and I'll keep thinking about everything you said in your comment! Thanks for engaging!

[@SeekingBeautifulDesign]

​@@morganeua Weirdly it's taken me a week to formulate this response. It took a bizarre AI encounter to flesh things out... Yesterday was my first encounter with an LLM AI. It hallucinated the plot of one story into the title and author of another. Given I had asked a question, the LLM was acting as a teacher in some regards. I've always seen a fundamental tension with students and teachers. Presumably the teacher has knowledge, authority and standing where the student has less of all these. Ideally the student has an open mind to trust the teacher and learn the content. But at some point this can become an issue...false or biased teachings sadly do exist. So, given your experience as a self-aware teacher what advice do you give to your students to help them navigate the daily journey on the river Styx? One shore is being open to new information and the other shore is evaluating with a critical eye every bit of new information with standards that may at times result in being closed to new information. My personal advice is: Before learning any new subject from any source, sit down and think of how you would teach that subject given your current knowledge. You form a framework however shaky. Then go engage with the external source and see how your framework shapes the interaction and the interaction shapes your framework. A classic example from design is to solve a problem yourself before looking at what others have done and then synthesize. Going the opposite direction heavily squashes your own creative potential. And I couldn't resist. It's "Don't Pay the Ferryman" by Chris deBurgh if you downsized Charon and took the boat downstream ;)

[@corauwu4371]

I created a folder but when I try to delete it a warning pops up saying all the files inside the folder will also be deleted, how do you get rid of folders at the end of the semester without losing all your notes? thank you, I love your channel!

[@morganeua]

You can go into your file explorer where your Obsidian notes are stored and just "select all" files in that folder and drag them into the main folder area! Then the subfolder will be empty and you can safely delete it :)

[@danwroy]

So happy you grew your hair back, just needed to say it. Thanks for sharing your journey here, much appreciated.

[@UnconventionalReasoning]

"Every university syllabus these days seems to have the words, 'critical thinking', under learning objectives." While it may seem that the instructor has made the conscious decision to put that there, it is most likely in the syllabus because of a copy-and-paste error.

[@morganeua]

What do you mean by that?

[@UnconventionalReasoning]

@@morganeua It's a phrase that gets tossed into the course syllabus without much thought. The syllabus is often recycled from past semesters, or cobbled together for a new class from other classes. Asking an instructor, "Is critical thinking important?" is like asking a kid, "Do you like pizza?" Of course they'll say yes, but they won't know why.

[@morganeua]

@@UnconventionalReasoning Ah, yes, that's what I figured you meant! Thanks for clarifying! Yep yep yep.

[@UnconventionalReasoning]

@@morganeua It was interesting timing, seeing your video here. Between when I commented and now, some high school students I interact with online reminded me that I had promised a "problem solving approach" guide for stem classes. Does that increment your "Critical thinking" counter? 😀

[@UnconventionalReasoning]

@@morganeua I know your field is in the performing arts, but this is interesting to you: STEM education went down-hill in the 1990s with four weapons of educational destruction: * The prevalence of the desktop with spreadsheets to measure everything. This led to the idea that student performance could be measured in Excel. * The TI-83 calculator [1996] * Number Sense, which has some importance to young children, perhaps through the first half of elementary school. Stanislas Dehaene's PhD thesis and book, "The Number Sense", seems to have given this a name. The problem is that the idea drifted to older and older students, when it really needed to stop in 2-4th grades. * The internet, "Information Superhighway". It made people think information was enough, when it's barely a starting point. You emphasized knowledge, and I would add the "understanding" layer on top of that. * Plus, more recently, the myth of "evidence-based" research. More overvaluing disjointed pieces of information, dismissing foundational understanding and the ability to do so much more than having information in one's back pocket. I wonder how much these also apply to a field like yours.

[@fahrradflucht7723]

Thank you for recommending that @JJMcCullough video. Very interesting perspective on education.

[@morganeua]

I agree. And he has a recent one discussing education as well that was good. I love his channel in general - partially, though, because he discusses Canadian politics! Seriously, one of my favourite KZbinrs.

[@ZeinabeeM]

Whenever I see one of your videos on my homepage, I get super excited :)) This was perfect as always. Thank you 🤍