Of
the many things I’m considering for school this fall are 2 questions,
first: Is it feasible for me to make all my notebooks, or will I even
need notebooks or are things all digital since I was in school so many
years ago? Second: Is notetaking with a fountain pen a realistic option?
It seems kinda crazy when I think about all the changes that have
occurred in note taking technology since I was in school.

One
of the major projects I had to complete in my 3rd year of school was to
create a binder/archive of projects to do with  my art students. This
involved heading to the library stacks with a card loaded up with money
or a pocket full of nickels and dimes, finding an interesting article,
photocopying it, and then making note on the first page margins what
magazine it was in as well as the publication date. I then had to place
this into one of 3 giant 3 ring binders I had for the project and decide
what tab it belonged under and which age it was appropriate. After I
did that I had to create an index. It was labor intensive and not an
easy task. In the end I had a milk crate full of photocopies in binders
and lots of ideas for last minute classes. I haven’t cracked those
binders open in 10+ years. I still have them, I spent hundreds of
dollars on photocopies.

I
have to think about how much easier this project would be today with
either a smartphone or tablet and a scanbox or DIY version of the scan
box coupled with something like Evernote or Google’s knockoff, Keep.
There are a number of apps that will let you shoot a series of pictures
and create a searchable PDF. It would be crazy easy to create a pdf
database on the computer that is fully searchable either through the
search function of the computer or by creating a spreadsheet.

Maybe
the reason non-traditional students do so well is because they are all, “Holy crap this is soo much easier
than when I was 18!”

Back
to the question at hand, notebooks, should I make them? Things to
consider- I can only make them unlined and 5.25×8 inches or so in size.
This is a size I like but will I miss lines? What paper should I use, if
I do make them? It will need to be economical yet, if I decide to use
fountain pens, decent for fountain pens. Is it cheaper for me to invest
time and energy into making my own notebooks, or should I simply buy
some?

As
for the fountain pen questions, I’m going to see if it will work or
not. If it doesn’t I’ll grab some back up pens, probably something from
Uniball. They are great for doodling.