A few years ago we ran the backend of our courses in Google Classroom and used Google Docs for all of our documentation. Over the past year we’ve moved away from Google Classroom and now use Mighty Networks (the software behind our private online community at BushcraftSchool.com) to manage the courses, and this winter I’m moving all of our documentation from Google Docs to Markdown. What is Markdown, you ask? It’s a lightweight computer language based on plain text files, with some formatting elements added to make things look a certain way. If that sounds hard, I assure you that there is software to make it as simple as writing in google docs or word.
OK, so there’s the what. But why would I want to do this if the system we’ve been using works. Good question. According to Markdownguide.org, there are a few practical reasons to use Markdown over a word processor. These are my big 3:
- Markdown is portable, meaning no proprietary file formats.
- Markdown is platform-independent. Any device can read and write in it.
- Markdown is future-proof. It doesn’t rely on an app or company to read or edit because it is based on plain text files. I found some files on an old hard drive recently and couldn’t read them because I no longer have the software they were written in. Markdown solves this problem.
In addition to these practical reasons, I’m tired of web-based apps trying to insert AI into everything I do, and am just getting tired of using Google services in general.
On my laptop I create and edit markdown files using Typora. It wasn’t free, but I think it was $15 well-spent. On an ipad and phone, I use an app called 1Writer. The cool thing is that it is a seamless transition from one to the other because of the portability of Markdown. Another popular piece of software is Obsidian. And there are many others. Some are free, some cost a few dollars, they all seem to work. There is a lot of documentation on the web about using Markdown. A good place to start is at Markdownguide.org. If you are the type of person who would rather have a guidebook, check out The Markdown Guide by Matt Cone.
So this winter I’m working on migrating all of our student portfolio files from Google Docs to Markdown so we’ll be able to hit the ground running this spring. I don’t think it will be a big job, with the possible exception of formatting tables for data collection. This might also be no big deal, but I don’t know because I have started yet. Wish me luck.
