#paperless student

[caeruleuz]

my braindump journal is running out of space :(

does anyone have any recommendations? i don’t really want to support muji and get the same again…

[stoned-perregrin]

School Supplies as a Paperless Student

I would like to start off by saying that you should always do what's best for you and that my methods or supplies may not be right for you. Feel free to experiment and find the best tool and tricks for you.

That being said my main tools are my Ipad and my Macbook.

I use sites and apps like good notes (apple only, paid app) and notion (free website and app) to keep my notes and papers (PDFs) synced across my devices.

I also use apps such as kindle (free with paid content) and Libby (free with a library card, in the united states) for most of my required readings. Though one of my books this semester will be physical.

And still even tho I am paperless doesn’t mean my classes are so In my bookbag, for the inevitable times when I will have to use paper for class activities and tests, I keep some notebook paper in a folder (where I will also keep necessary handouts from class, of which I never have many). I also keep an assortment of pens and pencils for this reason.

Other supplies you will need:

-extra chargers! You will lose them or they will break don’t go without a backup

-battery packs (if you have long days at school without reliable access to outlets)

-a good cases to protect ur devices

Once again you do you when it comes to paperless. Whatever devices, apps, sites, or techniques work for you are what’s best.

[myelyn]

currently reviewing multivariable calculus– with only one month left until I start my first year at university!

[jack-os]

2021.12.02

alarm didn’t go off so woke up at 11, but still got a work out, a weeks worth of calculus, and even more exercise in B)

found out that a suspiciously empty local restaurant had a verrrrrry cool backroom filled with rgb leds. got lost in a graveyard on my way back, but it was foggy so the Aesthetics were good

my weekly games session with the bois is over and now it’s 4:30am, and i have to tutor tomorrow at 9, but this is the most content i’ve been in a while

so it’s good!

[romanticize-academia]

spring is right around the corner, but so are finals!

i’ve made an extremely thorough to do list on notion for the rest of the year. fingers crossed i can keep up with it.

[addierose444]

Paperless Student

This semester, my school system is almost entirely paperless. I occasionally jot things down on a Post-It note or scrap piece of paper, but in terms of my day-to-day operations, everything is digital. The one other exception is that I took a paper circuits exam a few weeks ago. In past semesters, I have had a hybrid system consisting of digital notes and problem sets completed on paper. Even during the fully remote fall 2020 semester, I did my work on paper and then used a scanning app to convert it to a pdf. To read some of my other posts about organizational systems, click here. 

Being a paperless student isn't for everyone, but has been great for me. The main drawback of a digital system is the increased cost and screen time. To be a paperless student you ideally have a laptop, tablet, and stylus. To read about my specific devices, click here. You may be able to get away with a 2-in-1 device, but it’s suboptimal for remote classes. Specifically, having to split your screen between the Zoom class and a note-taking application would be annoying. In the case of handwritten digital notes, it would be even more difficult as the camera angle would be terrible and you would have no space to write. 

Course Materials:

All of my classes have course materials and assignment submissions on Moodle. (Moodle is an open-source learning management system). In addition to resources posted to Moodle, many courses require textbooks. I primarily read textbooks on my iPad. Some are official ebooks with designated apps whereas others are just pdfs. Additionally, one of my classes uses a free online textbook that is read from the browser. You can read about saving money on textbooks here. 

Notes:

I take all of my notes in Microsoft OneNote. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you are probably are tired of hearing about OneNote, but you’re not getting an apology from me! One thing I love about digital notetaking is the ease of editing. For instance, I can move things around, erase mistakes, and change ink colors. The other key advantage is that if you keep things organized it’s really easy to look back on old notes from past semesters. Even if you are not super organized the search tool can be a lifesaver. That said, flipping through current notes in a notebook is a slightly smoother process than hunting around for the correct page of a digital notebook. I typically handwrite lecture notes on my iPad and type textbook and other reading notes on my laptop. I also type my lecture notes for my UMass computer science course. (You can read more about Five College registration here). Typed notes make sense for that class because there is a lot of information with important details that are necessary to know for the quizzes. One nice thing about remote classes is the ability to take screenshots of key figures and other diagrams. Actually writing things downplays a key role in remembering what you are learning. Thus it’s important to not become dependent on screenshots. On the other hand, if you are spending all of your time trying to write/draw you are probably not actively engaging with the material in real-time. 

Assignments:

In this section, I will be referencing the specific classes I am taking this semester, which you can read about here. For COMPSCI 230, we have online tests and quizzes as well as programming assignments. In other words, it's all digital by default. For CSC 250, I typeset my homework in Overleaf which is a cloud-based LaTeX editor. For EGR 220 and PHY 210, I handwrite assignments in the default notes app on my iPad. I also occasional sketch diagrams for my CSC 250 assignments. Notes is a very bare-bones application but have served me well this semester. You can have lined or graph paper while you write, but once it's exported to a pdf the lines disappear. This hasn’t proved to be a problem but also isn’t ideal. A missing feature is the ability to resize hand-drawn diagrams (and other writing). It also doesn’t clearly mark the end of a page so you do have to play around a bit to export your work into a nice pdf. If you don't mind spending money on apps, I have heard good things about GoodNotes and Notability. For other assignments, I also make use of Google applications such as Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Speaking of Google, Google Drive continues to be my file management system of choice. I use Google Drive to store all of my school work (aside from the notes in OneNote). Furthermore, I designed a whole programming contest using Google Drive which you can read about here. 

Tests:

I learned the hard way that tests should not be completed in the default Files app! The pdfs get really large and which can result in syncing and saving issues. Having now transitioned to using the PDF Expert app, I haven’t had any issues. I still prefer the experience of annotating in the Files app, but I no longer trust it for exams. One nice thing with PDF Expert is that it still syncs cleanly with the Files app and thus iCloud. 

Time and Task Management:

To round out my digital system, I use Google Calendar, Tascal, and Toggl Track. I use Google Calendar to keep track of all of my events, the associated Zoom links, and deadlines. Tascal is the task management app I built last summer. Finally, Toggl Track is a time tracking application that I have been using since senior year. The data can be useful in helping predict how long an assignment will take, but the main benefit is that it helps me stay focused on the intended task at hand. 

[hayleythecatlady]

don’t know if this is an unpopular opinion, but I’m gonna put it on my blog anyway: I actually like 8am classes.

[itstechforschool]

How to take digital notes.→ Handwritten notes on GoodNotes

One of the most important parts about becoming a paperless student is starting to take notes digitally. For this, I personally use two main apps: Notion for typed notes and GoodNotes for handwritten notes. In this post, I will focus on how it is to take handwritten notes using GoodNotes (or Notability, OneNote, or any other note-taking app). Here, I will tell you some of my main tips on digital note-taking.

First of all, I want to quickly remind you of some of the pros of digital note-taking, just to motivate you a bit! As you know, taking notes digitally means that everything you write is going to be stored on the cloud or your device, which allows you to have access to your notes from literally anywhere (as long as you have an internet connection). Digital note-taking is also highly customizable and lets you create notes however you want, using endless styles and color pallets, which is something I find quite fun.

As I mentioned at the beginning, I use GoodNotes to take my handwritten notes on my iPad with my apple pencil. I really enjoy using this app, and some of the features are:

Take notes on notebooks that you create.

Import documents into your notebooks (pdfs, PowerPoints, etc)

Annotate those imported documents, right in your class notebook.

These are some of the steps I follow in order to prepare my GoodNotes app for a new school semester:

Create a notebook for each class.

Choose the type of paper (It could be blank, squared, lined, or dotted.) My personal favorite: Dotted paper.

Choose a nice cover for each notebook (In the future, this will allow you to get to the notebook you need just by looking at the cover).

After I created my notebooks, I like to play around with writing styles in order to choose a single one that I will use in all my notebooks.

Create a template for heading, subheadings, and body.

I choose a color and writing style for my headings, which will be different from the subheadings and the body (Just as you see in my picture, you can identify easily every element on the page)

Choose a couple of colors for the fonts and highlighters (I get some inspiration from color pallets on Pinterest!)

I think that finding a "note style" that is visually pleasing for you and sticking to it is very important when it comes to digital note-taking. As I mentioned before, it is highly customizable and we need to take advantage of it! It also makes it so much easier to know exactly how to put the information down on the page, which will make things much easier.

I hope this quick overview of how I use GoodNotes to take handwritten notes helps you and inspires you a bit!