Earlier today, Richard took a look at the state of e-learning 2.0, which got me to thinking about how school might be different if I were in college today because of the influx of new Web 2.0 apps aimed and students. I went to a school that utilized a Virtual Learning Environment called WebCT (since absorbed by the Blackboard company), and it really wasn't very fun to use. Note taking meant writing on paper, study groups meant face-to-face meetings, and if you were struggling through Shakespeare, your best bet was to turn to the library, not the Internet.
When I was in college most of the tools in this round up didn't exist. It was truly the dark ages of education! Well, okay, it was a just a few years ago, but just in this decade, and especially in the last few years, a handful of tools to make school life easier have appeared. What follows is the set of web tools I would put in my backpack were I headed back to school tomorrow.
There's no software package I used more in college (or today, for that matter) than Microsoft Office. But who wants to plunk down $150 on office software? You're in college, after all, and I'm sure you can think of better uses for your cash. 5 years ago the alternative was Sun's OpenOffice.org suite, Corel's Wordperfect (still not free), or a handful of even less developed offline tools. But now there are a large number of impressive web apps that can handle your academic needs. The cream of the crop are below.
More and more students are bringing laptops to class. Owning a laptop is a requirement for all first-year undergraduates at the University of Denver, for example. The proliferation of portable computers means that note taking doesn't have to happen with a pad and pen. The following web apps will help you take and organize your notes.
Now you have your notes, you need to put them together. The following mind mapping/flow charting tools will help you get your thoughts in order so you can go from raw notes to polished dissertation.
So you've got your notes, and you have them all mapped out and organized, but you still need to fill in some blanks. There are a number of online study aids that exist to help you find the answers you need.
With all that online studying you need a way to keep track of what you've read. Online bookmarking tools are a great way to do just that.
Why study alone when you can get help from a friend? There is power in numbers.
Juggling your class schedule, extra cirricular activities, study time, and social life can be a challenge. The calendar apps below might help.
What college arsenal would be complete with out a calculator?
While I don't think there's really a substitute for face-to-face learning, the online classroom continues to evolve in amazing ways. Students today have a host of web apps at their finger tips that can truly facilitate a better learning environment.
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Web 2.0 Backpack: Web Apps for Students.
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Informatief artikeltje op Read/WriteWeb: de beste online tools voor studenten. Stel, je hebt een ELO op je opleiding maar je vindt dat je er niet genoeg mee kunt. Of je wilt juist die tooltjes bij elkaar zoeken die passen bij wat jij voor school aan he... Read More
Una muy buena recopilación de aplicaciones web para los estudiantes: ofimática, notas, etc. Relacionada (pero diferente): meneame.net/story/30-aplicaciones-web-substitutas-software-microsoft. También recomiendo en la misma página, sus artículos sobre e... Read More
As a good IT College Student of today, I’m always searching for the next best web app to assist me in my life - be that with work, with my finances, and also how to live it. It’s like my next Christmas toy, that I can show to all of my frie... Read More
Earlier today, Richard took a look at the state of e-learning 2.0, which got me to thinking about how school might be different if I were in college today because of the influx of new Web 2.0 apps aimed and students. Read More
Josh Catone for Read/Write Web does a great rundown of free web apps for the student in us all. It seems complete, I'm sure they're apps in this post that I'll be using for notetaking, bookmarking, collaborating and mind mapping (?) Read/Write Web Rule... Read More
Web 2.0 Backpack: Web Apps for Students Read More
He says things like \" We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with. Apparent Read More
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Just a note - I think one of the best calculators on the web is instacalc. It's like a calculator/worksheet in one. Great tool.
Posted by: chris | June 22, 2007 3:00 PMSparkNotes is great, but only has 500 titles - also check out BookRags which has about 4000.
Posted by: Moshe | June 22, 2007 3:07 PMGreat list! I used Sparknotes far too often in high school.
On a side note, at Drexel University, we use WebCT Vista, the latest incarnation of that crappy eLearning platform. The online education branch of the university ranks pretty well despite it.
I worked at The Math Forum for half a year which was formerly owned by WebCT before they sold the company to Drexel. It was amusing hearing the horror stories of how bad it was working under WebCT. The root password for one of the now-retired application servers was "webctsucks".
Posted by: Dan Grossman | June 22, 2007 3:40 PMGreat list of apps, but it's shame I've just finished my degree! Josh, you might want to repost this nearer the start of the next academic year (September in the UK).
I had the pleasure of struggling through my final year of University with the dire WebCT system as the main channel for my course structure, content, and communication. It wasn't fun, I can tell you that much.
Luckily enough I didn't need to use WebCT enough for it to effect my work. I chose the Web as my specialist topic, so everything I produced for my studies was learnt through sites such as RW/W. Richard MacManus - your blog was my WebCT!
Posted by: Neil | June 22, 2007 4:16 PM"Software for Starving Students" is a great and free resorce for collage students.
Posted by: GundyGroup | June 22, 2007 4:44 PMhttp://softwarefor.org/
You left off Google Notebook; which when used *as* a notebook, is actually pretty versatile. It's nice to be able to divy up notes into digestible chunks and organize by lecture.
Docs & Spreadsheets is also as much a collaborative app as an office one - it's killer for those damn group projects.
Posted by: Eric | June 22, 2007 7:31 PMOk...as a college student, with some background in web, blackboard is the worst system ever. Even the faculty and staff admit that it is vastly sub-par. But the system is tied in with everything the University functions around.
I'm also the Campus Rep for Apple at my Uni, and I've dealt a lot with the educational system and many other Universities in my time. It all just gave me a headache.
I do wish that there was more discussion out there on the educational application. Universities function around their web interface and it SUCKS.
Pretty nice list here though, a few things I haven't come across.
There was an awesome web 2.0'ish flashcard app I discovered well over a year ago. I can't remember it for the life of me though, but it was pretty useful.
Posted by: Will Duncan | June 22, 2007 7:42 PMI never had a chance to use Blackboard, but if it is anything like WebCT (or at least how WebCT was 4 or 5 years ago), I don't doubt that is a pain to use. (I'm not sure if WebCT was absorbed into Blackboard's system or the other way around -- or if they still exist as separate products under the company's umbrella.)
When I was in college I had a job helping professors set up course sites in WebCT -- it was maddening. It had to be the least intuitive system I'd ever used. But the University had invested so much money into that they weren't about to change, even though no one really cared for it.
@#1 an #2: Thanks for the tips on Instacalc and Bookrags. :)
Posted by: Josh Catone | June 22, 2007 7:57 PMA very comprehensive list! Also wanted to share with the readers here our free educational tools :
Need Flashcards?
http://www.proprofs.com/flashcards/
Want to create a quiz?
Posted by: sameer | June 22, 2007 8:10 PMhttp://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/
Great list. One of my professors used Protonotes (http://www.protonotes.com/) for all his class lectures. Basically he was able to share his notes in context of webpages that were about the stuff he lectured that day.
Posted by: Diane | June 22, 2007 8:18 PMThis is an amazingly useful post. Thank you.
I myself collect details of information mapping and info management tools. These are all browser-based applications that do mind mapping, concept mapping, diagramming or make outlines, and I'd like to add to your list:
Outliners___________________________
sproutliner.com Basic on-line outliner that lets you share outlines
thinkfold.com Collaborative on-line outlining application
Information mapping_________________
bubble-mind.com Collaborative mind mapping
glinkr.net Concept mapping and mind mapping (shared but not collaborative)
mapul.com Collaborative mind mapping with an organic flavour
touchgraph.com URL mind maps for network visualisation
wikimindmap.org Make mind maps from WikiMedia articles
webofweb.net Collaborative mind mapping
Generic diagramming__________________
cumulatelabs.com/cumulatedraw/ Collaborative diagramming – can draw mind maps and concept maps
imaginationcubed.com Collaborative diagramming – can (just about) draw mind maps and concept maps
Posted by: Vic | June 22, 2007 9:12 PMRegards
Vic
http://www.mind-mapping.org
The master list of mind mapping &
information management software
Hey you forgot to add me on that list College Jabber. I think I can really help out people network with others. I'm trying to make the ultimate forum so everybody could talk to each other. Let me know what you think.
Posted by: Chris | June 22, 2007 9:31 PMIt may not be a web application but the Tablet PC is getting a lot of attention by college students these days. I sure know I couldn't live without mine. I can take notes in my own handwriting and there are many other helpful things about the tablet.
Posted by: Malinda | June 22, 2007 10:35 PM$150 is chump change compared to (a) a notebook computer, (b) college textbooks, (c) a typical night at the club chasing girls gone wild, oh and (d) tuition. To me it's a cheap price to pay to guard against net fadeouts and data lossage. I hate the experience of typing up something, my mind flowing happily along, then clicking Save, Submit Comment :-), or whatever, only to find that the dorm/hotel WiFi faded out. Oops!
PS: I suree wish blugging apps wud let commmenters edit there posts :-)
Posted by: Bob Denny | June 23, 2007 9:53 AMMaybe www.sitetradr.com and www.mind-meister.com are interessting too for students...
Greetings
Posted by: Lance | June 23, 2007 10:24 AMLance
Notefish (http://www.notefish.com/) is a great tool for collecting your web research and notetaking. Browser extension (that enables clipping) is available for both IE and Firefox.
Check out the site for more info or read a review (and watch a short demo) here:
Notefish - a tool to support students researching using the Internet
http://paulharvey.edublogs.org/2007/03/02/notefish-a-tool-to-support-students-researching-using-the-internet/
Cheers,
Eugene Mizin
Posted by: Eugene Mizin | June 23, 2007 11:03 AMNotefish team
http://www.notefish.com/
You have not addressed web tools for student clubs and organizations. At NYU, the student clubs are using College Mailer to manage membership, send targeted emails, create events with RSVP functions, create club web pages and surveys, etc. Students can post feedback and ratings, and clubs can share information among themselves.
CollegeMailer
If you are a student club, you can sign up for free.
Posted by: Kim Ashton | June 23, 2007 11:29 AMthough, the web apps looks exciting now, they surely lacks in feature when compared with the desktop counterparts. The compatibility between web apps and desktop apps also a question here. So, mu suggestion is instead of integrating application into web, integrate web into application.
Posted by: Veerasundar | June 23, 2007 11:36 AMYou should add MySchoolog.com too...
Posted by: cemshid | June 23, 2007 2:47 PMNeed to mention another great notetaking, sharing and publishing tool, and that is qipit.
Qipit allows you to shoot your classnotes (or your mate's ones) with your DSC or even your cameraphone and turns the usually unreadable photograph of a doc into a clear crisp PDF digital copy.
Plus you can store it online, tag it, and even publish it to your blog.
The service is currently FREE and hold up to 100 pages.
http://www.qipit.com/longhorns
Posted by: Phil | June 23, 2007 3:22 PMin the 'studying' category, you could also add http://www.incredicampus.com/studysmartindex.php , it has a pretty neat collection of online lecture notes...
Posted by: jyotinder | June 23, 2007 9:36 PMI would recommend the google platform across the board for most of the student areas.
I noticed it wasn't mentioned for Bookmarking or Notetaking. Google Bookmarks and Google Notebook work great for these areas.
The integration and sharing between the Google Applications as well as the 3rd party integration possibilities makes it definitely a front-runner.
Check it out starting with IGoogle.
Posted by: Kin Lane | June 23, 2007 11:19 PM"...if you were struggling through Shakespeare, your best bet was to turn to the library, not the Internet."
Being a librarian, I can imagine worse things than having to turn to the library :-;
That said, a whole lot of what people used to have to go to the library for is now online though you still have to go through the library's website, if only to authenticate, since much of the good stuff is subscriber-based (e.g. LexisNexis).
You can even "talk" to a librarian online these days -- usually through IM or some form of Chat.
The systems they're using now are way easier than even a couple years ago. Some are even using "Google Scholar" which means you'll feel right at home with the search interface while still doing the kind of "lit search" that you couldn't do on normal Google.
So the apps here are great -- I use many of them myself day-in, day-out. But where they really come in handy is when used together with the stuff coming out of the library -- stuff that costs a fortune for the university but which can make the difference between a great paper and one your dog could have put together.
Posted by: leo | June 24, 2007 12:51 AMYou must add mySchoolog.com among these links. It's a very useful tool for students that allows students to control their school life easily, quickly and practically. mySchoolog also won a Gold Medal in a international programming contest.
Posted by: ahmetalpbalkan | June 24, 2007 2:33 AMHow about Questia (www.questia.com)? A friend of mine started the company and I understand that it's most valuable to college students in the social sciences and humanities.
Posted by: Rakesh | June 24, 2007 10:38 AMThis list is great, and I'll be sure to check out a lot of the stuff when I have the time.
But where are the alarm clocks? I don't know any college student who doesn't need one for waking up in the morning or knowing when they need to stop playing Halo and go to class.
Posted by: Chris | June 24, 2007 11:32 AMNo one has mentioned Gradefix?
Its gotta be the best student web2.0 tool out there.
www.gradefix.com
Posted by: Geoff Ruddock | June 24, 2007 12:39 PMCollege Jabber blows ass.....no more forums in the comments please. Your useless forum should be the next victim of a DOS attack. Step on your head while you're drowning.....
Facebook?? MySpace? Anything else...but no forums.
Posted by: core2extreme | June 24, 2007 12:43 PMGood list!
p.s. "del.icio.us" is splet wrong : "dle.icio.us - There are a large number" ;)
Posted by: free wii | June 24, 2007 1:02 PMExcellent roundup! I'm emailing a link to my brother - a freshman at Penn State.
Posted by: Cortland Coleman | June 24, 2007 1:14 PMThough del.icio.us is great, and I use it all the time, if the student happens to be science-oriented,(Connotea is a fantastic tool that was created by the Nature Publishing Group (publishers of Nature, etc.) specifically as a social bookmarking tool for scientists. And, unlike del.icio.us, it is set up to automatically retrieve bibliographic information from several recognized sites (PubMed, etc.). I know it would seem like a pain to have yet another social bookmarking tool, but because Connotea is aimed at such a specific audience, it's far easier to take advantage of the knowledge of such a specialized community with a shared language, and collaborate far more easily.
Posted by: informationatrix | June 24, 2007 1:19 PM@ #29: Thanks! Typo fixed. :)
Posted by: Josh Catone | June 24, 2007 1:49 PMYou have to have Inspiration as a mind-mapping tool. I use it on my Mac all the time. Great program. None better.
Posted by: Kim | June 24, 2007 2:21 PMHands down best student tool on the market today: Omni Outliner
(http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnioutliner/)
I absolutely LOVE this application. Helps me organize papers before I write, do research, plan my busy life, track things to do. It's so simple, but powerful because you can use it for so many things and it just gets out of your way and lets you write and organize. Worth every penny.
Posted by: jon | June 24, 2007 5:10 PMre: the question/answer sites: Yahoo Answers and Answer U are okay but I think the best q & a site is Fluther.com ...definitely the most helpful and I've gotten great answers to my questions. Their link is http://www.fluther.com
Posted by: Orli | June 24, 2007 11:27 PMQuick notes can be taken on http://www.greendoc.net.
Posted by: Valentin | June 25, 2007 12:00 AMI can't believe everyone left of Studicious (http://stu.dicio.us/) They have a great collaborative note taking application that has an offline mode.
Extremely well done.
Posted by: evbart | June 25, 2007 1:06 AMOh yeah, and what about google notebook! Its great for doing research reports. I do a lot of research at work using it.
Posted by: evbart | June 25, 2007 1:08 AMDon't forget mySportsplanner.com. This is a free online scheduling for team sporting. More than 19.000 users!
Cheers,
Aart
Posted by: Aart Nicolai | June 25, 2007 1:50 AMI actually work for Questia Online Library, and I believe that it should have been mentioned in your list. It combines several of the products listed above into one service. We cover over 6,000+ research topics and have over 1.5 million books, journals and articles. It is worth a review.
Posted by: Matthew | June 25, 2007 6:17 AMAs a recent ex-student, the only web technology I used to aid in my studying was Wikipedia..
Posted by: Adam | June 25, 2007 6:23 AMgreat tips!!
Posted by: willy | June 25, 2007 10:00 AMyou might want to add calgoo to your calendar list. its not an online program but rather a way of using various calendaring programs together and having both a local storage of information and information storage on google cal. been using it since it went beta and its been a very nice companion for my calendaring needs.
-s
Posted by: steve rowe | June 25, 2007 10:33 AMOne more to Calculations:
Posted by: przemek | June 25, 2007 1:19 PMCoount - this is great Web App from Poland.
Josh, this is a super post.
You might want to add Data360 to Office Replacements, Studying or Collaboration. It's a tool for finding statistics and time-series charts in a downloadable form; it also is a tool where groups of people can collaboratively study, analyze and build graphical presenations their large datasets. If you make your data public, having a platform site of your own name is free.
See http://www.data360.org
Posted by: Tom Paper | June 25, 2007 4:45 PMRegards, Tom Paper
I downloaded a cool app. It's voice search of the internet. You can speak to your computer and make searches without touching your keyboard. http://www.tazti.com. Including Myspace, Wikipedia, YouTube, Flicker, Google and others... It really works and it's FREE!! the right price for me.
Posted by: Sara | June 25, 2007 11:40 PMI also discovered Google Scholar (from the Google main page, where it lists "images" and "maps", you click "More" and one option is Scholar.) It sometimes gives you journal articles you can't find on PubMed, and often has a link to a free PDF of the article.
Posted by: Chandra | June 26, 2007 10:53 AMhttp://cueflash.com is a great flashcard web based app that adapts to you.
Posted by: Rob Kohr | June 26, 2007 12:13 PMForgot to mention shvoong.com which is a great tool for students.
Posted by: jon | June 27, 2007 7:30 AMWe have built a free online outliner that is geared towards collaborative work. I teach in a school here in India and have got many students to start doing their project work using this tool. They can invite their guides, teachers or friends to join in and work together on their projects. LooseStitch allows importing OPML files and also exporting to various formats once the project is complete. Please do check it out.
www.loosestitch.com
Posted by: Shashwat Parhi | July 2, 2007 5:41 AMGreat tips!
Another very versatile program I've used for flash cards, research notes, personal contacts, song lyrics, recipes and all kinds of stuff ...
AZZ Cardfile
Only for Windows. I've used it and loved it for years.
Posted by: Jeff | July 3, 2007 1:49 PMYou should also check out BibMe...I don't remember the URL right now, but it is a free bibliography creator that seems to work pretty well.
Posted by: The History Enthusiast | July 7, 2007 9:32 PMEnjoyed the post and the comments. I'm the Blackboard administrator at a university. For those who asked, I believe that Web CT and Blackboard "merged", but they run under the Blackboard, Inc. name. For now the products are still separate but there are plans to merge them.
I'm also intrigued by the concept of using Web 2.0 tools so that instructors and students can pick and choose the tools that they use that meet the need. The two big challenges to this, that I'm seeing are integration with campus systems, and consistency of interface. With integration, I can give an example. We automatically create user accounts in Blackboard based on data in our identity management system. We automatically create Blackboard course shells using data from our student information system. We automatically create rosters, so only authorized instructors and students can access an online site. That happens through the magic of integration. Also, I sense that in a very busy university setting, students prefer to know where to find information in their course, and that can very from instructor to instructor. But maybe that's not such a big deal as it sounds. Anyway, I'm wondering the best way to get input on these ideas. I would love to try exploring alternatives to monolithic proprietary systems, but more importantly, to better meet user needs.
Posted by: Neal | July 10, 2007 9:33 AMAs regards the "studying" category, as well as others, there is an educational public service website Study Guides and Strategies www.studygs.net that is dedicated to helping students with over 120 topics divided into 15 categories and translated into 32 languages. And no advertising or distracting features to lead you astray!
Posted by: joe landsberger | July 11, 2007 8:35 AMI just wanted to say thank you for posting these types of Web 2.0 collections. The student backpack is a great addition. Keep up the good work!
Posted by: Matthew | July 13, 2007 10:28 AMI found Fruit Notes very interesting too for notes taking. Thought to share it with you guys.
Cool ways of store notes online
1) Call a number and record your notes! - I found this very useful, I can record anything at anytime from my bed, from bus or car whenever anything pops up in my head, I sometime use it to record conferences or meeting minutes.
2) Write text notes - this is wonderful to search my notes later at anytime and share my stories with friends.
3) Attach video, audio and images to your notes - to recall those lovely memories later
4) Share with friends! - helps in explaining my gf why I couldn’t meet her ;), well I can share my thoughts findings very easily with group of my friends, its amazing and very convenient.
And its all FREE!
Posted by: Nitin | July 16, 2007 6:53 PMCollege kids don't need to pay for literature books or go through Project Gutenberg to read the text of various public domain books. I prefer, Publicliterature.org to read books online. It's more readable and you can bookmark where you leave off.
Posted by: Jack Dale (Online Book Lover) | July 25, 2007 2:51 PMI just found one free domain name lookup service.http://www.ajaxlookup.com, Free and instantly checks domain name availability and see whois detail. Pretty cool stuff! ...
Posted by: nicolas | July 27, 2007 1:17 AMHey, this is Hung, creator of Notecentric. Just wanted to let you know that Notecentric is now a Facebook app. So you'll probably want to use that instead of the old standalone version.
http://apps.facebook.com/notecentric/
Posted by: Hung | August 11, 2007 2:33 PMYou should add hotmarx.com too. Its a cool reddit clone with file and note management.
Posted by: Tom | August 14, 2007 5:45 PM