Tech Blog

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Now that you've settled in to the back to school routine, you know where your classes are and you're starting to sweat over your first midterm deadlines here are a couple of ways to streamline the process.

5 apps for students (and 3 for teachers):

Elements - $4.99

I still have a hard time creating content directly on my iPad, but if you've got an external keyboard (or have mastered the touch screen), Elements is one of the best word processing apps in the store.  

Don't take my word for it, though, Elements has been named text editor of the year by Macworld and one of Gizmodo's best iPad apps of 2010.

Dropbox - Free 

Elements uses Dropbox to make sure your files are available for those times when you leave your laptop at your "roommates". Dropbox on it's own is a brilliant way to share files between computers and make them instantly accessible across a variety of computers. Pretty sure this is where Steve Jobs got his inspiration for iCloud.

Snoozerr - 99c 

I don't think you should really sleep during lectures, but if you'd rather spend more time paying attention and listening to your prof that with your nose in your notebook scribbling, try this handy lecture recorder.  You can also use your iPhone's camera to snap pics of slides or formulas on the board and it will time stamp the pics to sync with that point in the lecture.

Grades 2 - Free

For keener students trying to keep a scholarship in their sites, this app is handy for tracking your progress across classes. Set your target, input your grades and this app will tell you the letter grade you're pacing for.

iStudiez Pro - $2.99

To hit those top grades, you'll need to get your assignments in and never miss a class. This is an organizer that will keep you on time across all platforms. (It's a Mac App too!)  

The app helps you keep track of instructors, teacher assistants, classmates and lab partners.

But the tools on the web aren't just good for students trying to catch a grade, app tools, like Dropbox, can be handy for teachers too. Here are 3 others to check:

Mental Case Classroom Edition - Free

Mental Case is a great study tool that you get on your own for $4.99, but recognizing the budget constraints of schools, they make another edition for teachers available for free. The teacher creates a study archive containing notes for the students by exporting from Mental Case for Mac OS X. The study archive is uploaded to a web server or file sharing service like DropBox, and the students then enter the link to download and install the notes.

TeacherPal - Free

Just as iStudiez Pro helps students stay organized, this one helps teachers stay on track. They can organize classes, and students as well as track the attendance, grades and behavior of students.

It's truly cutting edge with face recognition technology that can help you sort students by simply taking a class photo.

Importing and exporting of grades and notes is done easily via Dropbox.

iResponse Pro - $4.99

I know teachers dont really like kids having iDevices in the classroom, but for schools that are fully equipped, this app can let teachers dictate tests to be taken on personal devices.  As you can imagine, the curating of data and analyzing of questions / answers and how well students are comprehending can be done instantly as the app and the devices tabulate the responses.