By Noelle Di Perna

Photo by Ales Nesetril at UnSplash

With school in full effect for many students, the struggles of using traditional mediums like pen and paper are felt by many. Notebooks constantly filling up, un-even graphs in math homework, stubborn pencil marks that are unerasable and the substantial weight of all the tools in a book bag. Going paperless can relieve some of these struggles. Many students can benefit from an organized, effective and accessible system. Here is the top-rated application that students can use in order to make going paperless a reality:

  1. Google Suite

Google Suite is an amazing way to start making your binders and notebooks digitally accessible, especially since all St. Augustine students (and YCDSB students) have access to a free Google Suite until graduation. In Google Drive, students can create folders for each grade they are in and further divide it into semesters, classes, and units within the classes, replacing the traditional usage of binders. In Google Docs, students can make a document, place it into the specific Google Drive folder and make it the notebook equivalent for that class. Google Suite also has many other useful tools such as Jamboard, Google Calendar and Google Keep.

2. Notion
For the students wanting to upgrade their current agenda system and dive deeper into the paperless realm, Notion is the best way to do so. Although Notion is slightly more complex than the Google Suite system, there is more opportunity for organization as Notion is a hub for everything a student may access in a day. Students can add/link their calendar, to-do lists, Spotify, schedules, budgeting sheets, journaling, goals and much more. Since Notion pages can be intimidating to build, here is a Youtube video further explaining Notion and how it can be used to its fullest potential.

3. GoodNotes 5
Although the application will cost you approximately $12, countless features make it worth the investment for many paperless students. The application is marketed towards individuals with an iPad and Apple Pencil, but realistically it can be used by all students. In GoodNotes students can make digital notebooks and customize to the same extent a regular notebook can be customized to. You can create handwritten notes using a stylus and tablet, or typed notes using the same feature. Additionally, any document can be imported into the application and annotated, which is handy when working with PDFs. Any notebook created in the app can also be exported as a PDF or image and further uploaded.

Work Cited

Kanemitsu, Michelle. “How to Use Notion Notion Setup Tutorial + Free Template!” YouTube, 13 Mar. 2021, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T_qrsTWnyk&feature=youtu.be. Accessed 21 Mar. 2022.

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