Taking Notes
1) Evernote
Evernote is a great note taking application, but
that only scratches the surface of what it can do. If you are
in a lecture, for example, you can also take a picture of the
blackboard with your phone, upload it to the Evernote server,
and thanks to Evernote's clever OCR algorithms, even pictures
of handwritten notes become instantly searchable.
You can also use it to bookmark web pages and write down your
own lecture notes. Best of all, you can use a web app, a Windows or
Mac desktop app, or a Windows Mobile and iPhone app, all of which
seamlessly synch with each other, so that your notes are always up
to date.
2) Google Notebook
<//FORM>The Google Notebook is one of
Google's lesser know products, but, thanks to a very well designed
Firefox
extension, it's a great tool for when you do most of your work
in a browser already. If you do some of your research in Google
Books and Google Scholar, you can also easily clip excerpts from
books and articles into your Google Notebook.
One additional nice feature is that you can invite collaborators
to work on a notebook with you. If you are doing a research project
in a group, for example, you can easily share your research with
your whole group.
Online Office Suites
3) Google and 4) Zoho
Word processors, spreadsheets, and presentation
apps are probably the single most often used tool among
college students, and while none of the online offerings can
yet beat Microsoft Office (which, for students, now only costs
around
$60 for the Ultimate Edition), the online office suites from
Google and Zoho do have some distinct advantages.
Office obviously has a lot more features, but not only are both
Google Apps and Zoho free, they also allow easier sharing of
documents and working on projects collaboratively.
And while the online tools to create presentations are still a
bit crude compared to Powerpoint or Keynote, they are both worthy
contenders, especially if you don't feel the need to add lots of
fancy transitions to your presentations.
If we had to choose between Google's and Zoho's offering, our
vote would probably go to Google, as the Google apps have a
slightly more organized and professional feel to them, which, in
the end, is going to make it easier to focus on the content of your
documents.
Bibliography
5) Zotero
The standard tool for doing extensive bibliographies in
academia is Endnote. While
that is a great tool if you are writing a dissertation, Zotero is a
great choice for less extensive research projects - and it's free.
Zotero is a Firefox extension, so it is not technically a web app,
but in its next version, the developers are promising the ability
to synch your bibliographies to a web version of the tool, so that
your books and notes will become available everywhere.
For now, Zotero lives in the status bar of Firefox, and it pops
up a little icon in your URL bar every time it recognizes a
compatible website. Zotero already supports the databases of a huge
amount of libraries worldwide, as well as a lot of standard
academic databases such as JSTOR, LexisNexis, InfoTrac, PubMed, or
ScienceDirect. Besides curating your citations, you can also add
notes, tag items, or add attachments (like pdf files of articles).
Once you are done, Zotero will create a bibliography for you in
most standard formats, including APA, MLA, or Chicago style.
6) EasyBib
If you just need to create a short bibliography, Zotero might be
more than you need. EasyBib will just help you to quickly create a
bibliography entry in MLA format - a favorite among literature
teachers. It can also handle the APA format, but you will have to
subscribe to the pro version of EasyBib.
If you really hate figuring out where to put a comma and where
to put a semicolon in your APA style bibliography entries, those
$7.99 a year for the pro version might just turn out to be a
bargain.
Also, if you only need a quick bibliography entry for a book,
check out OttoBib, where you just
have to enter the ISBN number and it will give you a fully
formatted citation.
Staying Organized
7) Google Calendar
There are lots of great online calendars out there, including
30 Boxes and Yahoo's
calendar app, but our favorite is the Google Calendar, simply because
it is dead easy to use, integrates nicely with GMail, allows for
importing and exporting your calendar, and lets you publish a site
with your free/busy information with the click of a button, so that
your friends know not to bother you while you are cramming for that
test.
8) Remember the Milk
Remember the
Milk<//A> might just be the tool that will keep you on track.
And to make things even easier, Remember the Milk also integrates
nicely with Google Calendar, so you can manage everything in one
place.
Picking the Right Class
9) Rate My Professors
As much as teachers don't like sites like these,
Professor Performance
and Rate
my Professors can be useful tools when you decide which
class you want to take. While almost every university makes you
rate your professor at the end of the semester, schools never
make this data public, so whenever you get a choice between
professors, you really have no idea who the better teacher is.
We like Rate My Professors a bit more than Professor
Performance, simply because its search is a lot easier and the
site is a bit more up-to-date. The site now also features a
Facebook application.
Keeping in Touch
10) Meebo
As much as your teachers would like to think so, college isn't
just about classes, papers, and long ours in the library. If you
want to stay in touch with your friends no matter what computer you
are on, Meebo is a great universal
IM client that lives on the web. It supports, AIM, Yahoo Messenger,
MSN Messenger, ICQ, Jabber, and Google Talk, as well as Meebo's own
IM architecture.
What are we missing?
Are there other tools you use in school that we missed here? Let
us know in the comments.
Flickr image by laffz4k.