College students share their tips about Internet resources that help them with their studies and school work.
Guest post by Alexis Pellegrino, Jarryed Scott, Berbely Zayas, Maritza Yuman, and Emran Rahim (all students currently attending The College of Westchester).
I came across this article last week in the “Student Voices” newsletter published by the Student Government Association at the college where I work, and I knew it would be great to share here. (“Thank You!” to these students for their permission to do so).
Studying is the main ingredient in a college student’s everyday life, yet many fail to do so because of its tediousness. The Internet has become the most important tool for students looking to learn, study, or teach since it is available at their fingertips. Throughout our research we have found a number of good tools that 
we recommend for these purposes.
Both SparkNotes and Cliff Notes are good tools for literature because they provide chapter by chapter summaries and overviews of a wide variety of books. Due to research, we recommend Spark Notes because they provide a larger selection of books and give more in depth overviews, which helps with studying for major tests. Although we recommend this website, we do not believe it should be an alternative to reading, but only used as a study tool. Nothing is more thorough than actually reading the book yourself.
For students who need to view textbooks, Books 24/7 is highly recommended. It provides an Internet version of your textbook which can be accessed from anywhere. Unfortunately, Books 24/7 is only available for college students unless an outside source subscribes.
- Click here to view the video blog post for this article -
Students looking to study or seeking help in certain subjects can go to StudyStack or GradeGuru for an online tutoring method. Both sites provide notes and alternate ways of studying which makes it fun for the student to understand and review criteria. We recommend StudyStack because it gives options such as flashcards, multiple games, and different languages which make studying easier. When studying becomes interesting students are more likely to retain the information because they are enjoying the learning process.
For teaching purposes, we found GradeGuru and Google Docs to be the most helpful. Both sites give students access to notes and the ability to add/edit their own information or view another classmate’s work. Google Docs also allows students to post or create presentations online that other student can also view or edit. Using the Google site gives teachers an opportunity to contribute or check on the progress of students work as well.
From our research we came across many internet tools that will help students in the process of studying, teaching and learning. If these tools are used properly, we believe they can become a great help to students and teachers. All of the websites can be accessed from any computer and allow users to interact with each other while making the process more interesting by using different techniques and tools.
Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, you might want to check these out):
Google Docs: Why Teachers and Students Should Be Using Them For Course Work
Is There a Role For Wikipedia in the Classroom?
Tutoring and online Help (Post Category)
Video blog post for “The Internet as a Study Buddy”