Within my day-to-day life, I frequently use my phone for only social media websites. I do not read the news on my phone; I only look at the news articles on Snapchat. For a while, I thought Snapchat often gave away fake news however, when I look certain details up, they seem to be right on the dot. My phone usage contains these social media platforms:
- Snapchat + Snapchat news
- Tiktok
None of my daily presence with technology contains anything to do with academia. I often schedule my weekly homework days and times to fit my schedule.
To stay organized, I do not use digital apps. I use Post-it notes all over my home. I have not looked into digital apps to help me stay organized, as I have never thought of using one. My home (mainly my bedroom) is filled with Post-it notes to help remind me of the things I need to get done for school.
For academic purposes, my favourite tool to use is Google Drive. It has everything you need, including docs, slides and more. I have used this tool for what feels like forever, and I have difficulty switching to new things on technology as it takes me a while to figure them out. Nonetheless, Google Drive has saved me from stress and has become an amazing tool for my school work for multiple reasons.
I currently do not have many boundaries to help balance my life with using technology personally and as a student. I would love for anyone to give me ideas, as sometimes I get consumed in social media, forget about school work and often race to finish my assignments. Please let me know how you create boundaries for this purpose and if you have any good organization tips besides post-it notes, as I am drowning!
Alyssa, like you, I struggle to use technology to keep myself organized in some ways. Post-It notes also litter my desk, and I use a calendar notebook to keep track of my schedule–there’s just something about physically writing things down and being able to cross them off a list that I love.
If you want to move toward online organization in the classroom, I would suggest checking out Planbook. This is an online program that serves as a day book for your lessons. You can attach SLOs and even your actual lessons; it integrates with Google Classroom and has a grade book as well. Classes can be transferred over each year— a major bonus!
Hi Alyssa, I am right there with you about losing track of time while on Social Media. I have tried setting daily time limits for certain apps to help keep me accountable for how long I use these apps each day. If I am being honest though, I often dismiss the time limit and continue using the app, but they are worth a shot!
It is interesting that you get your news from Snapchat. With the new bans on sharing news articles on Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat news may be the way to go!
~Stephanie