Just a couple months ago, I had posted something along the lines of different tools available on your phone - whether an app or otherwise, so when I came across the below article written by a Ms. Kate Funk on the newest iPhone apps, I thought I would include it in one of my posts here...
Now, although I do believe you can have too many apps, I thought this article added a couple nice new tools to our list of must haves :) Have a read and let me know what you think about the tools outlined below:
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Original post from aussiewriter on July 1, 2015:
Students have more uses for apps than most regular folk because they have to deal with a number of issues in the academic world. Simply researching an essay can be aided with the use of quite a few apps, not to mention the apps that help a student plan his/her everyday life. Have a look online for a few apps for students, as they are often very inexpensive or free. Here are ten you may want to consider:
1) Evernote
This is a very popular app that is used by students and business persons around the world. It allows you to save and categorize your notes so that they are easy to store and easy to find. It also has a number of other functions such as allowing you to save voice messages, movies, images, and audio. You are able to create a mini library of all the things that you need to remember and store them in an easily accessible place. If you have stored notes of a detailed or important nature then you can move them over to your computer or the cloud.
2) CourseSmart eTextbooks
This app gives you access to over seven thousand textbooks from your iPhone. eTextbooks is a paid app with a licensing agreement for each book. It allows access for the duration of your subscription. This means that you do not have to fully invest in your books, you can just “rent” them until you do not need them any longer. For example, you could buy a license that gives you access to a book for as long as your course lasts, or just buy the license that lets you use it for a course term.
3) New York Times
Sure you can use this app to stay up to date with current events and that whole thing, but it is actually very good for creating references for your essay. You are often asked to quote from or to reference a number of different sources instead of just relying on journals and the New York Times is great for this. You can even use it to quote metrics and survey results as it is viewed as an academically respectable source for such things. You can also check to see where NYT got their figures and quote directly from the original source.
4) myHomework
This fun little app allows you to organize your homework assignments. That is putting it in fairly simple terms as you can use it to track when your next class is, what coursework is due and when it is due. You can schedule important matters regarding your education and qualifications and then set alerts for when you need them.
5) Wikipanion
Wikipanion allows you to look up pages on Wikipedia without having to access it via your browser. Wikipedia is not a standard academic resource and you will lose marks for referencing it in your essays, but it is still a good information resource. You just need to remember to check the information that you find on it. A good way of doing this is to check the references given by the website itself. They often lead you to some very valid resources that you are allowed to quote and reference in your essays. Plus, sometimes it is handy just to know a few things in order to round off your essays more thoroughly. You can check the facts that other sources have given you to see if they are on the level.
6) StudyBlue
This app allows you to create flashcards to help you study and memorize for your exams. Some exams rely more heavily on memorization of figures than others. For example, if you are doing an exam in humanities or history then you need to know certain principles, but if you are doing one in physics or chemistry then you are going to need to know actual equations and theories. This is where you will benefit from the StudyBlue app. You can create your own flashcards and then have them come up in a random order. It will help you to test your knowledge, or you can just have them present you with the facts in the hopes that you will memorize what is flashed on your screen. It is an old memorization trick but it still proves effective even today.
7) Study Buddy
This app allows you to be more productive when you study. It monitors how many breaks you take or how often you are distracted. If you are trying to come up with a study routine then this app may be used to increase your efficiency. After each study session, it will show you a graph of how efficient you were. This may help you choose more optimal intervals as you plan your study sessions.
8) WolframAlpha
WolframAlpha gives you answers to questions. It's programmed with hundreds of different answers for a multitude of subjects, and it can actually do the math on your algebra and calculus problems. If you have a mathematical problem within your chemistry or economics paper, then you can ask the app for the answer. It is a very nice little shortcut for students when they need to know the answer quickly.
9) iTunes U
Oddly enough this is not just an app for finding music, you can also find a lot of good audio information with it. iTunes U has lectures from esteemed professors and industry experts. You can learn a lot from the lectures, and you can even look up their sources with Google to find reference information. This will allow you to quote the lectures when you write your essays or dissertations.
10) Dropbox
This is a cloud service that allows you to store your files online. It makes synchronization between multiple devices and computers very easy. It allows a student to save very large files without having to use the hard drive of their device, and it allows the student the ability to see those files from anywhere that has Internet. It also saves the student from having to carry around paper versions of files.
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