Having just submitted a piece of coursework online rather than a dusty pigeonhole it has nade me wonder what technological marvels other people are using to make student life easier?

[robino]

In technological terms it feels like I graduated approximately 4000 years ago!

My course is 100% distance learning. I have emailed some PDFs to my kindle which is a revelation. I am also vaguely trying to use Evernote although I'm not entirely sure I understand it!

Am I missing out on other glorious technological things which will improve my life? Kindle, Macbook, ipad and android all available within the house (which is another thing which makes me feel ancient; imagine having to go and queue in the computer rooms!)

I've applied for all my funding online fir course that starts next month. my new text book has a code in it for all kinds if e book and internet extra stuff. I've not yet dared to try it!

Webnars rather then having to attend in actual person...

Ooh, yes. I think mine has that too. Haven't dared look either!

This course is making me feel so ancient! I only graduated 12 years ago.

Surely I'm not at the cutting edge of student technology?

I don't think I can access the e-resources that come with my text book unless the university has signed up for it; they haven't mentioned it yet.

I started with the OU and so everything was submitted electronically. At the uni I'm now at, assignments are submitted physically (you download and print a personalised coversheet which is then scanned at handover so the date/time is recorded accurately) and electronically - the latter to check for plagiarism and sometimes they're marked that way too.

Though I think dropbox is the most useful piece of technology for a student!

No more the danger of losing a piece of work if not backed up and the pc crashes... and the work is available at home or away on any pc/laptop/netbook etc with an internet connection.

Re. your textbook - if you've got the code that came with the book then you can usually log on to the publisher's website linked to the book and register.

DH did a distance-learning MA recently and every so often there were group Skype sessions, where a number of students from all over the world got together and talked about the module they were taking. It wasn't just a worthwhile exchange of ideas - it also helped combat the loneliness of studying alone.

I'm not a distance learning and I have a "smart pen" that DH got me as a present. It records everything I write and if I'm expecting to struggle I can turn sound recording on and it also records what is being said as I'm writing (so why I upload my note to computer I can click on a word and it plays back the lecturer talking).

Oh and I use OneNote (I think its a bit like Evernote, comes with microsoft office) to organise my notes, index my lectures and keep track of my reading and work.

Mrs Hoarder - would you mind telling me a bit more about your onenote strategy? I do think Evernote could be really helpful but I can't quite get to grips with it and as I was travelling for the very first bit of my course I am already playing catch up! Insider info would prove ever so helpful!

My course is taught with a module on a day of the week, so for each day I am in uni I create a Page which surmises the lecture: key facts, recommended reading, any work to do etc. Then as subpages I add the notes (via my nifty pen), the handouts (from the integrated learning environment) and notes on the reading done for that lecture (I have my own template for these: all the info I will need to do a reference later and then everything I learnt from it).

The most valuable thing is that then when I want to find out about (say) pearson's correlation I just type it into the search and it tells me what lectures included it and what my background reading about it was.

I also find its very useful to be able to "unload" and sort through everything I've learnt that day. If I don't have DS with me its an ideal thing to do on the train, otherwise I do it when I sit down in the evening.

I also try to use it to create my larger pieces of work, but don't have a functioning strategy for that yet.

Thanks, that sounds like a fab strategy. Am going to try to adopt something similar!

Brilliant strategy, I also want to adapt that.

I love one note. I have a notebook for the year with sections for the module and then sub sections for topics.

I 'print' the lecture slides so it sends to one note rather than printing on paper, then annotate on my laptop in lectures. Also (although I havent done it yet) you can also set up an audio recording that is linked to notes, so you find a slide and then play the audio from when you annotated that particular slide. I also keep masses of journal article pdfs filed by subject.