Mindful Ink

Cal’s post about his irrational anger towards the new Firefox Campus Edition at StudyHacks got me thinking. We mentioned Campus Edition ourselves briefly (I don’t believe it deserves further attention than that, really.) But I really don’t feel Cal’s anger is really irrational, from a productivity perspective this small little package is just pathetic. I differ on his take on Zotero (I find it to be an excellent extension) but StumbleUpon and FoxyTunes? Really? I mean, they are both good - but neither particularly good for a productive student.

FoxyTunes is handy, but… it’s hardly all that necessary. Who doesn’t have an iPod? And StumbleUpon is second to Facebook and YouTube as giant distractions, making it easier to use it probably isn’t the best help for students.

But, still… the browser has, in many ways, become a sort of desktop for many of us. There’s no reason it should just be a browser when you can utilize it for so much more. It can be a productivity boon.

So, let’s investigate just how.

Let’s break down what students use a browser for qua students.

1. Research
2. Communication
3. Data Storage and Retrieval

And we have a fourth category, let’s simply call it “Things you should have.”

Also, it should be known, we’re going to be keeping a KISS attitude here. Nothing complicated or requiring much in the way of setup.

Research

• PDFdownload - This is simple enough, it allows you to easily download pdf’s in Firefox. This can sometimes be a tricky proposition, but PDF’s are the document of choice in most online research databases.
  
• Del.icio.us Bookmarks - I know this seems a bit strange, but Del.icio.us is an amazing tool for research. There’s a reason I have a del.icio.us tags page here on Scholastici.us - take a look to see what I mean.
  
• Zotero - This is an excellent data grabbing and bibliography tool.
• Dog Ears - An interesting tool that allows you to mark your place in a particularly long website or online document.
• Add To Search Bar - This is very handy as it allows you add any site’s search to your Firefox search bar. Sure, I use it for recipe sites but I’m sure you can think of something to do academically.
  
• Calculator - This should be simple enough.
  
• Dilgo - This allows for persistent notes and highlights on webpages.
• Schooler - this is a strange little extension that does quite a bit. It can grab concise information from Sparknotes.com, a “vocab completer” which you place words in a window and it gives you the definitions, and some test prep info.

Communication

• Facebook Toolbar - I almost feel dirty for posting this, but students will be spending time on Facebook, so let’s at least make it efficient. Also, we know Facebook can be more than a time sinkhole, it can be a serious academic tool.

Data Storage and Retreival

• Gspace - For those of us need a little handy online storage (I like box.net myself) this is great - and free!
• GoogleNotebook - this requires you having a google notebook setup, but if you’re not using a client-side info dump application, this will do a good job of it. I still would suggest OneNote or Curio, however.
• ScrapBook - Pretty much like Google Notebook.

Things you should have

• Manage Search Engines - You know that little search box in the corner, click on that and select “Manage Search Engines.” Select “Get More Search Engines” and then select Wikipedia. Answers.com will provide wiki entries, but sometimes Wikipedia ist just better.
• IE Tab (only available for PC users) - there are still plenty of websites, especially academic and college sites, that only work well with Internet Explorer. Yeah, it sucks - this will help you get over your rage.
• BookBurro - A great site for finding cheap books, or even free ones (at your library!) I wish I had found this before the semester began.

Now, please, don’t go and install all of these. This is a list of just some of the truly academic extensions Firefox has to offer. Face it, the browser is our portable office, and a lot of these tools can make that experience better. And a lot can just waste your time, too.

Me? I use about three plugins. Del.icio.us, GoogleGears, though I may install Dilgo later today. I make heavy use of “Manage Search Engines”, however. And next semester, I’ll probably install BookBurro.

We all have different needs. I hope some of these can help you. Am I missing some important options? Share with me in the comments!

This list was compiled with some help from the following blogs:

• DownloadSquad
• Lifehack.org
• Lifehacker.org

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College Life, firefox, Linkblog, Note-Taking, plugins, research, Software, student-productivity, Tricks of the Trade, web