Best Apps to Organize 'Back to School'
By Tech Mom Jennifer Jolly for GalTime.com
Have you ever had that anxiety dream where you:
a.) show up for class and there's a test you didn't study for?
b.) can't find your class or can't remember your locker combination?
c.) show up to class naked?
Well… now there's an app for that. Okay, not the naked part, but everything else. While we ancient chalk-and-plastic-protractor crowd have to live with that back-to-school angst burned in our subconcious forever, kids these days, have amazing technology right at their fingertips. Here are the very best apps to get this school year off to the right start.
BEST FOR BUSY FAMILIES:
Evernote: Free/$3.99 For Premium (All Smartphones) This updated and upgraded all-in-one note taking app syncs up anything you need to jot down via text, pictures and voice recordings. It puts it all neat and tidy to a place where you can get to it easily on the Evernote application or the Evernote website. Your notes are easily to search and tag. It even tries to recognize and index text in photo snapshots. For students, it's a one-stop shop for having class notes on hand at all times. For multi-tasking moms… well, it's a Godsend.
Related: Re-engage Your Child's Brain for the School Year
Cozi: Free/$5.99 for Premium (iPhone & Android) , The Cozi Family Organizer is the best family organizing and calendering app available today. Yep, I even like it better than Google Calendars. Why? It gives the whole family a shared calendar that's color-coded for each person. A quick glance tells you who's going where, and when. Cozi also has a to-do list, a shopping list, and even a family journal that can include both text and photos. This has been a great way to share little snippets of life with my parents in Alaska and my college age step-son in New York. I simply can't recommend it highly enough for busy families who need a personal assistant in their pocket.
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Google Calendar: Free (All Smartphones) Even though I love Cozi, this is still the preferred calendar app of just about everyone else I know. It lets you quickly schedule events and keep track of appointments. You can share your schedule with your co-workers, family and friends, sync to your mobile phone's built-in calendar, get notified by email or have a text message sent right to your mobile phone. And… it's free.
OVERALL BEST IN CLASS 2011:
inClass: Free (back-to-school promotion right now) (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) This is one of the apps everyone is talking about right now. It keeps track of all your courses and even sends you a text before class so that you are never late again. Not only that, but it will help you keep track of your tasks by reminding you that one is due soon, so no more procrastination. In addition, it lets you take video notes, audio notes and photo notes and syncs it all in one place.
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iStudiez Pro: Free/$2.99/$9.99 (All iOS) This app is like inClass, on steroids. iStudiez Pro is a universal app designed to help students, teachers and parents easily keep track of school schedules, homework, exams and grades by providing planner tools, notifications, grade and GPA tracking features and much more. They've also recently added a whole bunch of new improvements related to tracking and scheduling class and exam information. If only it were available on Android and other platforms…
CourseSmart: Free (iPad, iPhone, Android) This is one of those textbook rental sites, with 20,000+ titles. The company says their catolog includes 90% of the core textbooks in use today in North America Higher Education. That's a lot. In addition to saving students an average of 60% per textbook, what's also new and cool CourseSmart's Read OfflineBETA feature. That's where you can access eTextbooks without an Internet connection.
Related: 9 Ways to Transition Your Kids from Summer Back to School
Dropbox: Free (Android, Blackberry and iPhone) This is one of my top picks for "essential" back-to-school tech savings. This app works across of smartphones and PC's. It's become the go-to site for cloud-based file storage. Remember when you were cranking on a paper, about to type that last sentence and then the tech Gods sneezed and you lost EVERYTHING? This ensures that never, ever, ever happens again. Any files you upload to Dropbox from wherever you do it, whether your smartphone or PC, automatically save and sync. That means you have instant access to the documents you need, anytime anywhere.
Cram: $3.99 for iPhone, $25 for Mac (All iOS) This is a great chance to snag the popular flash card and multiple-choice test study app for free. Cram - Flashcards and Multiple Choice Study Tool for Mac usually retails at $24.99 and Cram for iPhone/iPod touch usually retails for $3.99 in the App Store.
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gFlashPro: Free/$3.99 (iPhone, Android, Blackberry) I'm using this to help my daughter get her multiplication mojo back before the start of the 5th grade. This flashcard app offers more than 50 million readymade cardsets, lets you create and edit your own cards, has added audio and video clips in several languages, and a whole lot more. I am even using it to help remember my facts and figures for the TV appearances I do.
Wordnik: Free (iPhone, Android) Now here's one for language lovers (or help for haters, whichever). The Wordnik app gives you the definition, samples sentences, related words, charts, images from Flickr, pronunciations, etymologies, tags, Twitter segments and more. This is not our Father's Dictionary. It's way better.
I'll do many other articles on this subject, including sneaky educational apps that your kids will think are all fun and games. (Have you played Stack the States yet? I love it!). What other "must-have" back-to-school apps have you tried? Please let me know!
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