In this week’s blog I’ll be talking about enhancing learning with online strategies, particularly in regards to note taking. Taking good notes is vital to getting the most out of your classes. You want your notes to be useful to you when you look back after class; complete with pertinent information and the extra tips your professor may have stressed but not written explicitly on his PowerPoint. I used to never use my iPad to take notes, but one day out of pure laziness I took it out as a way to minimize the time I spend copying down the problems my chemistry professor writes on the board. Once I realized how helpful it was, I never turned back. I mainly use my iPad to take notes, and I supplement this with hand-written notes when I need to. For most of my classes, my professors put PDFs of their notes online. I download these prior to class and then export them to my favorite note taking app, Notability, and write on top of them during the lecture. During rushed yet information-packed lectures, such as biology and chemistry, it is very helpful to have the notes so I’m not still rewriting an entire problem by the time the professor has already solved it. In the Notability app, I can change the pen color and thickness, and highlight. Using the iPad has eliminated the issue of running out of ink, buying highlighters and different pen colors, and running out of paper. It’s a very convenient way to have all my notes in one place and not have to carry around a bunch of notebooks. For biology, I like to use my paper notes when I am all done writing and reviewing notes on the iPad. I then use the paper notebook to write out every important topic from memory. This only takes about 5 pages, and the purpose is to solidify all the information I wrote in my iPad onto a few pages of paper in a more concise way. While my iPad has very detailed notes on every lecture, the paper notes I use serve as more of an overview of the topics I will need to know for things like extended responses on the test. Rewriting the notes helps me memorize, and having it on paper allows me to have a separate location for the notes to differentiate them from the more detailed iPad notes. The video linked, “iPad Pro vs Paper” goes into more details on the pros and cons of using the iPad for notes and using paper. Overall, the iPad is a very useful and convenient tool that saves paper and writing utensils, while I use paper to supplement and get used to writing from memory in a manner that will be more realistic to a test-taking setting. I hope you guys explore your iPads and see what they can do for you in terms of taking notes!
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Module 4: Web-Enhanced Reading and Study Strategies
This week’s blog will be focused on studying effectively. One of the ways I keep up with studying before I even begin practicing problems, is reading. Reading effectively is one of the most useful topics discussed in this module. Instead of just passively reading, try using active methods such as highlighting and making margin notes. This helps make sure you’re grasping the important information and retaining it. “How Do You Read to Learn” discusses the four stages of reading. Slide 6 of the powerpoint discussed this in more detail as well. Note taking in class is another important aspect of learning as best as you can. Before class I always download the lecture slides and then make notes on them using my iPad during the class. I organize the notes by date and topic so I can look back and stay organized. I’m going to culminate this blog post with a message that can be applied to all studying; multitasking is not as effective as you think. While learners think they know how to multitask, it is oftentimes not as efficient. This is something I’ve experienced when I think back on what I can retain and I find it is only surface level. I hope you use these tools to maximize your studying!
Module 3: Efficiency in the Digital Age
Time management is something that most of us have not mastered, regardless of how long we’ve been in school. I’m a sophomore in college and I still find myself stuck using the habits my high school freshman self would use. Putting things off, neglecting to plan, and waiting till the last minute to start work are all traps that I fall into regularly. This week’s module introduced me to a few different strategies that I think will be useful to any student navigating a college workload. The most useful of these strategies being using a calendar. I recently set up a Google calendar, and it has helped me in more ways than I ever thought it would. Aside from simply having the calendar up on my laptop, it syncs to all the calendars on my devices. I was shocked when I pulled up my iPhone calendar and saw all the events I entered into my Google calendar there! It also notifies you 20 minutes before your event starts in case you forget on the day of. It lets you split events into different categories, such as holidays or work. As well, there is a task list that you can add which functions to remind you of any random tasks you don’t need to note on the calendar but still want to remember. More on Google calendar tips and tricks can be found in the link below. Something that resonated with me in the How to Use Google Calendar to Organize Your Entire Life article was this paragraph, explaining how conventional planners may not be for everyone, “sometimes there are places where you don’t bring your planner, or notes you have to jot down quickly and don’t have time to pull out the pen and paper, or there are just some people who don’t prefer a paper planner… and that’s okay! That’s what this is for.” Looking at the Google calendar helps me visualize my week and plan accordingly. In the past, due dates and club meetings would creep up on me out of nowhere, but now, I feel prepared and aware of my various commitments. I hope you guys try out Google calendar because it has truly helped me organize in the easiest way!
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Module 2: Communicating and Connecting
Welcome to my first blog post! Today I’m going to talk about communicating and collaborating using technology. There are so many ways to communicate online in this day and age, but this also comes with a new responsibility: maintaining a professional online presence. One of the most important things I read in slide five of this week’s presentation sums this up: “When communicating online, keep in mind that your audience cannot see your face or physically hear your voice and tone.” This is a sentiment I have encountered many a times, as it is hard to relay specific emotions or sarcasm over a medium such as email. This is where the practice of netiquette comes in to play; communicating clearly goes a long way when relaying a message online. This is something I practice daily when sending emails. Sending emails with proper subject lines, grammar, and a degree of professionalism has benefited me in many ways. Many opportunities I have been given have begun from sending out a polished email. I have been able to join clubs, classes, and even research labs with the help of reaching out through email. A tool I plan on utilizing in the future is Google Docs. Google docs is an application I used extensively in high school with group work. It allows everyone to access the same document, making group work more effective and holding members accountable. I’d like to summarize this blog post with some advice I have for students: don’t underestimate the power of communicating online. Use it to your advantage! I have used email countless times when in need of a quick inquiry, and if used professionally it can save lots of time. However, professors are much more inclined to reply to an email that is polished and appropriate. If you have a specific inquiry, do some research. Send your email with a few sentences demonstrating you have prepared on your end. Add a subject line, greeting, closing, and make sure to thank your recipient. Hopefully these tips will help you send effective emails with confidence and help you properly utilize an important aspect of online communication.
https://osu.instructure.com/courses/69033/pages/lesson-module-2?module_item_id=3300952