News & Events

September 2, 2009

Top 10 Web Apps for Students

Gone are the days of plain book reports and finding all your information in the library. In today's increasingly interactive and web-based world, apps are the key to student success. The College of Charleston's research experts have identified the top 10 web apps that students should know about and use.

In addition to the list below, L.I.T.E. Workshops@Addleston will offer a series of seminars explaining the apps at the Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library. The first seminar will be held on September 17 at 6:00 p.m. in Room 122. Complete schedule and information.

For more information, contact Joey van Arnhem at 843.953.0010. Other contributors are Jared Seay, Jerry Spiller and Sara Calhoun Davis.

Keeping in Touch with Family and Friends:

• Brightkite geographic social networking  - Brightkite is about connecting with the people and places around you. The application can help you spend more time with your friends, show you new places and introduce you to people in your neighborhood.
• Skype - With Skype's free software, which works seamlessly with your internet connection, you can chat away and never worry about cost, time or distance.

Finding Information/Library Resources

• Amazon/Library Catalog search plugin  - The College of Charleston Library/Amazon.com Catalog Mashup plugin allows a user who is on Amazon.com to compare the books they are browsing with the holding in the College Library's catalog. In addition, the plugin will also check PASCAL holdings to see if one of our lending partners has a copy of the title. If no title matches are found in the College's catalog or in PASCAL the plugin displays a link for the Interlibrary loan request.
• LibGuides Facebook app - download research guides directly from Facebook - LibGuides is the first library application available within Facebook. A user simply needs to select LibGuides from the list of applications in order to access LibGuides content. LibGuides will recognize the user's school affiliation and present them with their "home" LibGuides system.

Personal Productivity, Working Collaboratively and Managing Time

• Google docs  - A source to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations online. You can also upload existing files and share with others.
• StudyStack - Find data or use your own data to create printable electronic flash cards that you can use online or export to a cell phone or iPod

Collecting and Organizing your Work

• Zotero - a Firefox extension to help you collect, manage and cite your research sources

Creating Multimedia Presentations

• Creative Commons - find licensed images or music files that you can share, remix or reuse for presentations
• VoiceThread - Offers free and subscription accounts. A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents and videos and allows people to comment.
• Microsoft's Photosynth - Allows you to create interactive 3-D images out of a bunch of photos of the same scene or object.