Some academic apps to try

 Students do try some of these academic apps. As we are into the second semester you might want to think about these free apps.

Evernote
 This is a software that assists you in organizing your life in Melbourne such as shopping lists and all. Here you can note down all your references on the web with their easy Web Clipper. You can come back to your references at any time. It only works with Google Chrome.

image courtesy of headhearthand.org

Making lists is a lot easier too with this.

English dictionary
This is one easy dictionary for those whose English is a second language and its much easier to carry than a heavy dictionary. Although you might need a heavy dictionary in exams as mobiles are not allowed.

Image courtesy of appdevice.com

Flash cards
This is great for students of all sort and Pictionary is good for those that have really bad English. They have the pronunciations of the words and spelling

Image from appslenovo.com

Google drive

Here you can share documents and edit them on your many devices. It is free and is included with your Google account.

Image courtesy of google-drive.en.softonic.com

You can get them from Windows store, iTunes and Google play for free.  And now there is no need to worry about failing at uni

Universities and others hit back on plagiarism and the ghost writing service

Universities in Australia now have harsher penalties for the students who use ghost writing services. It is only a small amount of them. We also have harsh $800 penalties for those who post their services on Facebook and other social networking sites as part of the crackdown on plagiarism.We explain.

A few months after the Mymaster scandal and universities are hitting back on this ghost writing thing. First up was University of Sydney. The University of Sydney now has stricter policies dealing with this.

When RNIS saw all the ads on Facebook they decided on an ultimatium: "Remove the ad or face $800 penalty for the ad and everytime you place the ad on Facebook". They also have been removing many of these ads on campus.

RNIS did a search bing.com and found a lot of ads. They found about 33,600,000 results online.

Our test question was this: Are iPads effective for the classroom? We also pretended that we had an assignment due a few days after and pretended to be the panicking student.

We tried out one site called assignmentwriting.com. It looks legitimate to one disconcerning eye who does not know that it is illegal to get someone to write your assignment for you. They had been going for eight years.It is about $312.00 for one website to write a 6,000 word research paper.

On Assignment helps it is about $720 to write a 10,000 word report. On another site called Aussie Quality it was the same price and they had been going for 11 years.

The message to students is don't waste your money using these services. Instead if you are having problems do talk to your lecturer or utilise university services. They are free for all students. Universities are known to have stricter penalties for this sort of behaviour.

Pay Pal App

Students now there is an easier way to pay for things in store via your phone. 

Paypal has just launched their new app making things a little easier to pay on the go. So if ever you forgot your card or cash you can use this app to pay.

The Paypal App image by paypal-community.com

This is the screen that you'll get when you open the app.

The app is very easy to use and you'll know which businesses accept Paypal. Signing in is quick and simple and you'll have to use the same password and username as you did for the main Paypal.

Image from itunesapple.com

There's a few businesses that have signed up to this but not many. You can pay at your table which is great. It had only just started in January 2015 so they are still trying to find their feet.

You'll of course need to have a credit card linked to your wallet but that can be easily done. Just simply nominate a card and make sure that you have the funds to do so.

The app itself doesn't charge any fees.

It is free to sign up. You can sign up via Paypal.

Your Uni's Library

Students your uni's library is here to help you should you need. We investigate.

Many students have not been utilizing the library's services especially in the first few weeks of semester when there are classes for students. Many students are afraid to seek help from the library. But the library is a great source of information and research advice. Most universities have librarians which are dedicated to serving students, some of which may be able to speak your language.

Your uni's library offers many classes and has their own orientation sessions to tell newcomers as to where books are.

Your uni will also have subscribed to many journals all of which their students can access provided that they have a login. At the start of semester students will be taught how to access and search for relevant journal articles.

Ask a librarian chat
RMIT University has a ask a librarian service for students and staff only. This is a quick service that can be done at home. No queues. I spoke to the librarian via this service and they said that they get many students using this service.

Other libraries may also have similar services so do check online for these.

There are many specialised librarians with this service. There may be one or two who are specialised in your course

Students do utilize your library's free resources as it is found that many of those that do not may just fail their course and their assignments.

What library tips would you give to new students?

Free wi-fi for the City of Melbourne

The City of Melbourne will soon have free wi-fi for everyone to use in each part of the city. At the moment only the libraries and universities have free WI-FI.

It is pilot project which was introduced by the Naphine Government at the start of this year.This is a part of their plan to attract more people into the CBD, especially students.  This is to support small businesses, students and residents within the CBD.

In hindsight: this is great for students who work, study and live in the CBD. But it won't be until later this year.