19 votes

Using Obsidian or a similar PKM for curriculum, unit and lesson planning

I was wondering if anyone else has considered using a PKM like Obsidian (markdown editor with linking) for the unit and lesson planning.

Specifically, I am intrigued by the ability to link curriculum documents, resources I have collected, within my lessons. And being able to see a graph view of how everything links together really tickles my brain, while still maintaining my structured folder hierarchy (a nice mix of classical file management, non-linear organization through tagging, and chronological view based on creation date or modification date). I also enjoy the TaskNotes plugin Kanban view, and it's one file per task approach (letting me put a lot of detail into the task, or linking the task to another file). Obsidian also offers an education discount for publish / sync, but I think I am going to stick with my DAV sync to my homelab/media-centre, and maybe publish some lesson plans on a free site host using a generator like quartz.

Here is two published examples, one being more so lesson plans meant for teachers while the other is a component shared for students within a class. Both of these examples are American, so not 100% applicable to what I would do, but still really interesting to peak at.
English - Curriculum & planning approach - Obsidian Publish
Linear Algerbra - Course companion approach - Quartz

I was just wondering what other educators have tried (even if it is something completely different!), what has worked for you in terms of understanding, as well as what works for you sharing stuff with colleagues or student teachers (university candidates partaking in their practicum).

Addendum: I also have a paperless-ngx document server hosted, but this personally is more so for storing personal documents related to my banking, health, instructional manuals etc. All of the paperwork that is just so easy to lose, and is also part of my physical archival setup with ASN (archival serial number) QR stickers that I put on physical documents - I suck at physical organization so just numbering them and using tags and search on paperless just works for me.

I also have zotero for research still, which integrates nicely with obsidian (I used to use logseq but when they shifted to a database format they removed the in-build integration.

lastly, I do keep a physical planner, physical writing can help me with my day-to-day life; but for longer form stuff I do really need it digitally. I guess it is perhaps a little disjointed to be using a kanban board in my obsidian vault as well as a physical planner, but there is a certain work and personal separation that it allows for. Similar to my journaling in a physical notebook, there is an ephemeral nature to it that actually works very well for me vs something like my lesson planning which is recurring.

4 comments

  1. Ryl
    Link
    I use Obsidian for everything, it's my second brain. Can't recommend it enough. Though, I'm not a teacher, so I don't know how well it'd work for curriculum planning.

    I use Obsidian for everything, it's my second brain. Can't recommend it enough. Though, I'm not a teacher, so I don't know how well it'd work for curriculum planning.

    2 votes
  2. DoubleSupercool
    Link
    I’m a teacher but have never used obsidian for lessons or curriculum. It’s pretty good for running tabletop RPG campaigns, though!

    I’m a teacher but have never used obsidian for lessons or curriculum.

    It’s pretty good for running tabletop RPG campaigns, though!

    1 vote
  3. valar
    Link
    I only recently started using obsidian and am kicking myself at how I didn't start sooner. It's simple yet powerful and the Claude-Obsidian plugin and my own wrapper skills have turned it into...

    I only recently started using obsidian and am kicking myself at how I didn't start sooner.

    It's simple yet powerful and the Claude-Obsidian plugin and my own wrapper skills have turned it into absolute dynamite for me.

    I've intentionally stayed away from plugins to get the basics down pat but there are a number I'm genuinely interested in

  4. benpocalypse
    Link
    I've been using Obsidian since it was still in beta. It's amazing. I also highly recommend using the Advanced Slides plugin to do presentations. So much nicer than Powerpoint or any other "office"...

    I've been using Obsidian since it was still in beta. It's amazing. I also highly recommend using the Advanced Slides plugin to do presentations. So much nicer than Powerpoint or any other "office" based presentation software.