The online student needs to make sure they have 5 areas of interest down in order to survive school. They need to know time management, how to take notes, refine their writing skills, how to conduct research effectively, and effective study habits. Here are 5 app types to facilitate the online learning process:

• Time management/Organization
  • GoTasks
  • Homework Tracker w/Reminders
• Note taking
  • Evernote
  • iAnnotate PDF
• Writing
  • Write 2 Lite
  • Papers
• Researching
  • Article Search by Foreminds
• Studying/Flashcards
  • Flashcards Pro
  • iCram Master

Check out my app picks in the podcast below!
By J. Mason
5 App Types for the Online Student by APUS

For those of you out there who are frenetic towards to-do lists, you now have an option to geo-tag your tasks with a new smartphone app, called “TaskAware”.  As you build your to-do list, you simply add the location (address, etc.) for each task. So, if you need to pick up the kids at soccer practice at 5pm, you add the address. If you need to go to the bank, you add the address of your branch, and so on. Then, as you are driving about, your phone alerts you when you are in the area your task. Here’s the link to the free version: http://itunes.apple.com/app/id423260990.

As for me, most of you know based upon my previous posts that has tech-forward as I am, I still L-O-V-E my paper to-do list. I’m not sure if I’ll ever out grow it!

Screenshot of iPad and Flipboard App, Credit: iTunes/Apple/Flipboard

For iPad lovers out there, here’s a great new tool to share your interests with those that follow you (and presumably the world).  It’s called “Flipboard“.

It’s a downloadable app for the iPad.  Here’s the excerpt from their iTunes store page:

Flipboard is the world’s first social magazine. Your Flipboard is a fast, beautiful way to flip through news, photos and updates your friends are sharing on Facebook and Twitter. And it’s an incredible place to discover fresh content from around the Twittersphere.

Flipboard brings the timeless layout of print media to social media. No more scrolling through long lists of posts and links. No more jumping back and forth between websites. Your Flipboard is everything you care about in one place. It’s your magazine. It’s your Flipboard.

Essentially, Flipboard takes all the links you are sharing and makes them far more visually appealing, and then assembles them as a ‘digital’ magazine, making it much more interactive (and fun) to browse through all the news, links, photos, articles and other digital ‘stuff’ you (or someone you follow) shares.

Apple iPhone courtesy of www.Apple.com

You may have seen the recent iPhone commercials that tout “there’s an app for that”.  Well, I’m pretty sure there is — for pretty much everything — including online learning.  iPhone apps (or apps for any type of smart phone) are becoming more and more common place as developers cram just about every source of content and feature into their apps.  Of course a large percentage of these apps are nonsense – silly games, pictures or web links.  But if you mine through the chaos, you can find some really useful tools that can help you with your homework and studying.  How do you find these?  Well, ask your classmates for starters… but then you can go into the app forums and do some searching for the topic you’re in need of help in… While most of us will be doing our online learning while connected to our laptops or home computers, there just might be an occasion where you don’t have access to the Internet or your computer and your iPhone app will come in handy.  To get started, here’s a great article from the Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/today/chi-edtoday-apps-012110,0,6808992.story