notes.......................

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I've been having trouble getting into my new Coursera classes, for a reason that has nothing to do with the classes.

I am the kind of person who likes to figure out a good way to do something, and then do it, in that way, until I see a reason to do it differently.

For the last few weeks, I've been stymied by the whole note-taking thing.

Through last year, I have taken notes for my Coursera classes in cheap composition books.  I used colored pencils to mark important concepts, new vocabulary, my own commentary, and questions that were not answered in the lecture.  I drew sketches, and circles and arrows.

I like buying composition books.  I *like* taking hand-written notes, and I like marking in my notes with colored pencils.

On the other hand....

Searching paper notes for the info I want (during an open-book test, say) is a big pain. 

And....

At a time in my life when I mean to be deaccessioning, rather than accumulating, I am accumulating these................
 

I don't want to have to house, store, or dust these.  I like to make them, I want to keep the info they contain.  But I don't want to accumulate them or have to manage them.


What to do, what to do. 



I've been dithering, and have not been "attending class," while trying to figure out what I want to do......................................



I have decided to try this. 

This is not nearly as satisfying to me as writing my notes by hand.  (And Word Starter is not as flexible as I wish about letting me choose colors for highlighting, and doesn't want me to have different colors of underlining, and doesn't seem to want to let me choose which text goes beside an inserted image....)

But. 

These notes are totally searchable.  It's very easy to include screen shots (of a chart, a formula, a Roman building).  I could do any drawings I want to do, photograph them, and include them in my notes.  More cumbersome than drawing them in place, true, but doable.


And. 

These notes take NO space, and do not accumulate dust.

They are not as satisfying to make, but I think, at least for now, this is the way I'm going.  I'm hoping I can get over missing doing the handwriting, and get on with learning about Roman architecture and the physics of everyday objects!

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