Best Educational Apps for University Students

There are not less than 200,000 apps. Students can use them to help them in their academic and personal responsibilities and leisurely activities. The best apps come with organisation, reminder, note taking, file management and audio recording features, among many. There are many good ones and to choose the best, you can explore those which fit you and your needs.

Things

The Things app for the iPad could be the best all-in-one deal for students. It is load with features which are important for students. It is a task scheduler and organiser. As a student, you have many activities not only in or for school but also in recreation and personal chores. You can put all these in Things to help you manage your time. You can get it for the price of $20.

Dragon Dictation

This amazing dictation app for iPad is available for free. With this at your command, you can focus your attention to listening to your professor and comprehending what they are trying to say. Do away with your steno style hand writing or typing note taking. Simply record the lecture using this app. You can also use this program when taking down notes while studying or researching. Listen to your “notes” over and over instead of browsing them on the pages of your notebook or screen of your laptop and staring at them with very less retention. Your voice and that of your instructor will go round and round in your ear and mind. Now that’s effective repetition. The mother of learning!

Evernote

The free of charge Evernote app is marvelous for managing your productivity as a young learner not only in school but also in life. You can organise your notes, list down what tasks you need to do, keep a record of websites you need and group your documents. It also has an audio recording function you can use to capture lectures and camera to “copy” everything you need like photos, graphs, texts, tables and charts among many.

Penultimate

For the price of $1, you can have Penultimate which is great for note taking and drawing doodles. The studying that students do will not be limited to only writing outlines of their lessons. With this app, they can draw! Now you can actually do that botany drawing templates or lay out your own mind map of the modules you are studying in whatever subject. Use this app to take pictures of classroom demonstrations and reports.

Author Bio

I am a very organised person. When I was still a very young pupil, I used index cards and other stationery products to aid me in my studies because there was no computers yet. Now, as an adult student in higher education, I use my electronic gadgets from my cellphone to the projector and slides in powerpoint presentations.

Powerpoint Presentations Mishaps

Reviewing assignment examples are essential for successful assignment writing. The ‘review’ serves to be the kind of preparation fit for the activity; and in most cases, such consistent parallelism is good for the piece and the writer.

In presenting, however, it is necessary to be dynamic. Apart from preparing the slides, students are expected to practise their delivery. That involves mock presentations in front of the bathroom mirror or a friend.

Students would need to receive feedback to correct their presentation patterns. They must be adaptable to emergency cases like when the projector decides not to work. However, the preparation of powerpoint presentations can already be taxing that little time is actually devoted to create contingency plans.

In such case, it would be advisable for students to make it a point to integrate in their timelines the coming up of such contingency plan. For instance, if they’ve got two weeks to prepare, they must leave the last week for fine-tuning their slides, perfecting delivery and setting up strategic approaches for mishaps.

Each presentation mishap demands a specific kind of tactic. To illustrate the implications, collated below are two common mishaps coupled by the best conceivable solutions:

• Equipment-related mishap. Aside from projectors that don’t work, there a lot of other technical mishaps that could cause an epic mayhem. How about designing powerpoint presentations and saving it in one format – that happens to be incompatible with the one in the audio-visual room?

The solution: personally visit the audio-visual room to check the existing equipments, as well as, ensure that those you would need are reserved for the presentation date and time.

Bonus tip: befriend the audio-visual staff. These people may prove to be your saviour in a time of equipment-related mishap. Also, do bring your very own equipments and save those slides in several formats.

• Slide-related mishap. You’ve worked straight for two hours to perfect the effect only to see them disabled during the presentation. This may sufficiently break your heart; but take in mind that if you don’t do anything about it, your case is sure to be doomed.

The solution: do prepare slides that show the content minus any effects. And practise presenting them. In fact, you should make little adjustments or changes between the with-effect and without-effect slides to ensure that you don’t feel too foreign with the emergency-slides.

Powerpoint presentations are seldom given with less time to prepare. Hence, give the time justice by always covering contingency plans. Be flexible, not only in your approach to interacting with differing audience, but also in your battling with uncertainties like, mishaps.

For sure, your waiting audience will thank you for this and it wouldn’t be hard to apologise.

 

Powerpoint Presentations versus Presenter

Reading the thing aloud rouses the sleeping audience. But instead of punishing your inattentive audience, why not retrospect and look at what went wrong.

Perhaps, the fonts were wee bit tiny that those sitting in the back can’t make the texts out. Perhaps, the texts were aplenty, and left you with few words to say or expound. Evidently, whatever faux pas made in context to audience, it’ll inevitably affect the way they behave in front of powerpoint presentations.

In general, how do you want them to act? And the billion-dollar question, how do you influence such behaviour?

First, you want them to be all eyes on you. Again, clarify this: should their eyes be on you or your slides? Of course, it should primarily be on you and secondarily be on the slides. Remember, you are the presenter, the lecturer, the speaker – not the slides.

Although, yes, the powerpoint presentations can do all the talking, particularly the visual talking; but if the audience will engage in this kind of talking, they will no longer be interested in hearing you talk. So, how do you do it? As a presenter, you must pose as a better rival against those slides.

The slides do appeal to the audience’s sense of sight – compete with that. Make your voice be heard and make your words appeal to them. Talk to them with genuine connection: as if what you are to say is the most important news they will ever hear.

Another stuff you would want is for your audience to interact with you. At this rate, you can be sure to use your powerpoint presentations. Pose questions and let it be you collecting the answers. Process the answers in public, make them hear how you take their answer, or evaluate its accuracy or point.

If not questions, use pictures or videos; and follow it with a rapid discussion that will centre the talk between you and the audience. In its entirety, you are rightly optimising your tool when you design it to suit your audience, as well as, the flow of discussion you initiate.

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Powerpoint Presentations: Simultaneously Knowing You & the Audience

he audience are bracing themselves for the lone figure standing in front of the podium. Armed with a projector, and a series of slides in his laptop, he came prepared. He briskly saunters and talks; this is coupled by an intermittent wave that signals the transition of slides.

The presenter calls these powerpoint presentations a presentation; but the audience knew better. For a presenter to be presenting he should address the audience’ needs. Instead, the presenter spent the rest of audience’ time wowing them with trivia and details.

Consequently, the presenter’s efforts to show up went in vain. The audience, though amazed by every slide, fail to find sense in it. In the context of the presenter’s objective, the audience were sorely confused. It took a lot of effort figuring it out by their own; despite the wow-moments, the audience could only tie the presenter’s appraisal in one single, four-syllable word: ineffective.

No presenter could dream of having such a term coined with them. Their powerpoint presentations could be described hazy, their voices faltering, but not them being ineffective. Yet, that is the reality of every presentation task – either you did, overdid, or didn’t make it.

Such reality is harsh that it sometimes sent even some higher education students wailing or nervously teeth-chattering backstage. Now, it becomes more obvious as to who is the boss of presentation – the audience. Consequently, it becomes necessary for budding student-presenters to know their audience, particularly their tastes for a presenter.

Does a presenter have to be as detailed and advanced as MBA assignments are in general? Do they want a pleaser, a humorous or lively presenter? How about a smart sounding twerp – the sort that stubbornly convinces you?

If students are to ask in this manner, they’ll soon find the presentation taxing or maybe impossible. Hence, it may be recommendable that they try a different tack. For instance, instead of reading their audience, why not read themselves? Almost every student has experienced being an audience, right?

In every lecture, students have sat, listened, and occasionally stared at various powerpoint presentations; in this duration of playing audience, certainly, students have formed their own sets of presenter-likes and dislikes.

However, student-presenters must not focus on those likes/dislikes that are purely specific to themselves. Instead, look at those that are relatable to other audience and find a way of not doing those ‘disliked’ and exhibiting the ‘liked.’

Keeping Up with the Challenge of Classroom Report

Classroom reporting is one of the many tasks that a student may get assigned to. Professors often make their student report on a certain topic or lesson in front of the class on two purposes. First is to train the student to develop public speaking skills that he may need in his career in the future. Second is to continue the lessons for the learning sake of the class. Classroom reporting could present quite a challenge to a student tasked to do so. The main challenge is for him to effectively convey the message of the report to the class.

Effective classroom reporting is a tough challenge. It, however, can be accomplished if the student possesses the right tools and materials to keep up with the challenge. These tools and materials include Powerpoint presentations. The PowerPoint is graphic presentation program developed and marketed by software giant. It has been regarded as one of the most commonly used software, etching its presence in both the working and the academic world. But how does a PowerPoint presentation help make classroom reporting more effective?

PowerPoint presentations qualify as visual aids. But they do more than any typical visual aid could do. While people could retain some parts of the message by hearing, it has been proven that they could even absorb more information if supplemented by visual assistance. A PowerPoint presentation allows a student reporting on “How to Write Assignments” to convey the message better by increasing the information retention rate of the audience. More information is retained if they both could see and hear the report.

It is not a wonder how PowerPoint managed to capture a large number of users. PowerPoint presentations alone are evidences on how this program helped students effectively convey the message of the report to the class.

Check-Listing Your Powerpoint Presentations

Saving yourself from any presentation trouble, you sought to make your tool at its best shape. You relentlessly peruse it from the first to the last slides. However, the ideal way to ensure that you’re powerpoint presentations is ready for action is through the utilisation of lists, the likes of which is sorted below:

• Are you using the same font and paragraph layout all throughout?
• Is the presentation theme appropriate for your topic?
• Are you using the same vocabulary from front to finish?
• Is the sequence of the powerpoint presentations correct?
• Does the sequence reflect the stages by which you are going to commence presenting?
• Is the font size favourable from front to back sitters?
• Is the font used for the caption below images favourable from all viewpoints?
• Are your personal notes closely similar to that of your powerpoint presentations?
• Is your presentation tool compatible to what is used inside the presentation rooms?

Using such checklists as this is a more organised approach of fool proofing your readied presentation. You can also add your own checklists, particularly those that merit points and are highly prioritised for the kind of presentation you are about to do.

Pouring diligent attention to presentations like this will always work in students’ advantage. For one, this will train them for more challenging courseworks like a dissertation or MBA assignments. Moreover, this helps them not just in developing their presentation or technological skills; it also shapes their aptitude for contingency planning.

This sort of planning does not have its limited relevance inside the school; it is also notably useful in practical life as this enables students to perceive externalities or probabilities. Sharper reception for future outcomes will aid student’s decision-making skills, as well as student’s implementation department.

Three Disadvantages of PowerPoint Presentations

When was the last time you created a PowerPoint presentation? That last time probably was before presenting a report in front of a waiting audience. PowerPoint presentations are indeed very helpful in boosting one’s report. But like any other academic tool, these graphical presentations have disadvantages that students and teachers alike should take note of. If not properly address, your graphical presentation might as well ruin your report instead of boosting its value.

PowerPoint presentations lack flexibility. Using the PowerPoint program, you can create, format and edit slides before a presentation. However, you cannot edit or change the contents and the format of the slides during a presentation. If a slide contains an error, you cannot edit it right away without exiting the PowerPoint show. An error made before a report cannot be rectified during the presentation. Any error could be prevented by carefully proofreading the slides before making the presentation.

Students and teachers have tendencies to induce “Death by PowerPoint.” The term refers to state of boredom and fatigue brought about by too much information placed on the slides. Too much information on slides is counterproductive. Though it may save time, placing too much information on slides would reduce the ability of the audience to retain the message conveyed by the report. To prevent this, the presenter should place only the important details and use bullet points.

PowerPoint presentations may negatively affect the value of the report. There are students who get too lazy and just read the text as indicated in the slides. The slides are not the source of the report, but rather the reporter or the presenter. The slides are just presentation props that add value and style to the report. It is the reporter or the presenter who brings the all-important substance to the report.

Tips on Making your PowerPoint Presentations more Effective

Making PowerPoint presentations may sound so easy, especially that almost all students know how to use this Microsoft application. However, making effective presentations is different thing. Poor use us the PowerPoint, especially in creating and making presentations, have lead to such terms as “Death by PowerPoint” and “PowerPoint Hell.” Although poor presentations have been the main cause of these failures, the fault has since been attributed to the program instead of the user. How can one make his PowerPoint presentations to be more effective? Here are some tips how.

For more effective PowerPoint presentations, there is a need for the audience to clearly read what are written in the slides. Some presenters commit the fatal mistake of using a font style and size that are hardly visible to the audience, even the nearest one. To ensure that your presentation can be read by everyone in the room, try testing your presentation by projecting it on a monitor with you standing at the farthest part of the room. If you can read what are written on the slides, then it is safe to assume that everyone in the room can read them during your actual presentation.

The most common cause for presentation boredom is the overload of information placed on the slides. To prevent, the maker of the slides should only include information that are vital to the presentation. Avoid placing all the contents of the report into a single. Use brief summaries or bullet points to highlight the main ideas of the presentation.

When making the presentation in front of the audience, the presenter is advised not to read the slides. This would make it seem that the source of information for the presentation is the slides. The slides are there to augment the presentation, not to become the presentation.

 

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The Abuse of the PowerPoint

Creating PowerPoint presentations has been one of the most common tasks that have been mastered by many students, professors, employees and employers. True, students present their reports using Microsoft PowerPoint and teachers gives lectures and lessons using the same program. Employees and employers alike use PowerPoint to further their work and profit. It is safe to assume that the PowerPoint is one of the most commonly used, and also abused, applications in the world. Yes, the powerful program, Microsoft PowerPoint, could also be abused. To what point?

The aim of the PowerPoint is to create presentations that would make it easier to convey messages and ideas to large number of people. Instead of using the conventional way of presenting the reports through boards and papers, PowerPoint presentations offer a new venue that would maximize clarity and understanding of the information or message. But for many years now, that aim has been obscured.

There are PowerPoint users who place too much information on a single slide. Instead of placing just the most important words from a report, some users copy and paste almost all parts of a sentence in a slide. There are also users who, instead of using bullets to highlight important points, paste a whole paragraph for him and the audience to read. Too much information results only with the audience remembering only a small part of the report.

There are users who read the slides during the presentation. This should not be case, since the presenter is the source of the information as far as the audience is concerned, not the slides. There are also users who too many animations in their PowerPoint presentations. Using too many animations will take the attention of the audience away from the message to the moving objects.

 

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Varying Themes for Powerpoint Presentations

There are many varying ways of making powerpoint presentations. Even though how simple this method is generally, it does not need to always be boring. Using a variation in your presentation will make it interesting and successful.

You can mix and match ideas to help you make your powerpoint presentations come in different variations to get and sustain the interest of your audience.

1. Using a Theme – Basically, powerpoint presentations use a specific theme for the whole duration of the reporting. It is a basic principle in this activity to use one theme for a set. With a theme, you avoid giving your viewers unwanted distraction. Having no theme means your slides will have different formats and designs which can disturb the focus of your audience.

2. Variation as a Theme – Pushing the basic principle of having a theme, you can use the theme of variation. This means your theme is “having no single theme.” You can use a different theme for every slide. Apply this to suitable presentations. For example, if you are doing a presentation about the different kinds of animals, you can use for each animal a theme that fits. In this case, the variations are not disturbing but are aids.

3. Selected Themes – You can also pick two or more themes which you will shuffle. This is appropriate for presentations in which you are comparing two or more items. For example, if your task is to present the differences and similarities of journalism and copywriting, you can pick two themes to suit the two items. Put each point of comparison side by side using a different theme for each side.

 You can make your presentations more interesting from start to finish by tapping the potential of the theme component of this method. Diversify your slides based on the items of your content.

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