HackCollege Podcast: Episode 3

The Podcast is back for another week, and the HackCollege team is discussing student debt, an aggregator for your entire online life, Google's Priority Inbox, and people whining about not having jobs.  If your browser doesn't support the HTML5 player below, just download the .mp3 here.  Go ahead, take it. It's free :)

Show Notes

• Student debt infographic
• Greplin (beta)
• HuffPo Unemployment Video
• Mind-blowing lifehack to end all lifehacks

Let us know what you think in the comments!

What devices are necessary as college students? — Intel Conversations

As part of Intel sponsoring the HackCollege Summit, we produced a few videos talking about the necessities of college students. We will be releasing these videos over the next few weeks. Christine and Kiesha prompt each question and add insights from an "older generation," while Mike, Laura, Luke and Shep participate in the discussions.

Today's conversation centers around the devices necessary for college students. How important is a laptop or a smart phone? Can you go without them?

Let us know what you think in the comments. Again, big thanks to Intel for sponsoring the summit!

Students Can Build Empires Between Classes - Don't Miss Your Chance

This is how media empires can start in college. Photo courtesy of Flickr user Nic's Events and licensed under CC by SA 2.0

PBS MediaShift just came out with an inspiring article about students who have created successful blogs, websites, and businesses before graduating, and it just happens to have a healthy dose of HackCollege praise. The article, like just about everything else on the internet for the past few weeks, includes lots of quotes from our hardworking founder, Kelly Sutton.

The reason I write this though isn't to toot our own horn; it's to share some examples of truly amazing things college students have done while still in school.  These students all took advantage of emerging media to make names for themselves in a way that wouldn't have been possible just a few years ago.  The barriers to getting your work out there are gone.  You don't necessarily need a great internship these days to start building your resume (but you should still try to get one), and you certainly don't need to wait until you're out in the real world.  If you have a computer and an opinion or skill in your head, you're off to a great start.

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Color Code Your Life

Color coding: It's pretty and functional! Photo courtesy of juhansonin. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.Perhaps one of the most important skills you will learn while you’re in college is organization. Organization is your friend. It helps you make sure you get all of your homework done for your classes on time. It makes sure that you don’t miss meetings for your clubs. It makes sure that history exam doesn’t sneak up on you while you’re busy writing your paper on the importance of olives in the diet and economy of the Ancient Greeks.

Everyone has their own way of keeping organized. Personally, I’m a big fan of lists. There’s something quite satisfying of crossing off item after item and knowing that I’ve actually done something productive that day. Whatever your method of organization though, it can always be improved through a little systematic integration of color coding. Some of you may think that color coding is a little over the top. It’s for those girls who have way too much time on their hands and coordinate their outfits to match their shoes and purses and the color of their nails. However, color coding is possibly one of the most invaluable tools I’ve come across at college, and after the cut, I’ll tell you how to use it in every day life at school. 

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Five of Life's Little Instructions

Image via ThomasNelson.com When H. Jackson Brown Jr. was sending his son off to school, he left him with a list of instructions. They were all little lifehacks if you will to help him be a happy and successful adult. There are a few of these instructions that are worth highlighting and if you enjoy this post feel free to purchase the book here. I highly recommend it!

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Take Advantage of Government Apps

Yes we can enter the web 2.0 marketplace. A screenshot of the apps.usa.gov site shows a few of the apps the US government offers.There are plenty of things that come to mind when one thinks of the US Government--but “web-savvy institution” probably isn’t one of them, no matter your political leanings. However, that may change with the government apps website. There are six pages of government-sponsored apps to do with national security, BMI measurement, and what’s currently being recalled. For people who need quick an easy access to that information without having to search through government websites, these apps and mobile web pages have the potential to be quite useful. Here are a few of the most interesting offerings.

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Labour Day Weekend Fun: DIY Solid Ice Drink Tray

Mind = Blown.

[From Lifehacker]

Featured Desk: OpenStudy's Yellow Jacket Nest

Sometimes what a startup needs is fuel: specifically, pizza and O'Reilly.This week's featured desk space comes not from a single reader, but from a group of them in the form of startup company OpenStudy. The company, based out of Georgia Tech and Emory University in Atlanta, views "the world as one big study group where students should be able connect with others studying the same material and collaborate in real time," according to project member Jon Birdsong. The company is attempting to bring the principles behind social networking to the traditional study group.

As you can see, the desk focuses on collaboration among members of the team--critical for the face-to-face group work required in building a website.

The free space on the desk allows for some choice in what the group members choose to have nearby--as you can see in the foreground, some go for reference books, while in the background you can see some dual monitor setups, and in the middle there are the ever-necessary pizza and beer (and water, for the more hydrated members of the group).

The desk setup has clearly worked out for the group as they've just recently started a partnership with MIT's OpenCourseWare, MIT's free, Creative Commons-licensed online courses.

Click below the jump for a larger version of the desk photo.

Commenters: got a desk that you want to show off? Then send pictures and a description of what you've done and how you did it to emily@hackcollege.com!

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