Technology has become an essential aspect of living, including for the sake of learning and retention by the students.
Appropriately utilized tech tools make studying efficient and even fun. With many available options, figuring out which tools will help can take time and effort.
Let’s see how you can harness technology to get more out of learning and retain what you learn longer.
Use Apps for Better Organization
One of the most significant hurdles a student faces is having homework, exams, and other things pile up. Fortunately, there are many apps for planning and time management.
Students can manage to-do lists, deadlines, and task lists using Notion, Trello, or Todoist apps. Now that everything is ready, work can be scheduled, and there’s less stress from the last minute.
There is also the power of calendar apps. Apps such as Google Calendar or Apple Calendar enable you to automate reminders for deadlines or class schedules. The visual view of your day is constructive in distributing time to ensure you are getting study and life done.
Using tech to improve study habits and retention is a game-changer for students, offering tools like flashcard apps, study planners, and even AI-powered note-takers. But even with the best tech at your fingertips, balancing a heavy workload can still be challenging. This is where you can ask a professional writing service, “write my APA paper for me” and benefit from high-quality prompt assistance. By taking on some of the more time-consuming assignments, these services allow students time to focus on using tech tools effectively.
Leverage Digital Flashcards for Active Recall
Active recall is a robust technique that involves putting the learning material you’ve had to the test rather than merely repeating it. You can do this with digital flashcards. For example, Anki, Quizlet, or Brainscape allow you to build up your flashcards and review the content simultaneously via spaced repetition. It’s an effort to shift things from short-term to long-term memory for retention.
Digital flashcards can also be shared with your classmates or viewed decks of other students to make study groups more effective. You can ask each other questions and compete to see who can remember most – studying can become a friendly game.
Use Study Apps to Break Up Sessions
The study hours are often monotonous, and you get disengaged and burned out. For instance, if you can work with the Pomodoro Technique – in which you study for some time and then take a break – it can help you to avoid overwhelm. Apps such as Focus Booster, Be Focused, or Pomodone allow you to try this trick by enabling you to set timers for studying and breaks.
It breaks up study time so that your brain stays fresh and becomes more manageable when studying. You can push through the challenging work without feeling bad when you know you’ll take a holiday shortly. Even if you take several small rest breaks regularly, you’ll remain active during the day.
Turn to Educational Videos and Podcasts
If textbooks and notes aren’t working for you, then learn by supplementing them with educational videos or podcasts. YouTube, Coursera, and Khan Academy are filled with endless sources on almost any topic you can imagine. Such videos make complex subjects understandable in a lot of ways. You can even slow down or speed up playback to digest something or listen to it for specific notes.
Podcasts can also help you learn while on the go. Listen to course episodes on your way to class or while working out to reinforce what you’ve been learning. Spending otherwise wasted time in an activity is also a way of pursuing learning without missing out on anything else.
Enhance Learning with Note-Taking Tools
The key to studying is practical note-taking; tech devices can facilitate it by providing functionality outside of pens and paper. Tools such as Evernote, OneNote, Notability, and Google Keep offer you tools that help you create, track, and review your notes efficiently. Here’s what each app provides:
- Evernote: With this, you can insert multimedia, such as photos, audio, and web links, into the notes to make them interactive and more in-depth.
- OneNote: A freeform layout you can type, draw, and add content into, allowing you to be as customizable as you wish with your notes.
- Notability: Excellent for handwritten notes, and you can also annotate PDFs and lecture recordings to view your notes and audio simultaneously.
- Google Keep: Quick note/reminder app, color-coded organization, and voice memo to remember tasks anywhere.
These applications make note-taking more interactive and allow you to save your notes anywhere, anytime, and wherever you want. They also make studying flexible and integrated with your lifestyle.
Small Steps Lead to Big Gains
It can be a simple task to employ technology to improve studying. Let’s start by adding one or two tools to your arsenal and see what they do for you. The trick is finding what works for you and following it through. These minor tweaks in time can add up to significant differences in how well you learn and how much information you store.
With the right combination of technological resources, study can become a game more than a slog. And now, find the apps and techniques that suit you and watch your academic scores skyrocket. Learn, be open-minded, and remember it’s not a sprint to good habits.
