Currently there is talk of academic tools to refer to hundreds of digital programs present on the networks to facilitate the work of teachers. However, the tools for students remain the same from years before the technological revolution: read, annotate, summarize, record, etc..
Academic tools are the student's support instrument, material and immaterial, to have a successful and rewarding experience in the learning process.
Due to the recent coronavirus pandemic, millions of students were forced to do much of the educational process away from schools. Events like this highlight the need for all students to have self-learning tools.
Reading comprehension, understanding what you are reading, is still the main tool for learning. Reading is a habit that you can develop by trying to read and understand everything you have at hand, without limiting yourself to textbooks.
You can access books in the family library, the school library and there may be a public library at your fingertips. Currently there is also the facility to download books from the internet on computers, tablets or mobiles.
Writing by hand, still, is one of the most important activities for learning and life in our process of educating ourselves. In addition to helping to memorize the information received, it stimulates areas of the brain that are not touched when using the keyboard or telephone buttons.
Taking notes improves your learning ability, and writing outside of school activities (keeping a diary, inventing stories or communicating by electronic messaging), in addition to improving your spelling serves to train you in more complex projects, such as future thesis or report writing.
The summary serves to know if we have understood the subject studied, and consists of reducing the exposed knowledge to a third or more. Depending on the material studied, an abstract can be a single paragraph, and should contain the main ideas.
One way to know that you have understood the text is to be able to summarize it in your own words.
Mind maps are ways of visualizing a topic or subject using pictures, words, connecting lines and images that help to understand or memorize what has been studied.
The mind map, in addition to helping you understand a topic, helps you memorize it, and discover what areas you should reinforce.
Schemas help you synthesize information, understand it and have a general or global vision. Schemas help you to rank and understand the relationships between different aspects and concepts.
It is likely that you have examples of diagrams on the administrative boards of your school, showing how it is structured (Directorate, secretary, sections, etc.).
A timeline allows you to order a set of facts or events in a time frame, allowing you to clearly see how a topic or event unfolds. For this, it is important to know the point or the beginning and end date of the subject studied, and order the events from the oldest to the most recent.
Chronologies are timelines, and they are frequent, and very useful, in disciplines such as history, or in biographical subjects. And schedules can also be considered as timelines, which help you visualize the order of activities.
Laptops, tablets and phones have become fundamental tools in the educational process, and it is very likely that you are receiving this information through some of these devices..
It is important to know its operation and take advantage of the facilities it offers, which are extraordinary, without neglecting more traditional, but efficient media, such as reading and writing..
Nor should we neglect more conventional technologies, such as audiovisual media (radio and television), in which you can find educational and documentary channels, or courses to learn languages..
And last but not least, do not rule out the educational and creative possibilities of video games such as Minecraft, or flight simulators, or urban planning, such as Sim City.
Knowing the programs and applications, and rationally using social networks (such as WhatsApp, Facebook or Instagram), or platforms such as Google, can favor your access to information and knowledge.
In search engines such as Google or Yahoo you can access virtual encyclopedias, such as Wikipedia, or the dictionaries of the Royal Spanish Academy or the University of Oxford.
You can also explore virtual libraries such as the Instituto Cervantes, review academic articles using a search engine such as Google Scholar (Academic), or learn to play an instrument by following one of the YouTube tutorials..
The contact through the networks with classmates and teachers has also proven to be extremely useful, especially during the coronavirus pandemic, which also favored virtual classes.
Although encyclopedias, dictionaries, newspapers and scientific journals are currently more consulted through the internet than in their paper supports, these are still extremely useful tools to solve problems and satisfy curiosity..
If there are no encyclopedias and dictionaries in your home, it is certain that you can consult them in the school library or the nearest public library.
Part of the adventure of looking up a term or concept in a paper dictionary or encyclopedia is that you often end up reading and learning about other things. It is not the same with virtual encyclopedias like Wikipedia, which take you straight to the word.
They are learning strategies that will make it easier for you to understand and manage the information and knowledge that you are offered at school every day. We talk about files, reviews, knowledge for the preparation of bibliography, etc..
Study techniques also involve some training and discipline, such as having a set time to study, or a quiet place that allows you to concentrate..
The study techniques are supported by all the tools that we have mentioned before: reading and writing, writing summaries, elaboration of diagrams, chronologies and mental maps, use of textual and technological tools, etc..
Study guides
Study techniques
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