Delete Your Middle School Self from the Internet

They're cute, but embarassing. Really, really embarassing. Image courtesy of Flickr user Mary-Lynn. Licensed under CC 2.0.There are few things in the world more embarrassing than having a date bring up your eighth grade Neopets page. And yet, it happens--even to the most tech-savvy. Cleaning up your internet presence, especially as a member of the first generation that’s been online since elementary school, can be difficult. However, as you enter college (or leave college for the workplace), purging as much of your pre-pubescent internet presence as possible is a must. Here are a few steps to get you started:

First, there’s the easy part--something you’ve probably already done as part of the college application process: google your full name, your current personal email address, and your phone number. See what pops up, and if it’s not something that you want associated with you going forward, delete it.

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Add Your Events and Friends' Birthdays with fdCal

Surviving in college is all about communication. Your high school counselor needs to send your final transcript to your college or university to ensure your admission isn't rescinded and to prove you graduated. Your class selections need to go from the registrar to the academic advisor to each individual section of each individual class. 

So why not make your #1 Internet stop Facebook (presuming you're one of its 500 million users) and your calendar communicate better? fdCal does just that.

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Lenovo A70z Winner!

Congratulations to Larry Ngo of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. Larry wrote the word HackCollege in essays and lab reports on a field near campus. Thanks to all those who sent in entries. Click on to see the runners up. 

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New Federal Rules Attempt to Limit Textbook Costs

 New federal provisions will help lower the costs of these bad boys. Image courtesy of Flickr user plutor and licensed under CC by SA 2.0Here's good news to look forward to as we start getting closer to the school year. According to an article that was published in Fort Worth's Star-Telegram this morning, a new set of federal provisions went into effect earlier this month that will help students with the extravagant costs of textbooks. Here is a list of changes that these rules discuss:

• Textbook publishers are required to provide professors with information about book prices, revision history, and alternative formats of the textbooks.

• You know those stupid CDs publishers include in your books that you never end up using? Well, publishers are now required to sell additional material, like CDs, DVDs, or workbooks, separately from textbooks so that you aren't charged for the material you never use.

• Colleges must give students required texts' price and International Standard Book Number (ISBN), an incredibly helpful identifying tool which students can use to search for the book elsewhere at a cheaper price.

These new federal rules are part of the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 and are aimed at helping lessen student debt. The article estimates that textbooks can cost college students $800 to $1200 a year. At HackCollege, we know how expensive textbooks can be and we've written up an awesome guide on how to help you get your textbooks for free. So with our textbook guide and this great news about these new federal rules, buying your textbooks this year will hopefully leave you a little more money in your bank account.

iPad Poised for Widespread College Testing

Will you be using an iPad in school next semester? Image courtesy of Flickr user liewcf and licensed under CC by SA 2.0With a March release date, the iPad never really had time to gain much traction across campus last semester, but lots of early reviews seemed to think this device would be right at home in college students' backpacks. Kelly had mixed feelings about the device back in January, but according to this Ars Technica piece, it seems that several colleges are ready to take the plunge.

The interesting thing here is that the schools seem to have a lot of different motivations for embracing tablet computing, and a lot of different approaches to promoting it.  Some schools are offering app-creation classes, others think tablets are perfect for field work, and most seem to think the iPad will save students money in the long term if they embrace digital textbooks.  Colleges nationwide are doing anything from keeping a small collection of iPads on loan in the library to giving one to every incoming freshman.  George Fox University is even letting students choose between an iPad or a the free MacBook that they usually give away.  The one thing the programs have in common is that they all make me jealous.

It feels like we saw this same kind of widespread collegiate testing when the Kindle came out, but as Ars points out, most students preferred doing things the old fashioned way to dealing with buggy interfaces and sluggish E-Ink displays.  The iPad clearly has a simpler interface and more diverse feature set, but the one reason that I think it's more likely to succeed on campus is that it's fun to use.  

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Barnes & Noble NOOKstudy

Barnes & Noble has announced their next move in the eTextbook game, NOOKstudy. Set the be released in August, NOOKstudy is free software for both the Mac and PC which will organize digital textbooks, class notes and scanned documents providing a one-stop-shop for managing your academic life. Although specifics are sparse for now, the NOOKstudy will integrate with Blackboard Learn and have all have the tools you'd expect from an eBook reader including text highlighting, definition look up and passage tagging. Barnes & Noble is also touting the ability to instantly download textbooks from their catalogue at a discounted price. 

No mention of if and how NOOKstudy will interact will portable eBook readers such as the NOOK or Apple's iPad. I think we'd all agree tablet syncing would make NOOKstudy all the more sweeter. Time will tell if the NOOKstudy is the answer to the current dilemma of information organization for students. At the very least, it is a push in the right direction as we transition toward eLearning. 

Organize Your Social Networks with HootSuite

HootSuite can make life easier for busy internet bees. Image courtesy of Flickr user cambodia4kidsorg and licensed under CC by SA 2.0The internet has turned us all from little shriveled technology caterpillars into beautiful, hyperactive social butterflies with our Facebooks, Twitters, Tumblrs, Foursquares, etc, etc. For those who are particularly chatty, keeping up with it all can be a chore. And then there's the matter of reading what everyone else is saying. Man, oh man, sometimes flipping back and forth between your RSS reader to catch up on everything, Twitter to update everyone, or Facebook to add pictures can really just zap all of the energy out of you. Luckily for you crazy updating fiends, HootSuite is here to save you.

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Nixty Offers Open Source Higher Ed

Nixty will potentially blur the line between student and teacher. Photo courtesy of Sewanee. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.Last week saw the launch of a new eLearning site named Nixty. The site’s concept is simple: educators can upload course materials to the website, to be accessed by users. The site provides a way for unconnected students and educators to reach each other, as well as some helpful tools (including an online gradebook). Public courses, accessible to all users, can be uploaded and managed for free. Private courses, in which teachers can manage enrollment, will cost teachers $4.99 per month for three courses, or $9.99 a month for nine courses. Teachers will be able to charge students whatever additional money they want, of which Nixty will get a 20% cut.

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