Friday, October 03, 2008
Soshiku: Awesome Tool To Keep Track Of Your Schoolwork
MakeUseOf.com: "There are many task management and task tracking tools available but Soshiku tries to differentiate itself by offering to track and manage assignments and homework for students. It keeps track of when your assignments are due and can even notify you via email or SMS. It has an elegant and easy to understand user interface with added features like saving notes and attaching files with each assignment."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
I don't know if this is the best idea. A machine shouldn't be doing all your planning for you; you should be learning how to manage your time and keep track of assignments yourself. Computers aren't perfect, and I would be much more nervous about losing track of assignments if all my information were stored electronically.
This has great potential to be a useful tool, much like many other virtual calendars and planners. There is definitely some work involved on the part of the user, however. I don't know if I'd be a fan of sitting down and inputting all of my upcoming assignments and keeping that information up-to-date. If it requires that much effort, why not just WRITE things down in a planner?
Using this application seems like it could be very useful if you put in all the information and kept it up to date but then again that thought makes me wonder what the demographic for the users are. The fact that it graphs and tells you what percentage of completion you're at suggests a possibly complicated structure of breaking down each homework assignment when you input it.. to me it may be futile but then again I am kind of hesitant to use this kind of thing.
I commented on an article last week with some similar programs how much I like writing my assignments down (and even more so crossing them off). For me its about remembering to use whatever it is that I'm gonna use. But I understand the people who need pretty charts and stuff to remind them. It's also a great way to give yourself positive feedback, seeing your chart rise as you finish more tasks.
Unlike other computer organizers, this one seems like it would add more stress to my homework load than it would alleviate, simply because of all of the charts and percentages that it keeps track of. When it comes to getting work done, I like to keep it simple- get it done in a timely manner without forgetting anything. I don't need anything more complex than that. Also, I don't feel that this article did a very good job in actually explaining how Soshiku works. Maybe if it did, I would be more responsive toward it.
I still like the idea of a daily planner. You can't really mess that up. If you input all your data into the program, and it was to crash or your computer was to lose the information somehow, you'd be screwed. Even the idea of user error is greater with this sort of thing. I doubt any teacher would be willing to give you an extension because someone "forgot because their computer software didn't work." It may look pretty, but I still think people need to leave a lot of planning to themselves. I just really like the idea of planners. You can physically make as many notes as needed, and you can cross stuff off yourself. I typically like getting those little bits of aggression out after finishing a project by crossing stuff out vigorously on a piece of paper!
I think that this is one of the first task management software that I have seen that is specifically designed for kids. I know of a lot of schools who are making sure that all of their students from grades 5 and up have a laptop, and this would be an excellent tool for those kids to utilize. It's a strange concept for our generation who is still locked into pen and paper, but for a new generation who is growing up with a personal computer by the age of of 12 it makes for great new method for task management. Also, if they can be trained on a software like this at a young age, imagine how effective they could be with more advanced organizational tools.
Now I am the first one to freak out if the Internet is down or if my iPhone calendar is not working, I still believe that there is nothing quite like a hand written to-do list. Also, being so dependant on technology can really screw you over if it fails. For this reason, I would not put all of my eggs in this kind of basket (sorry!). And also, I am very guilty of using too much time to plan out my time, and I think that a program like this would only help me extend that time.
Post a Comment