The new school year is a great opportunity to become more organized and efficient, and technology makes that easier than ever. There are a number of mobile apps to help students and teachers with all sorts of school tasks from taking notes and tracking assignments to creating projects and lesson plans.
Here are a few of the best back-to-school apps.
Evernote, free
Who it’s for: Students and teachers
Platforms: iOS, Android, Windows, Blackberry and desktop
Evernote is a note-taking app that can do almost everything. Take notes or create lesson plans and add photos and attachments. Record audio while taking notes and share notes with classmates or colleagues. It’s great for research projects: Get the Evernote Web clipper for your browser and save Web pages directly to Evernote in the same notebook with the rest of your research information. A premium account unlocks more features.
MyHomework, free
Who it’s for: Students
Platforms: iOS, Android, Windows, myhomeworkapp.com
Keep track of homework assignments and when they’re due. If your teacher uses Teachers.io, join your teacher’s class to see assignments, the syllabus, announcements, attachments or links to course material. Get more features with a premium account.
Teachers.io, free
Who it’s for: Teachers
Platforms: iOS, teachers.io
Create assignments, schedule tests and lessons, post announcements, add attachments and links to course material, blog about your class and create or attach a syllabus. Your students can access all of this information from their MyHomework app or myhomeworkapp.com.
TouchCast, free
Who it’s for: Teachers
Platforms: iPad, desktop
TouchCast is a production studio for the iPad. Embed clickable Web pages, polls, quizzes and more into videos students can watch and interface with. Have students watch a video at home and discuss what they learned in class. Or, create a video for students to interact with on a day you won’t be in the classroom. For more ideas about using TouchCast for your classroom, visit touchcast.com/education.
Remind, free
Who it’s for: Teachers, students and parents
Platforms: iOS, Android, remind.com
Remind is a safe way teachers can text students and parents. Send out homework and test reminders, and attach photos, links or presentations to messages, all without handing out your phone number. Students and parents with the app will see your messages, and those who don’t have the app can get messages through remind.com.
StudyBlue, free
Who it’s for: Students
Platforms: iOS, Android, studyblue.com
Create flash cards to study for class. StudyBlue not only flips flash cards, but it also creates quizzes and review sheets based on your flash cards. Add photos to cards, share them with classmates and search the online database of existing flash cards. Sync with Evernote to back up class notes and easily create flash cards from existing notes. A premium account has more features.
Sunrise, free
Who it’s for: Students, teachers and parents
Platforms: iOS, Android, Mac OS X and sunrise.am
Sunrise is a calendar app that integrates with Google calendar and iCloud and imports events and birthdays from Facebook and Microsoft Exchange. Tell Sunrise what your favorite GPS app is, and get directions to your meeting. Sunrise sends you reminders and lets you invite people to meetings. You can see who will be in a meeting and connect with them on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
Todoist, free
Who it’s for: Students, teachers and parents
Platforms: iOS, Android, Windows, Mac OS X and todoist.com
Create to-do tasks within project folders, and break down big tasks into smaller subtasks. Todoist sends you an email every morning reminding you of your tasks for the day. A premium account allows you to get reminders about tasks, invite others to your projects and tasks, and add notes and attachments to tasks.
30/30, free
Who it’s for: Students
Platforms: iOS
Keep on task with this to-do list timer. Create a task list and decide how long you’ll focus on each task. Start the timer to hold yourself accountable, and see how much you get done. It’s good for doing homework and chores, as well as allotting specified amounts of time for procrastinating.
Notability, $4.99
Who it’s for: Students
Platforms: iOS
If you prefer handwriting notes but want the convenience of having notes on your iPad or iPhone, use notability to write, type and record notes as well as insert photos, graphs and Web pages. You can export notes to Dropbox or Google Drive. Import your teacher’s notes to Notability and add your own during a lecture.
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