Academic tools have evolved way farther in the present era
with awesome new applications for students to employ in their studies. The
Academia with its early history had simple tools to pursue simple education but
advances in education led to advancements in the tools/applications that are
used for its pursuit.
There are many IT tools that are specifically designed with
students in mind but the top three of these tools have been discussed here
including Google Docs, Prepostseo Plagiarism Checker and Inquiry Chart.
1.
Google
Docs
Google Docs is a web based word processor developed by
Google LLC and available as an application on Web on Android, iOS, Windows and
Blackberry. The application comes packaged with many attractive features which
makes it one of the top tools for students.
Features
·
The application allows multiple users to
simultaneously view, read, create and edit documents online.
·
It is very useful for students especially in
group assignments where a single assignment has to be submitted by a group of
students.
·
It also allows the collaborating users to view
character by character change in the text in case one of the users is editing
the document.
·
The original and edited versions are saved in
Google’s servers in case for further edits or a roll back.
·
Each user/collaborator/editor is assigned a
specific color so they can be identified by other users while they’re making
edits.
·
An additional feature happens to be a chat bar
where users/collaborators/editors can interact and coordinate and discuss with
each other.
·
A user can also import the file to their local
computer from the online network for individual tasks.
·
Google Docs consists of “ADD ON†feature which
allows individual developers to add new tools for the Google Docs.
·
Google Docs also includes the option of
“Commenting Access†which only allows some users to suggest edits rather than
be able to edit the document themselves for example in a local network of students
creating a group project on Google Docs, deciding among themselves the
designations of editors and commentators if they think that not everyone in the
group should be able to edit the document for reasons of expertise or
grammatical issues.
·
Google Docs was given a new feature through the
use of machine learning. The feature is called “Explore†an ingrained search
engine that only displays the relevant results based on the document’s text for
information gathering. Document texts can also be marked specifically for
Explore to zero in on specification of required information.
·
Google Docs support following file formats .doc,
.docx, .docm .dot, .dotx, .dotm, .html, .txt, .rtf, .odt.
2.
Prepostseo
Plagiarism refers to intended or unintended copying of
someone else’s content and presenting it as one’s own. Plagiarism particularly
in academia is mostly limited to student assignments, report writing and
research papers. If caught, plagiarism can have very bad consequences from loss
of credibility to dismissal of a student’s work or even legal action.
The best way to avoid plagiarism is to use online tools that
weed out plagiarism from your work the best of which is Prepostseo’s Plagiarism
Checker that has made to the top 3 list for its features that make it the best
Plagiarism Checker.
Features
· The
Prepostseo’s Plagiarism Checker has arguably the best user interface. It is a
cut to the chase tool that doesn’t have layers or instructions, redirections
and other nuisances like these. It is very user friendly with very easy to
understand one step process.
· It is a free and easily accessible tool
especially considering that students could potentially be on a low budget but
that it should not stop them from using this tool.
· Considering
the newfound online security concerns due to data theft and privacy compromise,
the Prepostseo’s Plagiarism Checker was designed to be safe and secure for its
users. The tool doesn’t store any of user’s content in its database, encrypts
each sentence of a user’s written content when comparing it to online data to
detect plagiarism and doesn’t share user’s content with any third party.
· The
Prepostseo Plagiarism Checker breaks down its user’s written content in
individual sentences and compares it vast data available on the indexes of
various search engines to check and detect any possible plagiarism in its user’s
content in real time.
· It
marks plagiarized and unique work in its users’ content by different colors red
is for plagiarism and green is for uniqueness to help users decipher the
result.
· Additionally,
it also highlights any possible grammatical mistakes in its users’ written
content along with detecting plagiarism. In a nutshell, it allows its user to
hit two birds with one stone.
3.
Inquiry Chart
Inquiry Chart is a strategy chart for study in which prior
knowledge about the topic of assignment is gathered from a variety of sources
and integrated as a reference point for the topic.
Inquiry Chart (I-Chart) is used to promote critical thinking
among students and the I-Chart project can be done by as few as two students to
as many as an entire class.
It looks something like this:
|
Question 1 |
Question 2 |
Question 3 |
Question 4 |
Question 5 |
What we know: |
|
|
|
|
|
Source 1 |
|
|
|
|
|
Source 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
Science
Inquiry Chart
Features
of Inquiry Chart strategy
· The
first part of the inquiry chart strategy is to always construct the I-Chart
either physically or online manually or in an online tool already designated
for Inquiry Chart strategy.
· The
second step for students is to find or decide among their selves, the topic or
subject of their Inquiry Chart.
· After
the topic has been decided, the group of students will have to form questions
regarding the topic and collect the material needed for research.
· The
fourth feature of I-Chart tool strategy is exploring the prior knowledge about
the subject through various means: books, news articles, Internet.
· The
Fifth part is the discussing of this prior knowledge among their selves to
evaluate it and find new ideas about the subject based on their data.
· The
sixth part strategy is summarizing and evaluating the findings of their I-Chart
and to ready it for presentation.
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