In a world of PCs and projects, theses and timed tests, the Mac
is a great learning tool for many students today.
The Macintosh has many options for the busy student. How can you
get the best possible planning, collaboration, and execution of
your project, thesis, group homework, or just a simple
assignment?
Keeping on Schedule
Scheduling is the biggest issue for group projects. How do you
fairly dole out the work and see who is on time and who is
slacking?
Some of the best tools for this are probably a good email
program and iCal. iCal helps because it allows the leader of the
group to issue a calendar to each of its members explaining due
dates and their workload for the day or week. This can be a
lifesaver if you don't have much time to discuss things with your
group, as you can email this to them - or even print it out and
give it to them in person.
A good email client can help the group's communication and can
be very useful if you have people sending in Word docs or charts
that need to be collaborated by a specific person, or if you need
to exchange files in any way. This also is very nice because you
can bounce papers and ideas back and forth within seconds without
any wasted paper (or use of those expensive printer cartridges, for
that matter).
Doing the Work
When you finally stop procrastinating and start doing the work,
you'll find that a good office suite is invaluable for most school
assignments and projects. Two very good choices are AppleWorks and
Microsoft Office.
AppleWorks is the best choice for students on a budget, as it
usually comes with your Mac (if you don't already own it, you can
buy it separately for $80). It has a wonderful user interface and
can handle most of your school needs pretty well.
For those who require somoe extra features or more power,
Microsoft Office is a great choice. It is a little pricey, but it's
well worth it, as you get their full software suite. Microsoft
Office gives you the choice of buying the cheaper Student and
Teacher, Standard, or Professional version. (Finding what works for
you within your budget and does what you need it to do is what
we're all about at Low End Mac.)
Keeping Track
How do you keep track of all the assignments, notes, and
projects? Databases can help, such as the one in AppleWorks. These
databases can help you keep track of what you did, where, when,
why, and how, and even where you stored it on your computer.
This can be a little tedious, but when you progress through the
grades and need that info from your 6th grade notes on the periodic
table, it can tell you what you need to know.
Take It To the Limit
All of these things can be applied in the "real world", too.
Whether you and your team need to collaborate to graph sales trends
or you need to type up a quote for your contracting company, these
are wonderful tools.
The Low End Mac significance of this is that you can do this on
very old machines, which is coincidentally what many of us keep
ours around for - you can still type up your biology report on that
old Mac Plus using MS Word
and print it out on your StyleWriter. No matter what Mac you have,
you can do your basic word processing with it. [Editor's note: I
used to run ClarisWorks 1.0, AppleWorks' ancestor, on a Mac Plus,
and before that I wrote a lot of my grad school papers on the same
Mac using MacWrite. dk]
You can max out your productivity no matter which Mac you have,
and in the end you'll be more organized, productive, and successful
because of it. 
