There’s nothing more stressful for students than the exam time. They spend days and nights struggling with notes and textbooks, trying to prepare as best as possible. Textbooks can also be expensive, and become a significant cost for many. However, students no longer need those printed materials and books for exam preparation.
Technology has made education much simpler and more convenient. Electronic gadgets make it easier for students to find all notes they need in one central place. Moreover, there is a range of educational apps and gadgets that make study sessions more productive and more exciting.
Read on to learn about the top 7 education-friendly gadgets and apps to promote better study sessions.
1. Vimeo and YouTube
Visual learning has rapidly increased in popularity in recent times. It’s easy to see why when you consider how easy this format is: you can watch any educational video anytime and from anywhere. You don’t need to be present in the classroom to attend your lectures. Even if you miss an important lecture, you can stream it online at any time.
Vimeo enables users to stream top-quality educational videos seamlessly. You’ve surely used YouTube for watching entertaining videos, but this video search engine can also be used for streaming video tutorials. You can find educational videos on just about any subject in one click. Many of these videos are educational and entertaining, with tutors explaining complex themes through infographic, tables, and graphs. You can also clarify any doubts in the comment section.
2. eBooks and eReaders
Your smartphone is everything you need to download and read eBooks from the comfort of your home. You don’t need to fork out on a Kindle: you can buy mobiles for a low price and then install an eReader app for comfortable and convenient reading on your phone. Ebooks are much more convenient not to mention more affordable than mountains of text books and reference books.
3. Google Drive
Nowadays, teachers and students forward assignments and important notes electronically. To store this information on your device and make it accessible, you need cloud storage. You can save your data on an external drive, but that can get pretty inconvenient, as it is difficult to carry your hard drive to school. There is also a risk that you may misplace the drive and lose all your data.
Cloud storage allows you to create digital backup of your files and important educational materials. Once you have stored these on cloud storage, you can access them on any device using your email. Google Drive arguably the best free cloud storage and file syncing app around at the moment, with 15GB of free space.
4. Recording Pen
Smartpens are very handy for recording the lectures and tutorials. It is a convenient and portable device comes that comes with a built-in mic. Students often have a hard time paying attention to the lectures which can impact on their grades. Using the recording pen, students can record everything the teacher explained in the classroom and listen back later as many times as you need. If you didn’t catch a few points during the lecture, you can play the recording and cover all the missed points all from the comfort of your home.
5. Virtual Assistants
Finding a solution to your math problem or an answer to your science question no longer needs to be a challenge, thanks to virtual assistants. There’s a reason why smart speakers such as Siri, Amazon Echo, Alexa, and Google Assistant have been trending in recent years. You can activate these speakers with your voice command and ask just about any question, meaning there’s no need to turn on your laptop or exit out of your assignment document for basic queries.
6. Brainly
Brainly is similar to a students’ forum where a group of students post questions and help each other with the answers. The app is available for free, but you can buy its paid subscription for around $15 per 3 months. The paid plan has some extra features like displaying your questions on the top of the screen, as well as being ad-free.
Students need to register an account on Brainly, type their question, and find answers. You could also use this app for answering other students’ questions. Brainly can be used for regular homework and assignments too.
7. Quizlet
Quizlet is another educational app that allows students to create flashcards and share them with their friends. You can also use this app for playing multiple memory games. Though Quizlet is designed mainly for language learning, you can use it for any subject and the app is available in 18 languages. You can buy its Pro version, but that isn’t necessary: the free version will work fine and meet most students’ needs.
These were the top 7 apps and gadgets you can use in 2020 for digital education. So, why wait? Skip those conventional lectures and textbooks, and embrace smart learning solutions.