These projects do not simply highlight new technologies or innovative applications. As part of the Imagine Cup mandate, the students' projects must tackle some of the world's most pressing issues, as outlined by the United Nations' Millennium Goals. These include combating disease, ending hunger and reducing childhood mortality, to name a few.

Team Dragon (U.S.)

Asthma is the most common chronic illness in children. While an asthma attack is a terribly traumatic experience for kids, routine asthma care -- performing regular breathing tests -- can feel like a chore. Not surprisingly, kids' adherence rates to their asthma management routines are very low.

Enter Azmo the Dragon, a mobile role-playing game that makes these daily breathing tests fun. The game connects the mobile phone to a spirometer (the device that asthma sufferers breathe into to record their lung performance). Using the spirometer, kids control Azmo, a fire-breathing dragon. From having breathing be a source of trauma and disempowerment, Azmo the Dragon lets kids destroy villages and castles with their fiery breath.

The game itself is fun - there are several levels, and the dragon has other abilities besides simply breathing fire. All this makes daily test-taking seem like much less of a burden. But that's just part of the genius of this game. Azmo the Dragon takes a baseline of user's lung function, takes track of a patient's daily data, and as such will make it easier to tell when an asthma attack may be impending (typically asthma sufferers experience several days of declining lung function beforehand). Through regular monitoring then, there's a better chance for intervention.

The students who built the game attend Rice University, and at the Imagine Cup are showcasing not only their incredible game but also the spirometer hardware (developed at Rice) that is far cheaper than other apparatuses on the market. Typically these cost around $500, but the one used with Azmo the Dragon costs between $50 and $100 and is open source.

Team Note-Taker (U.S.)

Arizona State University student David Hayden is legally blind, and when he enrolled in math classes, found it incredibly difficult to keep up with note-taking in the classes, so much so that he had to drop the courses. So he set out to devise a tool to help visually-impaired students with note-taking as none of the products or services currently on the market, including legally mandated support personnel, really suffice. Hayden is one of the members of Team Note-Taker, the winner of the U.S. Imagine Cup finals.

Team Note-Taker has built a custom-designed pan/zoom camera and tablet PC that supports both pen and multi-touch input. This allows for the capture of video and audio, all connected to a student's handwritten notes. The tool has a number of great features, including the ability to enhance the image (when an instructor's dry-erase marker is about to run out, for example), to swipe the video back a few frames (so a student can see the whiteboard and continue taking notes, even if the instructor has stepped in front and blocked the view), to take screenshots of the whiteboard, and to search all of this offline. All the notes can be archived by class.

Studies have shown that students learn best when they take their own notes, and Note-Taker helps give visually impaired students the ability to do just that, easily moving between the distance-reading of the whiteboard at the front of the class and the close-reading of handwritten notes.

OneBuzz (New Zealand)

OneBuzz is tackling the problem of malaria, the single largest killer of children in the world. The disease is preventable and curable, and although over a billion dollars are spent on this, it's clearly not enough, partly because of inefficiencies in the system. "The mosquito is winning," said the team in their presentation today, saying they're going to give "one giant 'byte' back for mankind."

OneBuzz's tool aggregates data from a variety of sources to help manage the supply chain for malaria medicine, not so that clinics can react to outbreaks but so they can respond in real time and - even better - actually predict them. This will ensure that the clinics have the medicine, people have the nets, and areas have the pesticides that they need.

The data comes from text-messaging from both individuals and clinics who can report patients, deaths, and medicine stockpiles. It also uses sensory and satellite data in order to track rainfall and the weather conditions that might lead to an outbreak. As malaria is seasonal and cyclical, the system utilizes data from past years and past weeks in order to ascertain which clinics and which communities will need help.

OneBuzz says it hopes to unite researchers and aid organizations. The team has made a strategic alliance with India's Institute of Malaria Research, but it has also created a simple, open API so that others can build upon and extend the system.

Disclosure: Microsoft paid for my travel to the Imagine Cup.

Image credits: Team Dragon, Tom on Tech, Imagine Cup's Flickr page

The laptops' price includes both the hardware and the accompanying online services, the Forbes article states. These services include Google's Web-based alternatives to Microsoft's desktop offerings: Gmail instead of Outlook, Google Docs instead of Microsoft Office, and so on. It will also include things like online calendaring, collaboration tools, instant messaging and more, although the article doesn't go into detail on the exact services bundled with the deal.

At present, Google offers schools and universities a free and ad-free version of its Google Apps software to educational institutions directly, which can be then used by students and faculty alike. While a number of schools have signed up for these services, as evidenced by the numerous case studies featured on Google's website, many still have chosen Microsoft's Live@Edu solution instead, or something else entirely.

The $20/month program for student laptops gives Google a backdoor into schools, and also in the mass adoption of its services. Working the disruptive, flying under-I.T.'s-radar angle comes naturally to Google, which has, for years, pushed employees to use its products and services without I.T.'s knowledge or consent.

Update!!: Google has now announced its Chromebook educational program, officially. And from the sound of it, the new program uses the "front door", not the "back door," as we speculated earlier (see below). Or, in other words, the rest of the post is now just outdated, inaccurate crystal ball-gazing.

Thank goodness for the Web and the ability to update a post!

Nevertheless, Chromebooks for Education is an interesting program, but it sounds like the computers will only be offered to the institutions themselves, and not directly to students. That actually makes it seem less disruptive than we imagined, and, honestly, that's a little disappointing.

In the meantime, U.S. consumers can purchase Chromebooks from Acer and Samsung from Amazon and Best Buy, starting June 15. Specifically, the Samsung Chromebook will be $429 for the Wi-Fi only version, or $499 for the 3G version. The Acer Wi-Fi only Chromebook will be $349.

We think we'll just buy the iPad2 instead.

Google Loves the Back Door

In my former I.T. days, I remember being surprised to find Google Earth installed on kiosk computers running Windows, despite their heavily locked-down state which prevented the installation of local applications by anyone other than I.T. admins. More recently, Google figured out how to let employees install Chrome Frame, an Internet Explorer plugin that lets users browse using the Google Chrome browser within IE. The plugin can now be installed without administrative approval, through possibly tricky means, a TechCrunch story implies. This is par for the course, for Google.

Launching easy-to-use collaborative tools in an era of SharePoint gave Google an inroad into the enterprise market, too. Employees used the products without I.T.'s consent, forcing I.T., in many cases, to give in, and take administrative control of the situation by adopting Google Apps.

Now Google sells a premium level of these same services to businesses for $50 per year, per user. The paid offering includes additional online storage, increased security, administrative features, support, service level agreements and more.

That same "employees are our beta testers" M.O. is evidenced clearly with today's (expected) announcement, except in this case, the employees are students. As more of the students adopt the laptops and the services they run, the institutions themselves will have to consider whether their student population is ready to officially "go Google."

Once perfected in the educational system, this same program will then be offered to big business. But by that time, the disruption will be in the price of the laptops, not the method of deployment.

In a down economy, an affordable $20/month laptop will appeal to the cash-strapped student population, and soon perhaps, the enterprise, but more importantly, this initiative pushes forward many of Google's agendas: get into an institution through its end users, not its admins, get more people online so they'll click Google ads, and, the future is the Web, not the hard drive.

There's no real consensus here. "No, never." "Maybe, sometimes." "Yes, but responsibly." Nonetheless many schools and districts are drafting policies that dictate how school staff can interact with students via new networks and technologies - in many cases, restricting or banning student-teacher interactions.

Such is the case with a set of guidelines, set to be voted on this week by the Virginia Board of Education, that will establish the state's policy for how students and teachers can interact via text-messaging, social networking, and online gaming. In a nutshell: they can't.

The policy - "Proposed Guidelines for the Prevention of Sexual Misconduct & Abuse in Virginia Public Schools" - addresses a number of areas in which school board employees interact and communicate with students, a response to the 120 actions the state has had to take against employees for sexual misconduct against minors since 2000.

The language in the proposed policy reads:

• Under most circumstances, Teachers and other school board employees must restrict one-on-one electronic communications with individual students to accounts, systems and platforms provided by or accessible to the school division.
• Teachers and other employees may not use personal wireless communications devices to "text" students and are prohibited from interacting one-on-one with students through personal online social-networking sites. Teachers and other school board employees must decline or disregard invitations from students to interact privately through texting and personal social-networking sites.
• If, because of an urgent or emergency circumstance, a teacher or other school board employee uses a personal communications device or account to contact an individual student, the date, time, and nature of the contact must be reported in writing to his or her supervisor on the next school day.
• Teachers and other school board employees may not knowingly engage in online gaming unrelated to instruction with students.
• School board policy on electronic communications with students also applies to teachers and other employees of virtual school programs and other vendors providing instructional services to students

While it's hard to argue against better transparency and accountability for teachers, particularly when it comes to student safety, many educators are wondering why electronic communication needs to be specifically singled out in the proposed guidelines.

As one Virginia teacher argues,

"A professional code of conduct should apply whether you are speaking with a student in person, on the phone, via email or through posts using a variety of online Web 2.0 tools. These tools actually provide a written record of communication, so that in itself provides a level of accountability. We should trust our teachers to interact in a professional manner instead of unplugging our students and quashing their ability to communicate and collaborate digitally. Part of our district's Technology Plan calls for students to 'possess the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to learn in and contribute to virtual communities.' How does restricting communication via 21st century tools help achieve this goal?"

The Board of Education says the new guidelines are simply recommendations, and if approved, schools will be encouraged but not forced to adopt them. However, some educators wonder if this sort of decree from the highest level of the state education system will make it harder for tech-savvy teachers and schools to move forward with new social learning and technology endeavors.

But, as ReadWriteWeb editor Richard MacManus discussed in "5 Ways that Paper Books are Better than E-Books," everything from price to packaging to, most importantly, the feel of physical books may keep them on the shelves for a long time to come. Now, in a study called "Student Attitudes Toward Content in Higher Education," another round in the debate has been settled on the side of paper. 75% of student preferred old-fashioned, paper-and-board textbooks over electronic versions.

Additional findings:

• Students love a bargain. Survey respondents said they often buy previous editions of a textbook (16% did this for their current class ) or international versions (18% did this at least once).


• Piracy is pervasive. More than 40% of survey respondents said they bought a textbook from a pirate website, or know others who have. In addition, many respondents reported copying their friends' textbooks.


• Some learning tools have high value. Print study guides, Campus Learning Management Systems -- such as Blackboard and WebCT -- and diagnostic self-tests held high value for survey respondents.


• Some learning tools have low value. Online tutoring, audio study guides and "clickers" used in the classroom by instructors held low value for survey respondents.

The 12% who did favor e-textbooks -- "mostly males, and often MBA-seeking or distance learners" -- said they valued the "lower cost, convenience and portability."

Textbook photo by Nina Scaletti | other sources: ResourceBlog

SecureRF Corporation, a company specializing in secure RFID software, proposed the project to the school district. Funding for the project could come by way of a $100,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, which the company is close to finalizing.

One of the alternative uses the company has offered to the district is to enable tracking on school busses to see who uses the busses and how often. The data collected from experiments like these could be used to better budget the school funds, potentially opening up more money to underfunded areas of education, like the arts. Some district board members raised questions about privacy, but the experiments will likely be opt-in if they are given the green light.

Anyone who has driven through a toll station on a highway without having to stop to drop a few coins knows the potential for RFID to improve and optimize our everyday lives. For school officials tasked with managing hundreds of students across large campuses, technology like this could make their jobs much easier, keeping kids safer.

That may not be true, as it turns out. A new study coming out of Northwestern University, discovered that college students have a decided lack of Web savvy, especially when it comes to search engines and the ability to determine the credibility of search results. Apparently, the students favor search engine rankings above all other factors. The only thing that matters is that something is the top search result, not that it's legit.

During the study, one of the researchers asked a study participant, "What is this website?" The student answered, "Oh, I don't know. The first thing that came up."

That exchange sums up the overall results from this study: many students trusted in rankings above all else. In fact, a quarter of the students, when assigned information-seeking tasks, said they chose a website because - and only because - it was the first search result.

Only 10% of the students made mention of the site's author or that author's credentials while completing tasks. However, in reviewing the screen-capture footage of those respondents, the researchers found that even in this supposedly savvy minority, none actually followed through to verify the identification or qualifications of the site's authors.

Google was not the only search engine used in the study, but it was one in which the students put a lot of trust. The students felt emotionally tied to the service in some cases, noting how much they loved it and depended on it. (Those who used Yahoo! said they merely "liked" it.)

Regardless the choice of search engine, though, the first step in information-seeking was always the use of such a service, which was typically referred to as a verb. And yes, in addition to "google it," some even said they would "yahoo it."

Wikipedia Not Trusted as Much

Another interesting finding from the study involved the use of Wikipedia. Perhaps because of teachers' insistence over the years that the user-generated encyclopedia is not a credible source of information, only a third of the students used Wikipedia to search for answers when given particular tasks. This is a drop from earlier studies (like Raine & Tancer, 2007) which showed Wikipedia use at 46% among students.

Other popular trusted sources included SparkNotes (a study guide site), WedMD, Planned Parenthood, CNN, BBC, Microsoft (specifically Encarta and Office-related resources) and those sites with a .gov or .edu extension. Some students even thought that .org domain name meant a site was inherently trustworthy - they weren't aware that the .org extension can be freely registered just like .com and is not for nonprofit use only, as may have originally been intended.

Students Need Media Literacy Education

Over 1,000 students were surveyed and then the researchers randomly sampled 102 students from 1,060 students who had participated in the survey. The demographics of the group were both ethnically and racially diverse, reaching a representative sample of first-year college students at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

In summary, the findings showed that students are not always turning to the most relevant clues to determine the credibility of online content, said the researchers Eszter Hargittai, Lindsay Fullerton, Ericka Menchen-Trevino and Kristen Yates Thomas. Further initiatives that help educate people in this domain are needed, they claim.

Image credit in original article: flickr user Paulo Fehlauer

Some analysts predict that close to 20% of textbooks sold in 2014 will be in digital form, so it only makes sense for a large retailer like Barnes & Noble to try to move into this market. With this move, Barnes & Noble is challenging Amazon, whose Kindle hasn't been able to succeed in educational settings yet, as well as online textbook services like CourseSmart.

With NOOKstudy, Barnes & Noble addressed a number of issues that students found with the current crop of e-textbooks. NOOKstudy, for example, will allow users to work with multiple textbooks simultaneously and give students a central repository for all of their notes and related materials. Notes and highlights will also be searchable.

As of now, however, it's not clear if NOOKstudy will allow students sync their notes between different computers. For now, Barnes & Noble also doesn't offer any mobile versions of the software, but since the NOOKstudy application will use the same publishing format as the regular Barnes & Noble e-reading apps, we assume that students will at least be able to access their textbooks from any mobile device that Barnes & Noble currently supports.

If you are not familiar with Google Voice, have a look at this series of videos that explains how to set Google Voice up and use it.

Oddly enough, Google still hasn't opened up Google Voice to a wider public. When Google opened up Google Voice for all U.S. military personnel, we speculated that this was a move to garner some free publicity ahead of a larger public launch. This public launch never happened, however.

While Google is waiting, new competitors like Phonebooth.com and British Telecom's Ribbit have been able to establish a reputation for themselves by providing more fully featured services geared towards individuals and small business.

Besides the network's exclusivity, there are three other factors that could make it an easy sell for those looking for a way out of the Facebook rat race. According to mom-turned-entrepreneur Evelyn Castillo-Bach, the woman behind the network's creation, Collegiate Nation's three main pillars are: Privacy, No Advertisements and Total User Control.

It was hard to not be intrigued when the news of what appears to be a viable Facebook alternative, at least for the college student demographic, appeared in our inbox. Founder Castillo-Bach (not just a mom, but also a professionally trained journalist) reached out to us with a rather interesting story of a little-known network called Collegiate Nation.

Fed up with trying to control her own personal data on Facebook, she decided to create a new social network while her sons were both still in college. After seeing how her sons shared info among their friends, not realizing how that private data was being used, publicized and controlled, not only by Facebook, but also by third parties, her passion was ignited. "I feel strongly that college students should have the freedom and power to freely communicate with each other without advertisers, parents, professors and future employers poking into their social world or views," she said.

In fall of 2009, Collegiate Nation began grassroots-style promotions, but is still relatively unknown among most college students, admits Castillo-Bach.

However, the site has a lot to offer those who join, including the following:

• It's Student-Only: the website is exclusively for college students. You must have an @edu address to join. You must be 18-30 years old. Professors, faculty and staff who try to sneak in are in violation of the Terms and Conditions, an "UNLAWFUL ACT subject to prosecution," warns the sign-up form. The site even retains the right to request that members upload their student ID in the future if their student status is in question.
• Privacy: Members of the site own and control all their information and submissions, including posts, photos, videos, blogs, comments and more.
• No Ads: No ads, marketers, data mining or third-party apps will be permitted. The one exception is a page called AdWord, but it only shows ads from student organizations.

Collegiate Nation's Business Model: Tiered Access

Without advertising, Collegiate Nation needed a business model. The one it chose is tiered levels of access. Facebook may be free, but "Free is not really free," this page on Collegiate Nation's website reminds you. On Facebook, you're "paying" with your personal information and private data.

During its beta period, the site remains free for everyone. Later on, free users will no longer have access to the entertainment side of the website, but can continue to post stories, videos and photos. However, they will be locked out of areas like the music and art exchange area, the book swapping site, private groups, the breaking news section (Collegiate Nation also includes a Citizen Journalism component) and more. The free-vs.-paid comparison chart here has additional details.

The rates for "citizenship" - that is, the paid level of access - are reasonable: $1.50/week payable in monthly installments of $6/month. A discounted yearly rate is also available at $45.00, which means members get five months free.

The Grassroots Campaign

So far, the advertising initiatives for Collegiate Nation have only included a couple of college newspaper and radio ads - the company is hoping that word-of-mouth will help spread the news.

In researching the site via the Web, we happened across this student review, which seems promising:

"I think that this site is a very interesting concept, giving students a place to learn from and network with each other; a place where we become the media and can decide what's newsworthy to us," writes Kim Rodia, a senior at Kent State University. "I especially like the fact that I have the ability to completely control who sees my information and can post anonymously if I'd like."

But it's Not Facebook...

One caveat, Collegiate Nation is not Facebook. The site's design looks like something out of a bygone era, not a polished and professional creation like Facebook...or even MySpace, for that matter. But its homegrown look-and-feel may actually help it sell itself as the other Facebook - the private, secret one.

The site isn't the first Facebook alternative we've heard about lately. Last week, we broke the news of the open social network initiative called Diaspora, being built by four college students. We were happy to see The New York Times later pick up the news, as that helped share the students' efforts with a wider audience.

We expect that Diaspora and Collegiate Nation won't be the last to enter this space, either. For many folks, Facebook has jumped the proverbial shark. New outlets promoting privacy will appeal to those who have had enough of Facebook's callous changes with regard to what many still consider private data. Will Collegiate Nation succeed? It's far too soon to tell, but it's certainly worth watching.

However, despite the iPad's pluses, there are still some issues that students should consider before purchasing this device.

The iPad comes in several models, each with varying storage sizes and Internet connectivity options. At the bottom of the lineup is the $499 Wi-Fi only 16 GB iPad, the model that money-strapped students can just barely afford, if they can afford an iPad at all. But without a 3G data connection, Internet access may be limited. In fact, students may not even be able to connect to their own college's Wi-Fi network.

For example, George Washington University's I.T. Communications and Marketing Manager Rachel Blevins recently told a reporter at the school's independent newspaper that the university's wireless network would not work with the Apple iPad. The problem, explained Blevins, is "both a security and a support issue, because many of the small [personal digital assistants], smartphone, and pad systems use sign-in security, which is currently not compatible with our systems."

What Blevins is referring to is the VPN client software currently used at the university to connect students to resources typically limited to campus use only. Although the iPad software has built-in PPTP, IPSec, Cisco VPN software many universities (and of course, businesses too, as we pointed out earlier) use SSL VPN, a more secure solution which is not supported by the iPad.

That means that students with the Wi-Fi only iPad may not be able to connect to their college's network - often the only method of Internet access available in classrooms and other on-campus hangouts.

Update: SSL VPN support was just announced as coming in the next iPhone OS update, due out this fall.

Problem #2: Writing Papers

The iPad doesn't come with a keyboard. Although one is available as an optional $69 accessory, the included keyboard on the iPad is a virtual, on-screen keypad. In tests, many iPad reviewers found this keyboard was surprisingly easier to type on than they expected, especially in landscape mode, but for students writing long term papers, it may still fall short. A generation from now, after kids have grown up with touchscreen technology, that may no longer be the case. But at the moment, most college students will likely prefer hardware keyboards.

Another issue: when the paper is complete, many professors still require a printout, not an electronic document. However, the iPad doesn't include a printing function. There are a few third-party applications that offer this ability (WSJ's Walt Mossberg recommends Print Online's $5 app, for example), but none are as simple as a built-in technology would be. (Side note: printing support may be a feature added to the upcoming iPhone/iPad software Apple is announcing later today. Check back for an update).

Problem #3: iWork Doesn't Work for Students?

The optional iWork applications (Pages, Sheets and Keynote) are Apple's version of Microsoft Office's Word, Excel and Powerpoint. However, some are already finding them difficult to use for their purposes. One example: in the tests documented here, creating files on the iPad went well, but the sync solution provided by iTunes caused issues for the reviewer.

We also noticed some problems ourselves, documented in an early review by Frederic Lardinois:

"While you can easily import and export documents (Pages and Word) by email or through iTunes, complex documents don't always survive this move intact," Lardinois explained. "Footnotes and endnotes, for example, are simply deleted, making Pages for the iPad almost useless for a lot of students and academics. Tables of content simply become part of the text, which means that they don't auto-update any more." He also noted that Pages on the iPad doesn't offer a word count, something many college students need in order to know if their paper meets a professor's requirements.

Finally, Apple's document-sharing service iWork.com, while great for sharing files with other people, doesn't function as a way to sync files between devices.

Problem #4: No USB Port

iPad's lack of a USB port may not be an issue for some - so much of what we do now is web-based, after all. However, for college students who have become accustomed to porting their files around on keychain drives, the missing USB port requires a change in their workflow which may not fit in with their current lifestyle.

Instead of being able to plug in a portable flash drive to the iPad as they could with their Mac or PC, files can only be sent to the iPad via iTunes sync, email or web download. There are some third-party applications that can help, but again, nothing is as good as a built-in solution.

Conclusion: iPad's a Great "In-Between" Device, But Not a Notebook Replacement

Despite these disadvantages, the iPad still has a lot to offer college students as an additional device, if not a PC replacement. For example, Blackboard's free iPad application looks quite useful. From the app, students can check grades and assignments, add discussion board comments and blog posts and email instructors and classmates.

Plus, the iTunes Application Store has thousands of educational applications like advanced calculators, reference guides, dictionaries, note-taking apps, planners, utilities and much more.

The iPad also plays podcasts, like those offered via iTunesU, the collection of audio and video presentations created by many universities to distribute recorded lectures, films, schedules, syllabi, notes, maps and other information to students.

However, given the issues listed above, it's clear that the iPad and its software - at least in its current form - is not able to fully replace a notebook computer. Some of the problems may be addressed in time with revisions to the device's software, but for now the device remains a great "in-between" mobile gadget, not a next-gen notebook computer.

Here are a few tools we wish we'd had when we were still dorm-dwelling nobodies. Forward these links on to the collegiate folks in your life, and add your own favorites to the list. Together, we can rid the world of dropped classes and "ramen starvation."

BigWords is a site and iPhone app that source a slew of online retailers to get students the cheapest possible textbooks, taking the legwork out of online comparison shopping. BigWords also claims to optimize prices by looking for multi-item specials, shipping discounts, coupons, and other exceptional deals. Students (or textbook-shopping parents and guardians) can also share "bookbags" with others, and the site claims an average $225 savings on multi-item orders.

Study Socially

When students can use Facebook Connect to sign into an app designed to optimize study time, you know the world has changed. StudyBlue takes advantage of your virtual Rolodex to help you share notes, flashcards, and other study tools. Notes can be recorded as text or as multimedia content - that means you can share audio and video with your class-skipping colleagues. If only it counted as attendance, no? Best of all, the StudyBlue team has announced mobile capabilities for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Another app we like in this space is Quizlet, an online flashcard and quizzing resource that also uses Facebook Connect.

Rent and Return Textbooks

BookRenter soothes the eternal frustration of spending a triple-digit amount on a textbook you'll use for four months and then resell to your college's bookstore for a princely ten bucks. Renters register and have access to the company's catalog of millions of titles. Prices are refreshingly reasonable; shipping options and rental periods are flexible; and return shipping is free.

Situate Yourself

DesignYourDorm is a new-this-year app that allows college students to design their dorm room interiors in 3D and purchase their decor selections online. Not only can students often choose their exact room dimensions and layout from the DYD database and collaborate with dormmates to get rooms furnished based on thorough checklists; parents can also send care packages from a gallery that calls to mind an edible version of 1800Flowers.

Mobilize Your Textbooks

Coursesmart, a leader in the e-textbook game, just released an iPhone app, which we reviewed recently. Their catalog so far includes 7,000 ebooks, and their software works for both Macs and PCs. The desktop apps also allow students to take notes while reading, and both desktop and mobile apps have built-in search function.

Research on the Fly

The mobile version of Wikipedia has long been available for on-the-go consumption, but did you know Wikipedia also just released an official iPhone app, which we recently reviewed? You can also try iPhone apps such as Wapedia, Wikiamo, or Wikipanion.

Get Yourself and Your Group On-Task

Remember the Milk is one app we like for individual or group tasks. This full-featured program allows users to keep track of tasks through RSS feeds, share tasks via email, add tasks via email or SMS, and even assign tasks a specific location. There's an iPhone app, and RTM plays nicely with Gmail, Twitter, and Google Calendar, as well.

Hit 'Em With Your Best Shot

Finally, after all your hard work and study, you'll need to create a certain number of papers, presentations, projects, and perhaps even a website or two during your time in school this year. We have a whole list of code-free website creation tools that range from easy to use to ridiculously easy to use, and with a little finessing, they'll definitely impress a professor or two. For creating multimedia presentations, we like Empressr, Drop.io, and SlideShare, all of which have different social sharing/embedding and multimedia capabilities.

Back to Basics

For staying organized, keeping in touch, taking notes, and generally keeping yourself sane, your old friends are more useful now than ever. And by "old friends," we mean those apps you already use so much you don't even realize they're apps anymore. Try seeing Facebook, Google Docs, Google Notebook, Gmail, Twitter, and Skype as study and communication tools rather than just time-wasters, and you'll notice that you can get a lot done on your favorite sites.

So, what apps are you using to get organized, get smart, get together, or just get it right this year? Let us know in the comments!

Universities such as Duke, Stanford, MIT, and the University of California, among others, already post videos online both to YouTube and in iTunes U, a section of iTunes featuring audio and video podcasts. However, what UNSW is doing is unique - they're providing college credit to those watching the YouTube recordings.

YouTube U

While there's really little difference between physically showing up in a classroom to sit and listen to a lecture and viewing a video of the same lecture, few universities have allowed this type of unstructured remote learning to count as college credit for those who are not already enrolled in the university. Instead, colleges that support distance learning initiatives usually require students to apply for admission and pay tuition, just as any other student attending classes on campus would have to.

The fact that Buckland is not charging the high school students who are remotely attending his courses but is still giving them college credit is what makes what he's doing so different...and perhaps groundbreaking.

The process of UNSW's "YouTube education" is not entirely without structure, though. Only a limited number of high school students are chosen each year for this opportunity. Those who wish to attend must submit a statement as well as an academic reference from a teacher. In other words, receiving college credit for watching the videos isn't something available to anyone, anywhere - there is still a selection process that is adhered to.

Higher Learning or Marketing Campaign?

Colleges who want to follow in UNSW's footsteps could easily take this idea and turn it into a recruiting or marketing campaign for their university. By offering high school students transferable college credits valid at their particular institution, they could encourage the brightest young students to consider their university over others long before it came time to fill out the admissions packet.

No matter what reason a college may have for pursuing this type of remote learning, giving students the chance to work ahead - and at no additional expense to them - is an idea that hopefully spreads to other institutions worldwide.

Half the students (32 of 64) skipped the class and listened to the podcast only. The other half attended in person, where they also received a printed handout. A week later, the students were tested on the material.

Podcast Listeners Did Better

The students who downloaded the podcast alone averaged a C (71 out of 100) but those who attended class averaged a D. And those who listened to the podcast and took notes did even better - their average was 77.

Before university classrooms empty out, it's important to note that this is only preliminary research. McKinney's study involved only a single lecture. Also, motivation may have come into play as well. Her experiment didn't count for class credit, so students were encouraged to participate with iTunes gift cards. The high scorer from each group was awarded a $15 gift certificate for use in the online store.

McKinney now plans to further study podcasts in the classroom over the course of an entire semester, instead of just one class. She wonders if students might find podcasts more useful early on in a class, when the material is still new. Still, McKinney is a big believer in the power of technology and its impact on education. "I do think it's a tool," she says. "I think that these kids are programmed differently than kids 20 years ago."

Zotero also announced a new online component to its plugin, which, in conjunction with the new synchronization features, automatically creates an online backup of your database on Zotero.org.

Zotero, which we highlighted as one of the top application for students last year, features an extensive set of tools for creating and managing bibliographies. While it started out as a very basic tool, its feature set is now up to par with that of other commercial bibliography tools like EndNote or RefWorks.

Zotero integrates tightly with Firefox 3 and allows you to quickly save articles and easily create bibliographies for your papers and articles from most of the major free and for-pay research databases and online newspapers.

The synchronization feature works exactly as advertised and allows you to keep your bibliographies in sync, even if you work on different machines. If you have access to a WebDAV enabled server, Zotero can also sync your attachments automatically.

Needs Firefox 3

Whenever Zotero recognizes that you are surfing a supported site like Google Books, Amazon, YouTube, the New York Times, or JSTOR, it will simply add an icon to your Firefox address bar that allows you to save the bibliographic entry for that page or article with one click. Zotero will automatically extract the bibliographical information for you and it can even create a full-text archive of your saved documents.

Social Networking

Zotero.org now also includes a number of social networking features. You can, for example, search for other users by name, email, affiliation, or discipline. While this feature is still very new, and hence only has a few users so far, this could turn out to be a real boon for academic researchers (and others) who could use this to share their bibliographic databases with colleagues. In the future, Zotero plans to extend this with a Twitter-like stream of your friends' research activity.

Zotero also integrates with Microsoft Office and OpenOffice (though the 1.5b1 version is not compatible with these plugins yet!), and supports over 1,100 different styles, as well as the ability to create your own. You can also just drag and drop entries from Firefox to any other document and it will create a bibliographic entry for you on the fly.

Verdict

Zotero was already one of the best tools for managing large bibliographies. These updates make it even better and allow it to compete directly with its commercial brethren. The new synchronization feature allows you to work on different machines, without having to constantly save and update your database, something that used to give RefWorks (which is essentially an online tool) the upper hand.

Note: While the new sync feature worked great for us, Zotero rightly recommends that you back up your database before you update to version 1.5b1.

Google experimented with the first official Google Doodle, a series of revisions that played out a story of "alien intrigue" over the course of a week in May 2000.

Bastille Day 2000 marks the first appearance of the current Google Doodler, Dennis Hwang. Also worthy of note is the fact that Google used to provide some reference copy for the tweak, a motif that has since faded from the tradition.

In 2001, Google took the opportunity to recognize 100 years of the Nobel Prize. The doodle replaces one of the "O"s with the sought after medallion each Prize winner receives.

In 2002, Scott Adams took a turn at providing a doodle, doing away with the Google altogether and replacing it with characters from Dilbert. The pointy-haired boss provides his usual insightful direction.

Google Doodles have always had a soft spot for artists. (Which only makes sense, given that each doodle is a work of art in its own right.) Because of that, you'll see a number of famous artists appearing in our favorites. The first to make the list? A doodle from 2002 where Picasso-inspired figures poke their heads through the Google logo.

Obtuse references have also become one of the mainstays of the doodles. And that makes St. George's Day easily one of our favorites, not only for the artwork but for the choice of subject matter.

Pop artist Andy Warhol inspired a colorful Google Doodle in 2002. The doodle holds the distinction of being the only doodle so far to include multiple logos in a single doodle - a nod to Warhol's use of repeated popular imagery with varying color treatments. Being in front of millions of Google searchers definitely extends his "15 minutes of fame," and it lands him on our list of favorites as well.

Science achievements always appeal to the "geeky" and technical types, especially when they offer some interesting visual opportunities. The celebration of the 50th anniversary of understanding DNA took some liberties with the letter forms to represent the double helix in Google's colors.

There's no greater inspiration for scientific pursuits than Albert Einstein. So this doodle was easily a shoe-in for our favorites. Of note, the incorporation of Einstein's most famous formula into the artwork.

MC Escher is another artist whose work has inspired hours of contemplation. Staring at his interpretations of optical illusions still continue to delight - and confuse - fans to this day. Google picks one of his most famous works, Drawing Hands, to round out the "O"s.

The Masters inspire masterful doodles - if you can even classify this nod to Michelangelo as a "doodle." It makes our favorites for the tasteful use of nudity on a page that always has to be "safe for work."

Combining technology, artistic talent, and obtuse references is arguably the Google Doodle trifecta. That's why we like doodle for the birthday of Gaston Julia, the mathematician who devised the Julia set equations for fractals. These graphical representations, popularized by Mandelbrot, retain their resolution no matter how much you magnify them, making them a natural for the site that allows us to find minute details on the Web.

Sporting events - especially those that impact the whole world like the Olympics - often garnered a few Google Doodles over the course of the Games. The 2004 Summer Games series - highlighting the events held in the birthplace of the Olympics, Athens, Greece - was especially compelling.

One of the doodles that Hwang mentions as memorable is the Venus transit of 2004, which only happens once every 122 years. The idea for the doodle was submitted by a French astronomer. We're happy he made the suggestion, because It's one of our favorite doodles.

Not to be outdone by Michelangelo, the Da Vinci doodle of 2005 - celebrating the anniversary of Leonardo's birth - incorporates a number of the famous renaissance man's sketches into the Google logo. The wing on the "L" is an especially nice - if subtle - touch.

Google's initial success came from taking a different approach to solving a common problem. And that's what makes Frank Lloyd Wright - an architect who took a different approach to his craft - such a fitting tribute. The doodle features some of Wright's most famous buildings, with a repainted Falling Water replacing the "L" and "E."

It's hard not to pick every single artist that Google picks, because each doodle does a great job of representing the works in small form. Van Gogh was an easy - and obvious - choice for one of our favorites with Google's rendition of Starry Night.

Easily my personal favorite is the most visually illegible Google Doodle ever released: Louis Braille's birthday which appeared in 2006. The doodle serves as a gentle reminder that not everyone "sees" the Web in the same way.

Another recurring theme in the doodles is the nod to Earth Day. The 2006 rendering of the Google logo features renewable energy resources - like solar and wind energy. This doodle was a favorite of ours for its creative - and informative - doodling, reminding us all of our responsibility to the earth.

One of the first doodles to downplay the logo in favor of the artwork it's referencing is a tribute to Edvard Munch in 2006. The doodle, which features his most famous work The Scream, is striking, even if the initial "G" is almost imperceptible. Like so many artists before him, we're adding Munch to our list of favorites.

Earth Day 2007 made the favorite doodle list, as well. Unfortunately, there isn't much left of that Google iceberg below the water and that serves as a chilling reminder of the effects of global warming on the planet.

Space exploration got another nod in 2007 as the doodle captured the 50th anniversary of the first manmade earth-orbiting satellite in space, Sputnik. Humans using technology to explore the unknown seems to be a perfect theme for a company like Google - and an obvious addition to our favorites.

Google has made it a habit of recognizing its own birthday with a doodle. So we would be remiss if we did not include one of those examples in our favorites. The 10th birthday doodle in 2008 seemed the most appropriate choice, especially given its retro look resurrecting the original Google for old times' sake.

We've touched upon a number of obtuse references. What about an obtuse representation of the logo? The doodle honoring modernist Marc Chagall in 2008 makes it difficult to even discern the "Google," but it's one of our favorites, nonetheless.

One of the most momentous occasions in United States history, the 2008 US Presidential election, resulted in a doodle that hid most of the letters from us behind the curtains of voting booths. I wonder who the letters voted for? In any case, we're voting for it as a favorite.

What's a list of favorites without the Large Hadron Collider? Not a complete list, we say. That's why we've been sure to include the 2008 doodle - celebrating the first time they sent particles screaming around the loop of the LHC - as one our favorites.

The final artist to make our list of favorites - Google's celebration of the 110th anniversary of Rene Magritte's birth - has Google taking a backseat to the artist's most famous facade, The Son of Man, with its iconic green apple.

We're going to wedge one last space-oriented doodle into our favorites. And nothing seems more appropriate than the doodle celebrating the 50th anniversary of NASA, the organization behind the US space program.

It seemed a shame to close out our list without a representative from 2009, so we've also included the New Year doodle, a whimsical representation of the jungle that is the growing Google ecosystem.

Inspired?

So there you have it. Thirty of our favorite Google Doodles.

As you can see, a number of our favorites have centered on artists and accomplishments, making these doodles the perfect complement for the Doodle 4 Google contest. Hopefully, they've provided some much needed inspiration for the students who will be participating in that program.

Need even more inspiration? You might want to take the opportunity to review Google's complete collection of holiday doodles. Or it might help to look over the shoulder of the official Google Doodler.

Now, it's your turn to doodle - or more appropriately, your kid's turn. If grade school age students want the chance to have their artwork in front of millions of searchers, they'll need to convince their schools to let them get to doodling about "What I wish for the world."

At the very least, the participants are sure to do better than the original Google logo, Backrub.