Even though it's summer, school is still in session for many. With new classes comes technology, which is now a staple in classrooms. More than 14.2 million computers, or 1 computer for every four students, are available for classroom use in schools across America, according to a U.S. Census report.
College students frequently use laptops during classes and many use mobile devices to take notes, manage schedules and coordinate projects. Study and note-taking apps are becoming increasingly important.
Chris Draney, a business management student from Bartlett, Ill., uses inClass, a study and organization app for the iPhone, to log his homework and exam dates. He uses it along with BYU's app, which lists his schedule along with resources such as campus maps, directories, campus cameras and office hours.
'I love the BYU app because it can do just about anything short of taking a test for you,' Draney said.
Eric Udall attends Mesa Community College in Arizona and uses AK Notebook on his Android phone to take notes. He said he doesn't have to use Wikipedia anymore since there is a Google search shortcut within the app.
'It's super simple and clean, so it's easy to use,' Udall said. 'I'm all about simplicity.'
He also uses Android's calendar app to organize his schedule, and said receiving reminders for events along with being able to write things down whenever he needs is a big advantage to the apps.
Note-taking and organization apps are not just limited to students. Just as technology use is frequent in the classroom, it is increasing in the boardroom as well, especially in the form of smartphones and tablets.
Ritu Raj is a self-confessed note-taking app junkie from San Francisco. Owner of Orchestrator Mail, a platform that organizes email messages into projects and tasks, Raj said the most important thing about a note-taking or organizational app is its compatibility across devices.
'I do a lot of things with a lot of people,' he said. 'That's what my life is.'
Raj said for him, using apps like Simplenote and OrchestratorMail makes his life more simple and eases his anxiety. He plans and tracks his goals and projects, and through technology, Raj has his notes at his fingertips along with collaborators' progress on shared tasks. However, Raj does have one app he always returns to.
'I'm addicted to Evernote,' he said.
Although everyone seems to have a favorite study or organizational app, here are a few worth checking out:
inClass: A scheduling app, inClass allows users to plan classes and homework assignments along with taking notes and setting reminders.
AK Notepad: This app allows users to organize notes with hashtags as well as sharing them through social media or over texts. Users can also pin important notes to their phones' home screens.
Evernote: This app which allows users to sync notes over the cloud, record audio notes, share single notes or entire notebooks, scan items and clip items from websites to insert into notes. Evernote works with several other platforms and has added additional apps such as Peek, which turns notes into flashcards for studying.
Springpad: Unlike Simplenote, Springpad is available on both Apple and Android smartphones and tablets. A strong competitor of Evernote, it also allows its users to scan items, share notes with friends and sync with multiple devices.