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Apps to Help you Study

I use apps all the time.  My favourite apps are those that help me be more productive.  Below are some suggestions for apps to help you study.  I use an iPhone so I'll be recommending iOS apps, most however will be available on other platforms too.

Evernote
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Evernote is an incredibly useful note taking app.  Store text, audio, video and pictures.  Evernote supports most platforms (iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Windows, Mac etc) including a web app.  The service will keep everything in sync across multiple devices.

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In addition you can keep everything organised in notebooks and with tags.  Searching within Evernote is outstanding, it will even search text within images once they have been processed.

 

We are recommending Evernote to all students as a way to keep track of work toward the new practical endorsement.

iBooks

The physics department at Leyton produces epub versions of key documents (handbooks and glossaries).  This allows you to highlight and make notes on information you find important.

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We also have  multitouch textbook versions of our handbooks for students with iPads (at present these iBooks cannot be exported for use on any other device).

 

 

See below for one way I have used Evernote in a vocational context.

iTunes U

If you are interested in finding out about physics (or any other subject) beyond the A-Level specification iTunes U is a good way to do that.  You can download high quality resources such as lectures from universities like Oxford, Cambridge, MIT, Stanford etc.
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There is an iTunes U app for iOS but all iTunes U content is available through iTunes on Mac and Windows.

 

Box
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Box is another cloud storage and sync system.  We use Box to host our course documents in our virtual learning environment (Moodle).  Box offers 5 GB of space on its free plan.  

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Box allows you to make comments on files, so it is another way that you can ask questions outside of lesson time.  If you have a Box account you will be able to get notifications when we reply to your questions.

Wolfram Alpha
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Dropbox is a cloud storage system that can also link to the native file structure on your PC or Mac.  There are also apps for most mobile platforms.  Dropbox is a far safer place to keep your important documents than a USB drive - all your files will be securely backed up to Dropbox servers.



If you install Dropbox on your PC/Mac it will keep your files in sync across the web app and any devices you link.  The free plan starts you off with 2 GB of free space (which can be increased by referring other people to Dropbox), that's not very much but in my opinion Dropbox keeps your docs in sync better than other services.

Dropbox
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Wolfram Alpha is an online database of scientific and mathematical data and computational engine.

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You can search for data on elements and isotopes quickly and efficiently.  Basic information about notable scientists is also available.

Slack
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Scannable by Evernote
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Slack is a communication app designed for business people, but they like to support education too.  We use Slack for student–to-student and student-to-teacher communication.  Students can ask for help with problems they are working on and other students can collaborate on solutions with them.

 

Slack is available on mobile devices, desktops and there is a web app.

Scannable takes outstanding scans of documents, whiteboards, and business cards.  It can export files as jpegs and pdfs, the export options are customisable.

 

We recommend Scannable as an app for taking scans of student work on practical endorsement tasks to keep a record of their work.

Evernote the ultimate lab notebook: 

Using Evernote in a vocational science experimental investigation unit

This is a fairly brief outline for one way I have used Evernote with my vocational science students at college.  I plan to do the same again next year if I teach the same unit.  It also offers a lot of scope for further development in vocational and academic science.

During preparation for a particular unit that required the use of a laboratory notebook I immediately thought of my students using Evernote to record their findings.  As I thought about it more it continued to make sense.  My reasoning was as follows:

 

  • Evernote keeps data safe, whereas physical notebooks are easily lost by students!

  • I would have to monitor the use of the notebooks by students.  If students were working in a shared notebook* that could be done easily without them having to bring a notebook to me and show me what they had done, I could simply view their notes from my browser/desktop/smartphone.

  • An electronic notebook would allow for a wider variety of information to be stored.  For example, most students have smartphones so they could take photos of their experimental set up and include them in notes, they could photograph experimental results directly, and they could scan tables of written results.  (If they downloaded the Evernote app these would be even easier to do by taking the photos within the app.)

Screenshot of notes made by students in one group

I also thought how Evernote could be used other than just as a lab notebook to include the research phase of their investigation.  Evernote serves as a solid platform for research gathering.

 

  • Web Clipper could be installed on PCs at college to allow students a way of very quickly adding research to a notebook.

  • Notebooks could be created for specific investigation types (e.g. Investigating vitamin C content of fruit juices) and then shared with all students doing that investigation.  Students could then collaborate on research.  This would provide a way of training to collaborate and not plagiarise!

 

Feedback so far has been positive.  Some students were a little resistant to set up a new account at first.  But they certainly appreciate how much easier it has been to achieve some of the grading criteria rather than use a physical notebook.  I have been a little surprised by the level of technical awareness of my students.  Given the almost ubiquitous nature of electronic technology I had expected them to be able to figure out new systems fairly quickly, but it did take quite a bit of instruction from me to get them set up with Evernote.

Collecting evidence by scanning documents

I hope that this introduction to Evernote will have a positive effect beyond this one unit for my students.  I would have found Evernote incredibly useful at university, I hope that my students will find it incredibly useful when they are at uni.

 

If you would like to know more about exactly how I set this up and any pitfalls or difficulties with the set up contact me via the Contact page.

 

*Note, a premium Evernote account is required to create shared notebooks that others can edit and create notes in.

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