Throwing in the little bit suggested by research, from a cursory scan:
Prior research on learning and memory for handwriting vs typing appears to have been at the letter level (preschool/kindergarten students) or the word list level (college students). The letter-writing study found significant differences for older preschoolers (near K age), but had many design limitations, while the word memory study found no significant differences for free recall, and very mildly significant differences (p = 0.036) for recognition. Both study groups were relatively small (only 13/12 students in the preschool study, in the age condition with significant results).
For notetaking, it appears that the differential benefit obtained in studies that find one from handwriting lecture notes over typing notes comes from the different notetaking behavior exhibited by typical college students. That is, handwritten notes tend to force students to organize, summarize, and synthesize content in their own words, whereas the content of typed notes tends toward verbatim transcription, which, apparently, many people can do without actually processing the content.
IOW, it is not handwriting per se that helps in learning and memory, but organizing, summarizing, digesting, and synthesizing. Which I think we knew already!
Thanks AEH, yes I think the articles I have read about the value of handwriting which seemed most sound it has ben about the WAY that people worked with handwriting. Which is not the handwriting itself... So that suggests the importance of fostering good study skills in a digital format if handwriting will not be their method.
I do also wonder how much these studies account for whether the test subjects learned all their learning related skills in a handwritten format vs having well developed digital skills. I have a huge automaticity advantage in typing. Some people would have a greater advantage in handwriting.
I did find one interesting study, I will see if I can find the link, I have way too many tabs open at the moment!
