MakeUseOf has posted GradeGuru’s Top Ten Student Tools for 2010, a compilation of online student technology and tools that students will find useful this upcoming year, regardless of field or level of study.  The list covers all aspects of study, including chat, note-taking, collaborating on assignments, and even maximizing dorm space.

You may be familiar with a few of the tools, such as Skype and Chegg, but the list includes several newcomers as well, including:

• StudyRails, a planner which allows students to plan their study time in order to complete assignments on time. StudyRails helps students manage their time effectively through features such as blocking distracting websites, and will even send you text message reminders when it’s time to get to work!
• Study Tracker – the iPad app. by GradeGuru that helps student track their performance – students can record their study time and grades per class to monitor their effort and outcomes

These tools offer the ability to manage all aspects of your academic career, from brainstorming and quizzing yourself to scheduling dates with the library. It’s time to start planning for the upcoming year. Will you be prepared?

For the complete list of tools, visit: GradeGuru’s Top Ten Student Tools for 2010

Socialbrite.org just included our Top 10 Student Tools that will make learning and college life easier for students this fall semester. GradeGuru’s Citation Manager and Study Tracker are featured alongside Skype and Google Docs as tools that will help students start their year off right. The Study Tracker iPad app is included on the list as an innovative and effective way for students to track their class performance, and the Citation Manager is highlighted as a “real time saver” for managing sources in class assignments.

To see the post, visit: Social Tools for Social Change

Thanks to everyone who participated in our GradeGuru iPad Giveaway! All of your retweeting, liking, posting, inviting and sharing resulted in over 7,000 entries!

See who won the GradeGuru iPad giveaway below:

And the winner is…. Worldemotion55 from Lehigh University!

Congratulations Worldemotion55 on being the winner of the GradeGuru iPad Giveaway!

Thanks again to all those who entered!

Didn’t win this time? Keep a look out for future GradeGuru giveaways and promotional offers. In the meantime start sharing your study materials to earn points and redeem rewards now.

Win an Apple iPad from GradeGuru!

How to Enter: (do any of the following steps using the links provided…but you increase your chances by doing all 5)

1. Sign up for GradeGuru  = 5 entries

2. Share your study materials on GradeGuru = 1 entry per file

3. Invite your friends = 1 entry per invite

4. Like us on Facebook = 1 entry

5. Post a link to your notes on our Facebook Wall = 3 entries

6. Follow us & retweet: ‘@GradeGuru is giving away an #GGiPad http://bit.ly/dk8JUd‘ = 3 entries

That’s it! This contest works like a raffle, the more entries you have- the greater your odds are of winning.  To make it simple, we’re tracking it all behind the scenes; so no entry form needed. iPad Giveaway Duration: The competition will begin April 26 and run through May 31^st.The iPad winner will be announced in early June. Your chances are winning are high, we promise!

P.S.  Don’t forget to retweet this: ‘@GradeGuru is giving away an #GGiPad http://bit.ly/dk8JUd‘

Tweeting, posting, streaming, chatting, and digging--social media has become a part of our everyday lives, including our academic experiences. Two weeks ago, we highlighted the eSchool News article “Class in 140 Characters or Less” describing the presence of social media in the classroom.  Given the impact social media has on our lives…we thought this topic deserved an additional post.

As pointed it out in “Class in 140 Characters or Less”, the rapid decline of student engagement in academia is forcing teachers and universities alike to take the initiative to engage their students through social media. Whether it is tweeting or blogging, here is how some universities are benefiting from the newest teacher’s aide:

1. University Of Texas: One of the biggest advocates for social media in the classroom is University of Texas at Dallas. To smash classroom shyness, Dr. Monica Rankin decided to use an alternative route for student discussion; Twitter. Nicknamed the “Twitter Experiment,” Dr. Rankin allowed students to tweet questions or responses via laptop or cell phone to increase class participation.
2. Purdue University: Purdue University has used a similar method to the “Twitter Experiment” by allowing its students to Tweet questions specific to the classroom lecture and has see an increase in student engagement.
3. Miami University: Miami University is utilizing social media in the classroom by having its journalism students use methods such as tweeting, blogging to gather research on current events or class experiences.
4. Northwestern University: Journalism students at Northwestern students have created the “newsmixer” which pulls stories from local, national and global news from a variety of stories. Students then take these stories and use Facebook as collaboration technique to discuss stories with peers.
5. City University of New York: Journalism students at the City University of New York are deepening their engagement with classroom concepts by actively using Twitter and blogs to discuss course concepts.

I also had the chance to speak with Kathleen Ryan, Associate Professor at Miami University as well as Bridget Fogarty, a senior at Miami University and here is what they had to say about social media in higher education:

“Throughout their journalism courses, students’ blog about their classroom experiences and activities; Teachers are able to see direct feedback and track class participation through student blogging.  Journalism students can use their multimedia skills through Facebook and Twitter to update their story progress and collect research on current events to report and write news stories.” says Kathleen Ryan, Associate Professor at Miami University.

“Blogging is a really great way for students to engage in a classroom. It is hard for everyone to talk during class discussions yet so much of our grade depends on participation,  It really is great because teachers know what I think on an issue and I didn’t have to raise my hand.” says Bridget Fogarty, Miami University senior.

Despite the many benefits of Social Media in academia, academics are still grappling with the usability of this medium for educational purposes.

“There is a challenge for professors to have a comfort level with new media technology,” states Ryan. “We have to be “early adapters” so to speak, not being afraid to experiment with the various new social networking platforms.”

Ryan’s remark along with, a CDW-G survey cited by eSchool News that states only 14 percent of instructors believe there is educational value in using social networking sites highlight an important issue- It seems that the future of social media in the classroom will not reach its fullest potential until we can bridge the divide between new media and traditional academia.

Last week, we challenged you to share your notes in exchange for a $5 Starbucks card. Now that Spring Forward Challenge has ended, we want to give a shout out to all those GradeGurus who won some free caffeine.

Congratulations to:

Thank you to everyone who participated! This challenge was a huge success and tremendously increased our Facebook fan page activity.

Keep uploading and be sure to look out for future promotions from GradeGuru on  Twitter and our Facebook fan page!

Join us this week for our Spring Forward Giveaway. We’re giving away Free Starbucks just for sharing your study materials!

From Monday March 22^nd – Sunday March 28^th, GradeGuru will be giving out free Starbucks Gift Cards to every 10^th person that shares their study materials.

Things to keep in mind:

• We’re looking for study guides, chapter summaries…anything you’ve created that can help others.
• Students that share work created by their professor like tests, PowerPoints, etc. and images/information from the internet will not be eligible to win.
• Limited one gift card per student

Tell your friends, tell your classmates and most importantly – share this link: Starbucks Giveaway on Facebook or Twitter to get the word out.

Follow winners on our Facebook and Twitter pages!

Dr. Paul Levinson is a Professor of Communication & Media Studies at Fordham University in New York City. He was recently listed in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Top 10 Academic Twitterers” and is part of the GradeGuru Academic Advisory Committee.

My latest book, New New Media , was published by Penguin Academics on September 5, 2009.  As I point out on the first page, the book is about media so new that some of them – such as Twitter and YouTube – did not even exist five years ago.   I wrote the book as close to the bone of current events as possible.   The use of Twitter by protestors in Iran in June 2009, for example, is prominently included in the book’s Twitter chapter.

But I turned the book’s final revisions into the publisher in July, and the pace of important developments in the world of media has of course not slackened in the slightest.   This blog post is the first of a running series I will be posting here, there, and everywhere about these newest of new developments.

One of the most significant of such developments occurred in mid-July, when Amazon abruptly reached into the Kindles of every Kindle owner and removed George Orwell’s 1984, which Amazon discovered it did not have the legal right to sell.   Kindle owners and the online world at large were furious, especially because annotations which Kindle owners had made on their purchased copies of 1984 were removed with the book.   If Amazon had wanted to demonstrate that the Big Brother information control in 1984 was alive and kicking in our digital age, it could not have put forth a better example.

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos soon apologized , calling its solution to the copyright problem “stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles.”  Amazon offered to either refund the $30 which the Kindle edition cost, or re-deliver the copy of 1984, along with any absconded annotations.

But this series of events provides an instructive example of the difference between new media and new new media, which I discuss throughout the book.  “New” media exist on the Web, alongside of new new media.   But “new” media often operate in accordance with older, top-down principles of information control.   In the case of a newspaper online, such as The New York Times, the older approach is manifest in the selection of stories by editors.   In true new new media, stories are selected and even written by readers – that is the case in any personal blog.   In the case of iTunes and Amazon, consumers are charged for the content.  In new new media such as Twitter and YouTube, the content is free.

Amazon took a huge step into the past by not only charging for its Kindle books, but removing one of them after it had been purchased.   Its apology was certainly welcome.   But the lesson endures that there is a very big difference between older ways of doing business on the web, and the newer more liberated ways of new new media.

Disclaimer: This post does not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of GradeGuru or McGraw-Hill Higher Education. It is solely the opinion of the author.