Must-have technology for students
Technology that can be beneficial to your university experience
By Nathan Woolridge, Staff Writer
School has been in full-swing for a couple of months now. By now students should have attended a majority of their classes (or some at least). As midterms roll around and then final exam schedules get released a bunch of study methods will be in full force. What will you be using to study with? A laptop? Writing your notes in a notebook? Filling in a few hundred cue cards of terms?
Well, there are a few different ways of studying. Each person will study differently. But, what you don’t know is there is a lot of technology designed and built to help students. These devices are something to take note of and think about moving forward.
Pens of the future
We’ve all used pens since the beginning of our educated lives. Today, most students use pens to take notes. But, sometimes the most difficult task is listening to your lecture and writing down the notes from the board.
Well, with LiveScribe pens ($200-$219), you can write notes and record your lectures at the same time. According to PC Magazine, “nestled inside the tip of the Echo pen is a high-speed, infrared camera that captures 70 frames per second.” Then, you can plug in your pen to download electronic versions of your notes.
That’s not all! If you’re using a LiveScribe notebook ($35 for a four pack), you can touch the pen to different parts of your notes and it will play the audio of what was being said when a specific note was being taken. You will never miss a single moment of what your professor was talking about when you were too busy worrying about missing that last line of the powerpoint slide.
Flash drives and hard drives
Yes, you save everything onto your computer but we all know that computers have failed us in the past. If you begin to develop a habit of saving everything to a flash drive ($10-$50) or a hard drive ($75-$250), then you can always work from essentially any computer.
As well, a drive is useful for organization. You can create folders for all your classes and they are great for storing a lot of files, even some big ones depending on what drive you get. You can file presentations, documents, photographs, audio, video and much more. Organizing all of your material will definitely help you keep on top of all your classes and assignments.
As we all know, it is great to have a backup of assignments on your computer and elsewhere in case of an emergency. Especially when you have that professor that won’t listen to your excuses about why you can’t hand in your assignment.
Power to the people
You probably don’t think much about it, but carrying around a power pack can solve a lot of your problems, especially during exam times when everyone else is hogging all the outlets in the entire school.
You don’t realize, but some power packs can charge your laptop, phone and some even come with an attachment that can boost your car – no excuses for missing a class on a cold, Calgary winter morning.
With a power pack ($25-$55 or $75-$95 with booster cables), you can set up your studying and homework workshop virtually anywhere in the school. It’s a really convenient way for having your laptop and phone die on you right in the middle of an assignment.
eBooks and textbooks
If you don’t mind reading off of a screen, investing in an eBook reader could possibly save you money in the long run. Some readers and eBook websites do sell textbooks and can allow you to buy some of your textbooks at a very reduced rate, especially novels that you may have to read for some of your classes.
There are tons of different models at different prices. It is definitely worth it to research some of the different brands and models that they offer. You may be able to find a better selection of some of the texts you may require.
The downside to an eBook reader is that you cannot write on pages or use sticky notes, but there are a lot of other ways that you can save pages.
Apps and software for students
If you are looking to make your projects stand out, there are tons of apps and software that can help.
Many different software companies give student discounts, like Adobe, which you can use to create amazing posters and then have them printed off at the print shop.
There are also apps, like Slack, or even online with Google Hangout that can allow you to organize a group project without even having to meetup to discuss.
Students are on a tight budget, but sometimes spending the money on some of this technology could also help you produce great work. Investing in some of these devices could definitely help students be more organized and more efficient.
