Markdown for teachers

Markdown is a light-weight HTML syntax, primary used by web writers. It was my “killer app” during my last semester of teaching.

There are 3 places my classroom writing appears: handouts, slides and web. I use a Mac so my handouts are in Pages, my slides are in Keynote, and my webpages are in Canvas (the university’s chosen CMS). If I write all my materials in plain text with Markdown formatting, it trivial to translate into any or all of those mediums. Using Marked, I convert my plain text to rich-text formatting (Pages and Keynote) and HTML (Canvas). The same “stuff” appears in each place and is appropriately formated for each location.

Additionally, the content files are small, nonproprietary, and come with me everywhere.

Markdown is well worth the minimal time and effort it takes to learn.

PS The best way to learn Markdown.