Kids are dreading it; the parents are rejoicing. Yes, school’s in session or soon will be. I’ve pulled together a few online services to create a back to school power kit that’s sure to help students start the year off on a positive note.

Organizers
Getting organized is half the prep work to getting good grades. Here are a few services that can help with that. Each has their own way of doing things, so one of them is sure to fit your student’s personality and study method.

Backpack – just like the ones you see so many students carry around with them, this site contains some very useful tools: notes, lists, writeboard, and reminders, all of which are free. Pay a little something to get the calendar added, if you want. Very easy to use. Add list items in a flash and reorder by drag-and-drop.

Kiko – Keep track of class schedules and homework due dates with this little corner of the Web. Powerful features make it easy to add events, notes to those events, reminders, labels, contacts to attend, and lots more. Did I say contacts? Yes, as a matter of fact I did, which means you can store contacts for easy storage. Rolling over an event gives you a quick pop-up showing you the important details of that even. Wrong date? No problem, just drag the event to the right day. Yes, there’s group sharing, too, for those study groups.

HipCal
This little hippo has got it all: calendar (group sharing too!), to-do list, address book, and alerts that can be sent to your email inbox or cell phone.

30Boxes – no logo on this one, but it only goes to show you that they’re really more about functionality than glitz. When you first login, you’re greeted with a full-size calendar that fills your screen. But what I also like about this service is its to-do feature. You can quickly add to your lists and add tags to them while you’re typing. This means that you can save yourself a few clicks AND find your stuff easily in the future.

Organized Home Printable planners – not much for keeping your schedule online? No worries because printing out your schedule still has a purpose. This site offers you a variety of pre-made planners for easy download and printing.

Note takers
Okay, so maybe your student needs something more basic without the bells and whistles. Note taking is very important, so give these a try.

Notefish – while doing research on the Web, having an online note-taker can come in handy. Just make annotations on a Web page and they’ll be there when you return. You can even share with others. (I’m thinking study groups again). It requires an add-on for Firefox or Internet Explorer.

Google Notebook – I use this one quite frequently to help remind me of things I want to write about on my blogs. Using the add-on for Firefox really opens up the versatility of this service, but it’s not necessary.

Studicious – a little more than your average note-taker tool, but this one does the trick, for sure. You can share notes, automatically link note keywords to Wikipedia and Google, you can even store documents and to-dos.

Office Applications
Let’s face it, college is expensive enough as it is. If you have to tack on a bunch of software, the price tag goes even higher. Why not try these free online equivalents that do the same job AND are compatible with the big dog that is Microsoft?

Ajax13 – you can draw, create presentations and spreadsheets, and even do word processing. They all look and feel similar to Microsoft applications and are compatible in case teacher uses them.

ThinkFree – this one’s been around for a while and continues to improve. Same as above, you can create all the things Microsoft can and still exchange documents between them.

Collaborate with other students on documents easily, and store your work on a generous 1GB account. ThinkFree also offers a few extra features if you’re a blogger what with its ability to embed documents in blogs.

Zoho – another one that gives you that “kid-in-the-candy-store” feel, you won’t be disappointed with what you find here. In addition to the jewels above, you also get a project management tool, a notebook, a wiki, chat, planner, web conferencing, and a few others. Most are free, but some have the option to upgrade to gain more features.

Google Docs and Spreadsheets – As the name implies, Google has a rather nice free alternative to paying big bucks for Microsoft counterparts. It also has a cool calendar, which is separate.

OpenOffice – one of the first ones to go up against Microsoft, you’ll find all the heavy hitters to Word, Powerpoint, Access, and Excel. The difference here is that you can download OpenOffice right to your desktop and take it with you — assuming you have a laptop of course. But even deskbound students will surely appreciate the awesome features these apps provide. And of course, they’re compatible with Microsoft.

Bonuses
FutureMe – Even the best planner in the world can have something slip by them from time to time. With this service you can plan ahead and have an email sent to you to remind you of, well, whatever. Just enter your name, email and message. Then enter the time you want to receive the email, and boom! – you’re reminded.

Spambox – who doesn’t hate spam — the email variety? Well, students don’t need to sift through all the junk in their email inbox, so to help them keep their junk to a minimum, this service helps protect their true email address by providing them (for free) a temporary address that sends messages to the email of their choice.

Diigo – a bookmarking service with punch! Not only can you save your bookmarks, you can also add notations to any Web page you visit. When you return, they’ll be there waiting for you. But there’s more. You can share your bookmarks with others, tag them for easy retrieval, and even save copied content from the Web pages that you’ve viewed all within your account.

[tags]online apps,office,school,education,tools,software,free,google,zoho,openoffice[/tags]

One thing that I find most useful is the itinerary / map / diary section. Each entry provides you with a place to add notes and dates. View an online map of the area you have listed in your itinerary, and record your activities, likes or dislikes.

If you’re in an exploring mood, you can have your choice of interesting finds to be overlayed on a map powered by Google: golf courses, gyms, restaurants, etc. And being that the site is designed “by travelers, for travelers”, you find out things from their perspective by reading their reviews.

I find the site to be well-layed out and thought out, giving you more focus on what you came there to do: find a place to visit and have fun while you’re there.

[tags]trip,productivity,family,vacation,planning[/tags]

You can also select an appropriate size, the largest of which could surely be seen from the other side of the room. And if you need it to sound an alarm, just select the appropriate time and you’re all set.

[tags]clock,time[/tags]

Spreeder can help you.

This is a simple interface where you can paste text into a small window. Click the VCR-like play button and it will show you the text you entered one word at a time at a rate you specify.

Why one word at a time? Well, when we read, sometimes we subvocalize the words in our heads — we hear ourselves “speak” the words we read. This can slow our reading down. So the key is to recognize the words we read without having to say them in our head. Showing the words one at a time at a faster rate can help us do that.

When reading a book, try using your finger or the eraser-end of a pencil to follow along the words. Make it go slightly faster than you normally read so you can make your eyes catch up a little.

If you’re reading online, however, try this bookmarklet. If you’ve browsed to a page that has a significant amount of text, why not practice your speed reading? Just select the text (no need to copy it) and click the bookmarklet that’s saved in your toolbar. A new window will pop up with the text you selected and you can start reading one word at a time.

Inspired by zenhabits.

[tags]reading,speed-reading,life tips,advice[/tags]

Please add a comment here to tell us what you use while browsing that helps you stay organized, gather information, be more secure, or do things a little quicker?

[tags]productivity,add-on,firefox[/tags]