Technology and its wonders are nothing new to the students of this generation. They live and interact with technology all day long, and it’s safe to say that it’s nearly impossible to go a day without technology.  

Technology makes life easy and fun. Students mainly use technology for fun and to reduce stress – from posting selfies on social media apps to watching Netflix and enjoying video games, there are a lot of fun activities that technology has on offer.

While students use digital technology to get away from academic stress, they fail to realize that they can actually use technology to handle their academic tasks better – which is the cause of stress. Now, with modern technologies students can get assistance with their academic tasks.  

How do digital technologies help with academic work?

Assistance in Research:

There are times when your lecture notes and course books aren’t enough to help you with your academic task. When you get assigned a task like that, you go to the internet to find the relevant information.  

For understanding the topic:

If you are given a topic to write on, and you do not have any understanding of the topic, all you have to do is; go online and search that topic. You can find written content on that topic, and if you find it boring, you can watch videos. 

For use in the papers:

While you can watch videos or read blogs/articles to enhance your understanding of a topic which will definitely help you in your academic work, you can also access authentic research journals online that you can then cite in your papers. 

With online technologies, you don’t even have to memorize the guidelines for citation. You can use reference generator tools 

Online tools:

Apart from having the luxury of accessing the information on any topic, you can also utilize some tools. Tools that can assist you with your academic work immensely. Here are some of the categories of online software that are designed to help students. 

Calculator/ data analysis:

If your task requires a lot of computation, data analysis, or calculation, then you can use online tools to assist you with the task. 

Examples:

• SPSS
• SAS
• Microsoft excel 

These are some of the tools that can help you with calculations and analysis.

Reference generators tools

When you are given research-based assignments you have to cite the sources of information you include in your paper, and there are certain guidelines that you have to follow to cite those sources and to generate the list of references.

Those guidelines can be tough to remember and if you fail to follow them, you lose marks. But luckily there are tools that you can use to generate citations and references without having to memorize these guidelines.

Some of the reference generator tools you should know: 

• Mendley
• Citefast 
• BibMe
• Citation Machine

File converters

There are times when you are required to submit your work in a particular format, but you cannot create the assignment in that format. What do you do then? You change the format of the file after you are done. 

Some popular file convertors:

• Online-Convert.com.
• ConvertFiles.
• Convertio.
• Zamzar.
• FileZigZag.
• FreeFileConvert.

Proofreading tools

Mistakes and errors can ruin your grades, and hence you should avoid them, but when you are writing long assignments you tend to make mistakes. You don’t realize while you are writing, but they are there. That is why you are told to proofread your work after you are done. While you can proofread your work by your own, there are tools that can help you.

These tools make proofreading a lot faster and a lot more effective – they read the whole content and highlight the mistakes within seconds.

Check out these proofreading tools:

• Grammarly: has a paid and free version. The Premium version allows you to check plagiarism and also suggests the correction.
• ProWritingAid: also has a free and paid version. Checks grammar, corrects spelling, and allows real-time editing.  

Connectivity:

For a student of this generation, life without connectivity is unimaginable. When we talk connectivity we mean the “internet” because that is what makes this possible. Now, you can use connectivity to assist you with your academic work. Here are a few ways to use this communication tool to up your academic performance.

One-to-one communication:

If you are struggling to understand a topic. You have searched on the internet and you still can’t understand it, than you can just call a friend who is good with the subject and ask him to explain the topic to you. Or you can email your professor and request him to explain the topic to you.

Online classrooms:

Remote learning has allowed the students to enroll in online courses that can supplement their regular course learning. If you think you are weak in certain areas, you join an online class to get better and enhance your academic performance. 

Students Communities and forums :

Another way technologies help students is by allowing them to interact with students and experts all over the world. 

Consider this scenario: If a student is stuck with his economics dissertation, he can get Economics Dissertation writing service from other students or even experts by communicating his concerns in students’ communities(on social media) or on online forums.

Outsourcing options:

Another way you can use digital technologies is, go online and outsource your work. If you feel you don’t have the time or the skill to complete an assignment, you go online, search for best assignment services and you outsource it to the experts. 

Final thoughts:

Digital technologies have made life easier for everyone. And students are no different. While they use technologies in other areas of their lives, they tend to ignore their utility and usefulness when it comes to their studies. Perhaps students utilize the internet for research and for connecting with their peers, they aren’t aware of the amazing tools that they can use to handle their academic tasks better and excel in their academics.