Top 25 Web 2.0 Apps to Improve a Student's or Professor's Productivity
Publish iCal Calendars on the Internet for Free
Ever want to share your iCal calendars on the 'net? Well, I have. Unfortunately, iCal publishing requires a server that runs the WebDAV protocol. Apple's .Mac offers such a service, and .Mac, indeed, uses WebDAV. But .Mac costs money, and I've never seen a compelling enough reason to pay for it. Setting up iCal on a Macintosh server is also fairly easy, but it's an awful lot of trouble to go to and a waste of resources if all you're interested in is sharing your iCal calendars. But today I've discovered an easier — and free — way to do just that.
Introducing Google Apps
Google Apps offers a way for students and teachers to communicate and share ideas easily. Of course you can share documents by email, but the reality is likely to be that students own computers with different platforms and software versions. Wikis are great for collaborative web pages, but a Google Apps community offers more privacy and is easy to set up. ICT managers at school may balk at first – the idea of students having a second email account and possibly access to IM Chat, may raise hackles. But we’re here to encourage students to collaborate, to improve peer assessment and assessment for learning and the tools provided by Google are in many cases superior to those offered by a VLE. They are also free!
Calendars/To-Do Lists
These two types of apps are perfect complements. Use the calendar to schedule your classes and study groups, then use the to-do lists to remind you to do that crappy algebra homework.