Computers play a huge part in education today.
Computers have become an important part in all types of classrooms today. There are several software programs, from word processing to design, that help students complete coursework quick and efficiently and even make the classroom more eco-friendly.
Word Processing
Students write papers, so a word processing program will be essential. Microsoft Word is a popular program that allows you to change style of fonts, modify paragraphs, add bullet points, change margins and even create charts.
Similar word processing software programs are Atlantis, Open Office, UltraPad and Jarte. There are also online word processors such as Google Docs, which can enable more than one person to contribute to a document.
Having Adobe Acrobat will enable you to convert your word documents into PDFs, though online services and OpenOffice are able to save documents as PDFs, as well.
Citation Management
Citation management programs such as End Note and RefWorks assist you with formatting different citation styles like MLA or APA, automatically gathering references and organizing research databases.
Design
Adobe InDesign and Microsoft Publisher are popular programs that provide several tools and techniques to help you make creative publications such as fliers, brochures, graphs, charts and more. To create design presentations, Microsoft PowerPoint provides pre-made templates with many options to insert information. Programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator enable you to create, edit or manipulate documents.
Organization
Maintaining a schedule and organization can help keep balance and structure during the school year. Google, Yahoo! and Hotmail have applications that sync your mail, calendar and contacts to smart phone.
Creating a calendar and having it with you at all times will help you track your schedule so you don't have to flip through papers to find your next class or assignment. View the Resources section for links on the applications, as they vary.
