Tools

As I'm rushing to do my final projects, I'm realizing that there's a lot of potentially academic tools that I haven't been taking full advantage of until recently. These things are making the process a whole lot easier:

• Google Drive. This one is... the most obvious, I know, but I really hadn't been using it until this year. If you're unfamiliar with it, Drive is like a combination of a flash drive, collaborative Skype, and accessible Word documents. My debate group did our entire project on Google Drive. I've been typing and saving my notes in Google Drive. I even put an electronic copy of one of my textbooks on Drive (the legality of which I now realize is a little questionable), so I can access it from any computer. It's fantastic.
• Prezi. I hadn't even heard of Prezi until recently. While it's a great alternative for people who don't have Power Point (i.e. people with Macs), using it honestly sort of annoys me. It allows you to create more dynamic presentations and gives you TONS of options for modifying the look of it.  My roommate, who is much more of a perfectionist than I am, loves it. So it really depends on how much control you want to have over these things. Google Drive also has a Power Point feature if, like me, you find Prezi to be overwhelming.
• OmmWriter. I've been using this for a while just for some of my own writing projects, but it recently occurred to me that I could be using it for school, too. It's free writing software that, when you open it, engulfs your entire screen so as to block out distractions. It even has some ambient, near-yoga music noises going on, if you find that soothing.

Stay classy,
Caitlin.