The College Student Software Library

While there's lots of learning software tailored for younger kids, there's a surprising shortage of software tailored towards the high school and college crowd. But there are a few notables. Here are five important tools for college kids to consider making a part of their academic lives. The first two are software programs, the next three are free websites. Let me know if you have others to add to the list.

Microsoft OneNote 2003: This is the digital equivalent of the marble notebook. I call it Microsoft's sleeper product for students because so few know about it. With OneNote, students can put anything in their electronic notebook—web content, diagrams and drawings, audio recordings, photos, video—and oh yeah, even typed-in notes. Using a Tablet PC, you can enter and organize handwritten notes and annotations as well. Then you can search and retrieve your notes and information quickly. The big benefit is that your notes stay in one place and they're organized. A new version scheduled for 2007 will include more shared and mobile functionality. A trial version is available at www.microsoft.com and you can find pricing information at Yahoo! Tech.

Microsoft Student 2007: This ambitious program provides a potpourri of tools like a graphing calculator, foreign language dictionaries and tools, book summaries a la Cliff Notes, the Encarta encyclopedia, dictionary, thesaurus, tons of templates, essay writing help, and atlases. Many of the features can be found elsewhere—buried in the recesses of Microsoft.com or in Microsoft Office, but the Student version is a nicely packaged set of resources, many of which are quite useful. Plus it's integrated with MS Office.

FaceBook: Seriously, if you are in college this is the best tool for finding a classmate who took notes in class today, wants to study with you, majors in philosophy or anything else campus-related. Since students register with their school emails and list their schools, courses and plenty of other relevant information in their profiles, Facebook becomes a great college-campus resource for academic as well as social life. And if you need a ride home, a date or anything else you're likely to make the contact on Facebook. Just use it wisely by checking out those privacy settings.

RefDesk: A website for those who have to research but aren't sure where to start, RefDesk is an aggregator of references. Whether it's a choice of dictionaries, thesauri, the Almanac, foreign languages, AP News, or scientific journals you will find it all easily accessible here. The single best organized access to research that I know.

Wolfram Information Center: Wolfram Products is the maker of Mathematica, arguably the best-of-breed math software for college and beyond, but its information center is a treasure trove of useful programs, papers and resources on anything from geology to applied physics, economics to medieval art. If you're looking for course-specific, hard-to-find tools, this might be a good place to start.