Every year, both college and school-aged students, head back to school ready to take on their teachers and the world. For most students this involves new clothes, new supplies, and new technology. I was surprised to how many students in my middle school classroom have smartphones and know how to use them. When half of my eighth grade students own an Android smart phone, I think it is fair to say that the smart phone has become ubiquitous, and that it is time to leverage the technology.
Luckily, my school leadership recognizes this, and we are piloting a program to allow students to use their phones in middle school, to help organize, plan, and even research for school projects. It is a sad fact, but even a mediocre Android device is more powerful and reliable than many of the PC’s that we have available to students. So, as my students, and thousands like them, march off to classes armed with an Android smart phone, I would like to present seven essential back-to-school Android apps.
7 Back to School Applications for Android Smartphones
Class Buddy
Price: 1.49
Demo: Yes
Link
Class Buddy is an all-in-one class schedule and management system; if you or a student you know is challenged by organization, this is an app worth exploring. By using Class Buddy, students can stay organized and up to date on class projects, assignments, and due dates. One of the great features of Class Buddy is that it allows you to enter in assignments and due dates, and when you get feedback or grades on those assignments, you can enter that information as well, and Class Buddy will calculate your GPA in that class for you. Additionally, this back-to-school Android app will calculate your cumulative GPA across all of your classes.
Class buddy allows you to set up your schedule based on semesters or quarters, so it is handy for both middle and high school as well as college students. The task organizer is very straight forward and simple to use, and it also allows for password protection to keep your data safe. The homescreen widget is particularly handy for an at-a-glance of pending due dates. Data from the app, including tasks and schedules can be exported or backed up to email, Google Docs, Google Calendar, or a CSV file.
Evernote
Price: Free
Demo: N/A
Link
I purposely did not add any word processing software to this list, because I think that doing actual composition of writing on a smartphone is not the best use of time for a student. Yes, my Motorola Atrix would work for writing in a pinch, but I would become very frustrated in the process. What my phone is great for is clipping small bits of information, simple notes, snapshots, and thoughts and keeping them organized. That is exactly what Evernote is for.
Granted, Evernote requires an online account to be created, but this is one online service that is worth it in my opinion. Using your phone (or a PC/Mac) you can easily create notes, take snapshots, or make recordings and record them. I am forever clipping small pieces of information and storing in my Evernote account. As a teacher, I constantly take a photo of all documents I receive and save them in Evernote; if I lose one, I have a copy for reference. I encourage my students to do the same.
Evernote also allows you to collect different threads of notes in different notebooks. This is great for younger students because it helps students start to practice the art of contextualizing and sorting relevant information. For college students it works because those sorting skills are already in place.
For back-to-school note taking, Evernote cannot be beat. I wouldn’t recommend it for essay writing, but for organizing you snippits, it is just about the best thing out there.
Dropbox
Price: Free
Demo: N/A
Link
Flash drives are not encouraged in my classroom; they break, get lost, and become a management issue. I encourage my students to utilize Dropbox like they would a flash drive. Dropbox is much more reliable, easier to use, and it will keep a record of deleted and moved files.
If you are unfamiliar with how Dropbox works, you simply open an account and use to sync important data. If you have a Windows PC or a Mac, you can install the Dropbox application so that it automatically syncs data stored in your Dropbox folder. On a smartphone or tablet, you manually have to upload and download information, but the process is very simple. Your back-to-school student can also use the Dropbox website to upload and download files and folders. With a Dropbox account, you won’t ever lose or break your flash drive.
Dictionary.com
Price: Free
Demo: N/A
Link
There isn’t much to say about the Dictionary.com App for Android; it is a dictionary, and it is very good and easy to use. When it comes to exploring new vocabulary or trying to increase my academic writing vocabulary, simplicity and quality is exactly what I look for in a dictionary. The install is a bit large, so you might want to be attached to WiFi before downloading it, but once it is on your phone, you will love it.
There is a homescreen widget that will teach you a “word-of-the-day,” which is a nice touch, but more than anything, the dictionary is simply very thorough and free. In addition to a strong dictionary, the app also includes a complete thesaurus. Finding the right words for your back-to-school essays has never been easier.
Read It Later
Price: 2.99
Demo: Yes
Link
Read it Later for Android has been called a DVR for the web because it allows you to save information so that you can read it when you need it, regardless of connectivity. This is particularly useful for students because many academic buildings are black holes for cell service, and if you don’t have WiFi available, you might find yourself without access to important data or research.
By using Read it Later you can save any information from virtually any source for offline reading. On a Windows PC or Mac, you can install the web broswer plug-in that will allow you to easily save documents while you research. Your saved information will be instantly synced to your account so that there is no need to remember anything. Your information is simply ready when you need it, with or without Internet connectivity.
Share Your Board
Price:
Demo: N/A
Link
I don’t have a Smartboard or Promethean board in my classroom; I wish I did, but students simply do not have that luxury with me. Consequently, when I am writing notes on a traditional whiteboard, information can be missed or forgotten. That is where The Share Your Board Android app comes in handy. Share Your Board allows you to snap a photo of a whiteboard with text and save the image.
I know, any smartphone camera app can do this, but Share Your Board app processes the images, auto crops images to improve readability, allows you to tag and comment photos, and allows you to share them with other Share Your Board users. The app tries to adjust to various lighting conditions and text colors, so you walk away with the best possible image, and the most usable information on your phone.
If you or your student has a hard time keeping up with transcribing notes from a whiteboard, and your teacher does not have a smartboard available; Share Your Board might help you keep up.
Real Calc
Price: Free (3.29 Donate version available)
Demo: Yes
Link
Have you seen the price of a modern scientific calculator? Many of them cost more than my Motorola Atrix did. Why not turn your smartphone into a fully functional scientific calculator for free. Now, to be fair, I am an English teacher, and so I barely know what to do with all of the buttons and symbols in the Real Calc application, but my students assure me that it is just as good as a $150 Texas Instrument calculator.
The free version is fully functional; all you gain with the donate version is the ability to customize conversions and constants tables. With back-to-school budgets so tight, Real Calc seems like a fantastic option to turn a powerful phone into a fully functional dual-purpose computer.
Virtual Recorder
Price: Free
Demo: Yes
Link
Sometimes information is too important to miss, or your instructor speaks so fast you cannot make heads or tales of the information being presented. In those cases, a personal recorder is a great option. Unfortunately, digital recorders can be quite expensive. Virtual Recorder is a fully functional voice recording app for Android that offers all of the features of a traditional voice recorder for free. With Virtual Recorder, you can record 10 hours (based on storage space) of lectures, adjust pitch, adjust sound quality, index and tag recordings and convert your recordings to MP3.
This app seems perfect for college students or students in advanced classes where the stakes of having the right information are very high. Why waste money on additional devices, when you have a smartphone, that with the right apps, can do it all?