How I Go Paperless In School

Posted: May 17th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Education, Gadgets, Web/Tech | Tags: , , , , , | 12 Comments »

This year I’ve managed to avoid carrying around books in school, both textbooks and notebooks. The only things I carry to school each day are my Macbook Air and iPad. Together with a few apps, they’re basically a student’s dream, and have made my life completely paperless and accessible from anywhere. I’ve had quite a few people asking me how I do it and what apps I use, so I thought I’d take a few paragraphs to explain.

Firstly, how did I get rid of physical textbooks? Each of my textbooks came with a CD that included a PDF version of the textbook. I uploaded these to my computer, and then attached them all to an email which I sent to myself. I then opened that email on the iPad, and downloaded the PDF’s into the iBooks app. They work seamlessly. I can browse the table of contents and tap on a chapter and be taken instantly to it, and I can save bookmarks of the pages I need to do for homework. It’s just simply brilliant, and not having to carry around five or so heavy textbooks each day has really changed being a student.

I also wanted to avoid carrying around notebooks with me, so that I could have everything digital and accessible from either Macbook or iPad. Evernote is the perfect solution. In case you don’t know about Evernote, it’s an application available on almost any platform that allows you to store digital notes of text and images in the cloud. I’ve been using it for a couple of years and I am a paying premium user because I love it so much. I have an Evernote notebook for each of my classes, and then each different sub-topic we do in class I’ll create a new individual note for. For example, in Economics, I have an overall Economics notebook, and then in the Elasticities unit I have different sub-notes such as “Price Elasticity of Demand”, “Income Elasticity of Demand”, and “Price Elasticity of Supply”. This means it’s incredibly easy for me to scroll through my notes in each subject and study, or simply search for exactly what I’m looking for.

In class I write notes on my Macbook because I find it easier to type on a physical keyboard, and I usually study on the bus home using the iPad. If we’re ever given a handout sheet in class I’ll take a photo of it on either my iPhone or iPad, and then put this into Evernote too so that I literally have EVERYTHING to do with school stored inside it. As a Premium Evernote user I have the ability to create “shared notebooks” – quite a few of my friends in class are now using Evernote too, and shared notebooks give us the ability to create collaborated notes to ensure none of us have missed anything.

Another advantage of using Evernote for note taking is that you can easily add images to text notes to make studying later even better. For example, in Biology we were recently studying cells and I would take notes on Eukaryotic cells and then find images of the cells from Google and copy them into the note in Evernote. Saves having to meticulously draw diagrams in notebooks with coloured pencils.

The last part to my “school setup” is my to-do list. I use an app called Things, which is made by a great company called Cultured Code. Their apps are a little bit more expensive than other alternative to-do lists (Mac app is over NZD$60, iPhone app is NZD$15), but its simplicity and functionality makes it completely worth it. I have Things on Mac, iPad, and iPhone and it has the ability to wirelessly sync any new notes between the three devices. I create new notes for anything I have to do for school throughout the day (homework, assignments, things to remember) and they all go into the “Inbox”. Then at night on the Mac I’ll sort each to-do into the subject I have to do it for. Each morning when I wake up I’ll then go into all my notes and scroll through and click “Today” on anything that I have to get done that day. I can then view solely these to-do’s in one place throughout the day and get them done first before starting on others. It’s a brilliant system, and in all honesty has meant that I haven’t had to use “I forgot we had that homework” as an excuse once this year.

I completely recommend Evernote and Things to anyone wanting to digitize their school or work lives. I also use them for everything to do with TDTYTIS.

Let me know what you think, and if you know any other apps which you think are even better please do tell me about them!

  • http://twitter.com/aabdulllah Abdullah Ali Jawad

     I feel that the main problem for me in this would be issue of sheets. I whole-heartedly plan on using my Macbook Air next year to study Economics, French, Politics and History (British A-Level system), but I assume that I will be handed a prodigious amount of sheets, and I feel that my iSight camera would not be at all sufficient. I was maybe hoping to annotate the sheets in class and then scan them in, but do you think this is viable?
    What do you feel are the advantages and disadvantages to using this method over the physical method?
    Nevertheless, a very helpful article.

  • http://mmoorejones.com Michael Moore-Jones

    Scanning them in is completely viable. Sometimes I’ll be given a handout that has a small font, or has too much information to capture on iSight, and I’ll simply scan these in to Evernote. It works fantastically!

    The advantages and disadvantages to going paperless over using physical books for everything? Well, a bag that is ten times as light as previously is reason enough. But I find studying so much easier on transport and at home, and I know that there’s no way I can lose my notes. IB is a two year course, and the thought of losing my notes in whatever way (who knows, there could be an earthquake in Wellington soon!) is really scary. Also, the ways that you can collaborate with classmates if you have everything digital is just awesome – class-compiled notes are a lifesaver. 

  • http://ranger.risk.ee The Ranger

    I once thought of  throwing away all the notebooks and move to paperless solution when I was at the university. But I quickly realized that while it might work perfectly for philosophy, history and literature courses I’m stuck when I have to sketch something. At that time there was nothing as comparably fast as taking a sheet of paper and sketching your diagrams or tremendous calculus equations onto that.

    I was wondering how could you solve that? Can you really achieve the same comfort and speed with stylus and touchscreen like we are used to with a sheet of paper?

  • http://mmoorejones.com Michael Moore-Jones

    I absolutely believe that you can. There are so many different apps that actually combine with Evernote to give you greater functionality, such as drawing capabilities. Some will allow you to sketch things and then it automatically saves the sketch as an Evernote note. Or, alternatively, you could use a Livescribe pen (www.livescribe.com) which allows you to draw and write with pen and paper, and then it converts what you write into digital format and automatically syncs it with Evernote. It’s pretty amazing technology and I completely recommend it!

  • http://ranger.risk.ee The Ranger

     Thanks for the answer, Michael!

    Do you use it regularly in a daily-basis or just occasionally? I still
    feel uncomfortable with the glass surface and pen-like stylus device.

    For me it is something like iPhone’s virtual keyboard versus a phone
    with a physical QWERTY. I simply cannot achieve the same speed and
    errorless typing with virtual one compared to a keyboard with physical
    buttons. It is not just habits, it might be more like you cannot learn
    how to ride a bicycle once you have reached a certain age. Like you have
    developed a skill which took years and years to polish and now that
    skill just blocks learning some new techniques.

  • http://www.innodipity.org/blog/ soenke

    If I had the money to dive into the Apple ecosystem – well I can see more and more benefits. I have been around at a friends house over new years eve and he had iphone+ipad+macbookair and had speakers set up in each room. He could control the sound set up via all these devices, quickly opening itunes and updating the playlist with a new purchase. What struck me was the neat integration and seamingless of the ecosystem. However, I am amazed to how well Apple seems to have understood to make every aspect of work easier.

    Thanks, Michael for sharing, as it is exactly the paper-based stuff that pains me these days. You seem to have found a solid method of coming by the obstacle. I am assuming that someone having a notebook and a phone would make best strides when starting with the ipad as an add-on to ones personal working ecosystem, right?

    Cheers
    Soenke

  • http://www.facebook.com/quentin.todd Quentin Todd

    Thanks for sharing about Evernote. I am nowing using it and love the fact it goes to my iPhone. I can read my stuff there while waiting for ever for a bus etc.

  • http://www.facebook.com/quentin.todd Quentin Todd

    Thanks for sharing about Evernote. I am nowing using it and love the fact it goes to my iPhone. I can read my stuff there while waiting for ever for a bus etc.

  • http://mmoorejones.com Michael Moore-Jones

    I use my iPad daily, yes. Biology needs a lot of diagrams drawn, and so for that lesson I only take my iPad instead of laptop, so that I can draw diagrams and then put them straight into Evernote.

    It must be something like learning to ride a bicycle! I can type much, much faster on an iPhone than a phone with physical buttons. Typing on a Blackberry is a mess!

  • Vince

    Did you know that you can just drag and drop all of your PDFs into iTunes on your MacBook Air? iTunes will organise them under Books, and they’ll automatically sync with your iPad.

    It’ll save you the workaround of emailing them to yourself and opening them on the iPad, unless you’ve got a specific reason for doing it that way.

  • http://mmoorejones.com/2011/06/23/reliability-of-books-over-digital-information/ Reliability Of Books Over Digital Information –mmoorejones

    [...] for paper. And that’s coming from someone who actually hates paper – I’ve done as much as I possibly can to eliminate it from my life. (At school, I don’t use any textbooks or exercise books – [...]

  • Amit

    Hi Michael,

    Great Blog, however Mac and iPhone not everyone can afford, hence we developed this tech on Android OS platform which is 60% less expensive than iOS, hence affordable. A digital note taker through e Dairy on a plain paper text book and simultaneously transferring the notes in .JPG format through Bluetooth to Android OS Tablet PC, which can be searched later through word text to categorize your digital notes.
    We are still working on paperless digital note taking, however some people feel more comfortable working with plain paper and Digital Ball Pen.
    Google is fast catching up and will give Apple run for the money in future as these techs will be inexpensive and accessible to students and professionals, however Apple has quality but the excessive pricing is a big setback.