Another Vanishing Skill

Last Sunday at the parish annual meeting I was elected to be Clerk of the Vestry. I've been taking notes at Vestry meetings for the past few months as well as some other parish-wide meetings. I'm also the secretary of the National Association for Episcopal Christian Education Directors board.

These days I take notes on my laptop because I type quickly enough to capture most of the conversation. I'm able to do this because I learned touch typing in 9th grade. At one time I typed 100 words per minute accurately, and it took some time for me to learn to just type and not worry about typos and other mistakes while taking notes at meetings. The purpose is to capture the conversation and important actions. The notes themselves can be edited after the meeting.

Over the years my typing, along with my other administrative and organizational skills, are what often got my foot in the door when looking for a job. As I've been involved in my current job hunt I've been noticing that some organizations no longer require a typing test, even for administrative jobs. However, there are still many that do. Given how many executives and managers do their own typing, it isn't typing skills so much as editing skills that assistants need. And with the growing prevalence of tablet computers, not to mention smart phones and electronic readers, touch typing is rapidly becoming a lost art. You really can't touch type on a touch screen "keyboard." So why does any organization really need to give typing tests to applicants these days?

Schools stopped teaching shorthand years ago. And the teaching of handwriting is also falling by the wayside in this era of new technology. So how does one take notes in classes or meetings?

Maybe we need a touch screen shorthand. Or maybe a simplified version of the court stenography system for touch screens.

I'd be particularly interested in hearing from folks from younger generations about how they take notes. I may not be an early adopter, but I'm always ready to learn new ways of doing things as technology changes and adapts.