Hello everyone ! Nowdays, it’s more and more impossible for any student being without any computer etc. A student who doesn’t have a computer, is a dead student. Over the last 8 years, I’ve been experimenting, discovering different online tools and softwares that helped me for my courses, my presentations and so on.
Today, I would like to share with you 10 free softwares and online tools every student needs.
- Open Office: A basic ! I personnaly mostly use the Writer, but overall I think it’s a very good free alternative to the Windows Office serie. The Plus: No need for Internet to work with Open Office!
- Wikiversity: When learning something by yourself, you may find Wikiversity quite helpful. I’ve been learning Japanese language by myself since July and the Japanese language section in Wikiversity has helped me quite a lot since then. It’s probably not the best solution, it certainly isn’t complete on every subject, but it is free and gives quite a good amount of informations and knowledge, which is what we want as students. The Plus: Wikiversity is available in many different languages!
- Canva: For a very, very long time, I’ve been exclusively using Open Office for all my texts etc, combined with Paint and others. But quite recently, I’ve discovered Canva and all the possibilities it gives us, even as a free account. All the things we can do with this online tool, is simply amazing. Whereas I frequently felt restrained with Open Office, Paint etc, I completely feel unleashed with Canva. You can make exquisite presentations, revisions sheets, logos, letters, lessons plans and so on. The Plus: Canva has both the Internet version and the Software version for computer and mobile!
- Reverso: A must-have for any language learning student ! Reverso, compared to Google Translate, gives more accurate translations with examples. Even if you’re not studying a language, you may need sometimes to translate something and this tool is definitively the one I would recommend you to use. The Plus: You have both the online version and the computer software !
- Prezi: This one was recommended to me by one of my teachers. With Prezi, you can make superb and professional looking presentations. The difference with Canva, PowerPoint ? Unlike these two that offer only a linear progression (go the next or to the previous page), Prezi is slightly different as it follows a thematic progression. The basis of your presentation could be something like a diagram and you evolve between the different parts as you wish. The best way to mindblow people with your presentation ! The Plus: Prezi now comes in 3 big sections “Present”, “Video” and “Design”. A complete editing line!
- Dropbox: So far, this is the best alternative to Google Drive I’ve found. It allows you both to store your documents etc and to share with your colleagues/classmates. A classic indeed but an essential one ! The Plus: Easy to use and can convert into a professional tool later!
- Telegram: You’re probably wondering why I’m putting Telegram into this top-10 tools for students. Well, here is why. One important aspect of student life is about teamwork, right ? Communication with other students. Many people find a solution by creating a Facebook group for the whole class/group. My solution is kinda similar. If you don’t already know about Telegram, you can create something called a canal. Within a canal you can share informations, audio, documents, videos, quite anything; and every member of the canal can add something, download the canal’s content etc. I think it is a great working and communicating tool for student. Personally, I’ve even created a private canal for me to use as a documents, photos and so on transfer hub, betwen my phone and my computer, since Google Drive stopped working properly and quickly. OMG, why haven’t I done that sooner ?! It has been a game changer, a life saver for me during my last university year ! The Plus: Telegram is available both on your mobile and your computer!
- LinkedIn: This one is absolutely a must-have ! Why ? This social media is slightly different from others as it works as a communication service, allowing you to have contacts (more professionnal-speaking contacts), but also as your Curriculum Vitae. However there is a difference with a conventional Curriculum Vitae. On LinkedIn, you can emphazise much more things than you usually would on an application paper; you can upload links, your paperworks, your presentations. Whereas on the CV you can only tell about what you’ve done (which is already very good by the way), with LinkedIn, you can let people see what you’ve done. You can show them your blog, your presentations, your work. Also, your LinkedIn profile works as your showcase, just as regular social media are your life/lifestyle showcase, LinkedIn is your professional life/job showcase. Using it, you can let more people know about your projects, your work, your job, what you accomplish. The Plus: Mixing Showcase, Classroom and Jobhunting!
- The ones you shoud avoid: Any Google-related app. Why? From my own experience, I know that Google Drive for instance, used to be useful for me in the beginnings. But it’s been a few years since it’s not efficient anymore. It got slower and sometimes it’s not even working. This is how I found some alternatives, in order not to lose time anymore. Also, you should know that everything you store in Google apps is no longer yours, it belongs to Google since the moment you store it on Drive, Photos and so on. Another reason for me to quit using their services.
That’ll be all for today’s post. I really hope you liked it and found it useful. Share this post with any of your student-relatives, it might be of help for them ! 😉
Thank you for passing by and reading my blog.
I’ll talk to you soon in a next post.
Until then, take care of yourself ❤
Ady ❤
Little House of Ady 