I’m Jil Wright, Director of Web Communications at Hinds. David and I spoke to the Drafting and Design Technology students last week about social media, electronic portfolios, marketing yourself and mobile apps. We had a great time and left with a renewed enthusiasm for what we do. I was also inspired to finish this post on mobile apps that I believe are essential for students.
Hinds Community College has a mobile app and it is being improved all the time. It’s free & available for iPhone, Android & Blackberry. It allows you to search for courses, keep up with Hinds CC news, view calendar events, search library offerings, view video, find contact information, and stay up to date in the event of emergency situations. It is a must have app for Hinds students. You can download the iHindsCC app for your mobile device here.. We encourage you to leave feedback about additional features you would find useful in the comment section below.
In my opinion, the most essential app for mobile computing is Dropbox. It is a cloud storage service that allows you to save your files & access them from anywhere with an internet connection. The free plan gives 2 GB of storage space. Dropbox integrates with many different mobile apps so that you can save, access and share your digital belongings.
CloudOn is a free app that allows you to create and edit documents, presentations & spreadsheets with Microsoft Office. If you’re an Office user and own a tablet, this app is indispensable. It works seamlessly with Dropbox and is available for iOS and Android.
The Evernote app is nice for collecting web clips, images, and text notes for research. It’s really good to use to save anything you’d like to remember or review later.
New in town? Don’t get lost! As David mentioned in a previous post, we are adding information about each of our six locations to Foursquare all the time. We encourage you to download Foursquare to assist you on campus. Check-in to locations on your campus and add photos and tips to help others. If you need help finding a restaurant, store, or entertainment venue, I suggest Yelp. It provides reviews of locations & allows you to contribute by reviewing places you visit. The YP Mobile and AroundMe apps are great for locating everything from a local carwash to the nearest coffee shop.
If you need help keeping up with due dates for assignments, check out inClass or iStudiez Pro. These apps have features that include reminders, the ability to take audio notes and more. Both apps are low cost and are incredible for keeping your academic life in order.
If you’re a visual learner, the free Paper app for iPad or PenUltimate, which costs $0.99, are great for handwriting notes (or doodling). Mindomo is great for creating mind maps on your mobile device or desktop. These apps work even better with a stylus.
If you’re a student in a visual discipline, I recommend Minimal Folio for iPad for use as a digital portfolio for your work. I love it! It’s $2.99, but it integrates Dropbox and is awesome for showing graphic work or video to potential employers.
I hope to add more apps to the list soon. I hope a few are useful. If you have a favorite app, let us know.
