By: Marita Pe Benito
Nowadays it is no longer a surprise to see students using smartphones and tablets. With such openess and freedom that they have in using these devices, do we really know what they actually do with it?
The tablets that most students usually bring now surprisingly aren’t just for checking Facebook, playing games or watching videos in YouTube. You can now consider these devices a good study partner as some schools have already incorporated the use of tablets in their curriculum. This is indeed the digital age and hopefully students will make good use of the devices such as these.
I asked students on the things they do with their tablets and the top 10 answers are as follows:
1. Facebook – unless you’ve been living under a rock, everybody knows what a social networking site is. No one is spared from it; even grandparents have their own accounts so it is not surprising at all to see students preoccupied with it. According to Wikipedia, its name stemmed from the colloquial name for the book given to students at the start of the academic year by some American university administrations to help students get to know each other.
2. Twitter – is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables users to send and read “tweets”. Tweets are similar to text messages only it is limited to 140 characters. Freedom to read and post tweets are enjoyed by registered users. Students and parents find this site valuable for immediate news info and updates especially on class suspensions.
3. Dropbox – students find this a great tool for storing assignments, notes, papers, and anything else school related. With an app for almost every platform, you can access your files regardless of where you are or what computer you’re on. No more forgetting assignments or losing track of papers that you need in order to complete something. Creating folders for each subject will keep you organized and you can be sure that your files are safe and secure.
4. Dictionary.com/ Merriam-Webster Online – A must-app for students with all the familiar and not so famililar words that they will encounter in school. It practically has everything word-related. It has thesaurus with definitions, synonyms, antonyms, idioms, word origins, quotes, audio pronunciations, example sentences, Spanish-English, audio pronunciations, medical dictionary and even Word of the Day.
5. Use it for research and help solve math assignments – Khan Academy (a supplemental learning tool to help you get through tough subjects), IFormulas (provides basics to survive your Algebra, Calculus, Chemistry, Geometry or Trigonometry class) , Wolfram Alpha is a huge database of knowledge that can provide lots of reference information, math computations, and more).
6. Reading – Kindle, Ebooks, Wattpad. All three have free access to over 1,000,000 books plus hundreds of newspapers and magazines.
7. Entertainment – Youtube, Itunes, free download music and videos are just a click away.
8. Games – here are the list of games most students play: Candy Crush, Jewels, Angry Birds, Temple Run, Dota and 4 Pics and a Word
9. Communicate –Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is basically a telephone connection over the Internet. Before people are just using Skype now students can choose from several apps to keep in touch with family and friends for free via wifi. They can choose from Viber, Skype, Tango, LINE, Kakao, etc.
10. Web browser – Google and Yahoo are the most common search engines students use to have an easy access to topics discussed or given. With just a click of the mouse students can answer their assignment accurately and easily.