College v2

I have long been on the search for the ideal application for college organization. So far, we have touched on one: Stu.dicio.us.

While Stu.dicio.us is aimed strictly for a social note taking site, mynoteIT seems to try for more.

MynoteIT is the creation of two Colorado Computer Science majors (twin brothers Alex and Justin) who began the app as an offline client and slowly moved it to the web. According to Alex, the site has slowly been growing to the point where they need to hire a third member of the team.

So is mynoteIT worth using, and can it add value to our collegiate experience? In a word: yes.

The review

After registering for the site we are taken to our “dashboard”. On the surface, mynoteIT is a powerful tool containing note sharing, calendar bookmarks, sharing, and more. But the heart of any college app should be the note taking.

After adding the appropriate classes we can then choose to take new notes in mynoteIT’s text editor.

The editor feels a lot like Microsoft Word, containing all of the features you would expect out of a decent word processor. In fact, if you are a blogger, the text editor looks exactly like WordPress’ editor.

However I felt that loading some features (such as the table) took a little while, but that could be my crappy connection. I liked the ability to bullet and number your notes, also your common keyboard shortcuts (ctrl + B for bold) work. You can also adjust editing area’s length.

There is also a quick look up for definitions and translations which operate like a live search, drawing the information as you type it in.

MynoteIT also takes the social aspect of stu.dicio.us and adds a whole other level. You can friend other users. If the user is in the same class as you, you can can automatically add the class to your schedule.

MynoteIT also allows you to search other people’s notes just like the other guys, and even enables tagging. There are various privacy settings if you would like to keep the notes to yourself. People can even comment on your notes, though I’m not sure why (“Hey dude, that equation is kick ass!”).

From your class schedule you have a myriad of options. My favorite was being able to enter grades. But not only add the grades, but give the assignment its proper “weight” in the class.

When the semester is over you can “archive” the class that allows you to search the notes if need be but frees up your “My classes” page.

MynoteIT also allows the creation of groups that enable you to join based on class. It gives you a message board and a common “due date” section. All decent for basic collaboration, but it seems to be more to compare to your fellow classmates. For anything beyond that, a wiki may be more suitable.

Aside from notes, the second staple of any organization tool must be the calendar. MynoteIT automatically fills out a schedule when you enter classes (although mine didn’t work, Alex from mynoteIT assured me that I wasn’t the only one, and they are working one it).

The assignment adding is pretty basic allowing a title, description, due date, and reminder preferences. The cool features come when you go to your class pages, mynoteIT automatically puts tiny reminders keep you updated on your work load.

MynoteIT also places links on your calendar and on your homepage to your assignments. If you happen to be on the homepage, you can add “to do” items and assignments there as well, all of it being simultaneously added to your calendar.

The bottom line

Well folks, this is as close to my dream application for college students as I think I am going to find. The note taking feature is solid with everything you would expect and a little more. The assignment and “to do” options are all seamlessly integrated with each other. Features such as RSS feeds and a future implementation of text message alerts show that the mynoteIT team know how to embrace all technologies. The site can also handle all kinds of document formats and, because it is web based, there are no downloads to worry about.

However that is also the downside as well. I have no Internet connection on my laptop while I’m in class, so this service can’t do much for me. But to be honest, this made me reassess My system and made me consider putting up the bucks for a wireless card.

Some aspects of the site seem superfluous such as bookmarking notes and sharing your notes seems to be an all or nothing deal.

But as of now, I strongly recommend mynoteIT over Stu.dio.ius and any other student based organization tool.

[tags]mynoteIT, tagging, notes, organization[/tags]