Dear AoIRists, It has gradually come to my lagging attention that pens, pencils, and/or styli seem to be making a bit of comeback? Roughly: Microsoft introduced a Surface Pen in 2012, which interacts with various capabilities in the 8.1 and the most recent 10 OS; Apple introduced its Pencil for the iPad in 2015 - one that works with Microsoft apps as well as Adobe and others; Microsoft; and Lenovo offers a pen technology (either in Android or Windows OS) with one of its recent devices - <http://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/tablets/android-tablets/yoga-book-series/Lenovo-Yoga-Book/p/ZZITZTOYB1F> (Thanks to Rich Ling for the last tip.) I'm also aware of a growing body of research on handwriting vis-a-vis keyboarding that appears to show that engaging the body via hand and pen, in contrast with solely using a keyboard, entails greater brain activity and thereby greater cognitive benefits, including greater ability to discern and articulate complex conceptual relationships, along with greater recall. (E.g.: A. van der Meer, F.R. van der Weel, Only Three Fingers Write, but the Whole Brain Works: A High-Density EEG Study Showing Advantages of Drawing Over Typing for Learning. Front. Psychol., 09 May 2017. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00706) My resulting questions: 1) are you aware of any additional research along these lines, i.e., attending to the affordances and potentials of both handwriting and keyboarding vis-a-vis cognitive benefits - especially with a view towards pedagogy, i.e., how we should teach writing, most especially writing for research and publication? 2) Any ideas of what research and/or other interests, etc. might have led Apple, Microsoft, and Lenovo to re-introduce pens and styli - apart from the death of Steve Jobs, who notoriously hated these? (I mean this respectfully.) Please reply off-list. I'll happily compile a bibliography and resource list for distribution to the list in turn. Many thanks in advance, - charles -- Professor in Media Studies Department of Media and Communication University of Oslo <http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html> Editor, The Journal of Media Innovations <https://www.journals.uio.no/index.php/TJMI/> Postboks 1093 Blindern 0317 Oslo, Norway c.m.ess@media.uio.no