Getting things done service The Class Connection is nowhere near as exciting as The French Connection, but potentially useful for students looking to organize the whirlwind of planning and information sharing that getting a modern day education entails. The service combines calendaring, messaging, flash cards, and social networking to help students manage their work and daily schedules alone or with others. The hope is that students can become better organized, and if everyone in the class uses it, they'll have a centralized place to share files, notes, and study materials with one another.
The most useful part of the service might be its flash card utility, which lets you put together two sided flash cards and quiz yourself on the contents. You can take the finished product and share them with others, or simply keep track of your scores and time progress as you memorize what's on them. Each set of flash cards can be linked to the classes you're in, and other students can make edits or add their own to pre-existing sets. It's a nice feature, although Quizlet, a flash card and testing service I checked out early last year offers a several different ways to approach the same content which ends up being better studying tool.
Also useful is the class scheduler which breaks up what you've got cooking for each class in different tabs. The same information is relayed over to the calendaring tool, letting you keep an eye on what's ahead with color coding--making the heavy days (the ones where you have a few classes, study sessions, and more) stand out from the rest.
Given the choice of using The Class Connection over a service such as Google Groups, I would probably go with the latter. The other harsh reality for some of these start-ups trying to tap into the educational market is that many colleges (not necessarily high schools) offer services like these already. Their services may not include the shared file storage, but there are plenty of schools with shared calendars and scheduling utilities to help students in need of some organizational panache.
Related: Motivation management with GradeFix
Track what's going on with your classes using The Class Connection's built-in calendaring tool. Busy days are darker than the lighter ones, and you can filter what you see by what classes you're taking.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
Quizlet is a cool flash card tool that lets you design and use your own study guides for tests, exams, or anything else that needs to be burned into your brain. Quizlet lets you design your own simple questions and answers. After you're done you can quiz yourself onscreen. Quizlet randomizes the questions and keeps track of the ones you miss for retesting. You can also share your quizzes and get in touch with other Quizlet users to discuss changes to the content or tips on how to remember the tough ones.
As a recent college grad, I remember all too well what a pain it was to write out flash cards. Even worse, trying to borrow someone else's. Part of the learning process is certainly writing things down, but considering most of us type faster than we write with a pen or pencil, Quizlet is on to something good.
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