In today's post I am sharing with you this collection of free organizational tools that students can use to organize their workflow and enhance their productivity. These are simple yet powerful tools that offer a wide variety of features that include collaborative team work, the ability to save digital resources into shareable folders and collections, organize content using different filters, create and share to-do lists, capture and record your ideas into text and audiovisual notes, and many more.
1. Padlet
Padlet is an online bulletin board that students can use to organize their digital resources and collaborate with colleagues on shared projects. Using one of the seven templates (e.g., Wall, Stream, Grid, Shelf, Map, Canvas, and Timeline), students can create a private or public padlet and start adding content.
They can upload different types of files, record and add audio, use Padlet's drawing tool to create and save drawings, record and add screenshots and screencasts, add locations using Google Maps, insert links from the web, add images, and many more. Students can invite their peers to join their padlets and start adding and organizing content.
2. LiveBinders
LiveBinders is among the first organizational tools I tried back when the social web was still in its infancy. Since then, I have repeatedly reviewed and recommended it for teachers and students. LiveBinders offers a wide variety of interesting features that makes it allow students and teachers to easily organize digital resources online. For instance, students can create online paperless binders and start uploading content (e.g., documents, files, presentations, etc). They can also add website links and embed codes, insert notes, and more. Once their binders are ready they can share them with others using generated URLs or via email or embed code.
3. Wakelet
Wakelet is a digital curation tool that students can use to save, organize, and share digital resources. Students can choose among a number of layouts (e.g., media, compact, grid, mood, and column), create collections and digital content. They can upload files from Google Drive or OneDrive, insert YouTube videos, add tweets and images, upload PDFs, and more. Wakelet also offers collaborative features enabling students to invite others to join their collections using QR code, link, email, or Wakelet handle. Collaborators do not need a Wakelet account to join a collection.
4. Remember the Milk
Remember the Milk is a to-do list application that can help students stay organized. Some of the features it offers include receiving reminders about important to-dos, create and assign tasks, organize tasks (e.g., by priorities, due dates, repeats, tags, etc), create smart lists out of saved searches, divide tasks into numerous sub-tasks, attach files to tasks, unlimited sharing and many more. Remember the Milk works across different browsers and devices and has a mobile app for Android, iPhone/iPad, and Windows.
5. Google Keep
Google Keep is another good organizational tool that students can use to record and organize their notes. Google Keep supports numerous types of notes including audio notes, text notes, and photo notes. Students can organize their notes by label and colour and invite collaborators by email. Other important features provided by Google Keep include: the ability to copy notes to Google Docs, add drawings to notes, insert images, apply various backgrounds, add reminders, record voice memos with automatic transcription service, easily search for notes, and more.
6. Bublup
Bublup is an organizational tool that helps students visually capture and organize their resources. Students can create different folders and sub-folders, add different types of content (e.g., links, PDFs, Word, Excell, Google Docs, videos, images, GIFs, notes, music, documents, etc) and with a single click turn these folders into awesome stories and collections called rolls which can be easily shared with others using generated links. Students can also invite collaborators to their folders and start meaningful discussions around shared content.
7. Tools to help with planning and scheduling meetings
This collection features some practical tools to help you plan and schedule your meetings. You no longer need to send mass emails to everyone inquiring about their time availability, using these tools renders meeting planning a simple and easy task that can help you plan meetings and enable you take control of your time scheduling the way you want.
