Proposal

In an age that lives and breathes technology, digital and online tools have transformed the lives of students in college as well as enhancing education and the learning experience. Many college students are already seeing the benefits of digital and online tools especially on the premise of online and mobile applications. Due to the vast variety of tech tools,apps and people having different preferences , it is hard to really know what tools are most useful for college students. Despite this fact, my team member and I propose an information resource that informs college students about some of the must have digital and or online tools that boost productivity in college but also out of college.. More importantly, what sets this information resource apart is that it will be in the form of a video clip, available for the student body. The information provided will be based on our researched sources with the aid of personal experience.

The majority of the sources that assisted our research consisted of mainly online articles given the nature of the topic. Because we are creating an information resource, it was necessary to have a source that briefly stressed the importance of the information being provided. This is shown in an article that sheds light on the importance of using digital tools for college in addition to mentioning that these Digital tools are useful in areas such as taking notes, making citations, time management and working on collaborative group projects (Witte). In another source these claims are reiterated and supported by an infographic that provides statistical information that shows college students’ dependency on digital and online tools (Laird). The remaining sources researched are for the list of online tools that we compiled in order to provide solid information about their functionalities. The names of the tech apps and tools are as follows:

–Camscanner

Camscanner is an application available for android  or apple mobile products. This application allows the user to take a picture or multiple pictures of a paper that has notes, a page on a book , an article,a check,  or even a sketch the user made and converts it into a high quality pdf file that can be accessible from any device with an internet connection and a browser. The user has to enter Camscanner’s website log in and there it is , that one sketch they made of their pet saved and viewable from almost anywhere. Camscanner also allows you to share your pdf files with friends. Just like anything good its free.

-LibreOffice

Libre is a open source software that provides a office suite capable of making documents , spreadsheets, and  powerpoints. For the college student in need LibreOffice proves to be a great alternative to Microsoft’s Office Suite and the great part its free to the core

-Dropbox

Dropbox is the name of a cloud storage service that started in SF, California. They give their users 2GB of free online storage. They allow their users to save any kind of file on their cloud such as photoshop, video, documents. Literally any kind of file. Also now depending on the kind of file they also allow you to view the file without having to download them such as a word document. Just like camscanner they allow you to share your files and have them be avbailable to download for your friends. Although Dropbox is free you can pay for a plan that offers even more space than just 2 gb or if you lucky you will spot one of their events that gives you a bit more space on their cloud storage and never have to use a flash drive again.

-Prezi

Prezi is presentation software that reinvents the way people present information to an audience by changing the whole dynamic of sharing knowledge. Unlike the traditional way of presenting dictated by the slides that keep you in their parameters, prezi allows for 3 dimensional viewing that engages audiences and allows the message that you are trying to bring across. Students would enjoy and benefit from this software because it provides a new way of presenting their ideas to their audience by providing a dynamic presentation that will remain memorable to their audience.

-Online Microsoft Office

The Office online suite by microsoft is a free version of the microsoft office software that allows for a wide array of flexibility. Because the extra features of this online package, it almost feels like the full version. Users are able to create, edit and share word documents, excel files, powerpoint presentations and take notes. Thanks to its cloud storage mechanism, work done is automatically saved providing the option of continuing your work across any digital device even if you were disconnected from the internet. Office online is a useful tool to assist college students as well as educators.

-Easybib

EasyBib is an easy to use information platform or online tool for students and educators alike. It offers the ability to cite a wide variety of source types, take interactive notes as well as provision of research tools. One of the most interesting features of Easybib is that it allows users to organize sources under project titles which is a very useful feature to help students become better researchers.

-Googledocs

Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Forms are a free, web-based word processor, a spreadsheet app, a presentation app and survey app, all part of a software office suite offered by Google within its Google Drive cloud storage service. This tool allows for the creation and editing of documents online while collaborating with other users in real-time.

In conclusion we decided that all of the information we know about our tools would be embedded in a nice small video that can be enjoyable to watch at any given time. Although initially the proposal was only to create a resource that was unique and provided useful information. This led us to choosing the topic to be about a few of the many digital and online tools that are available and we selected the ones we think are essential enough to share with other students to get through college.