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9 FREE APPLICATIONS TO ASSIST VIRTUAL LEARNING WRITTEN BY ANN CLARISE MERCADO
‘Tis the season for technology to run practically our entire lives. What with the new normal calling for the dire need to turn our lives virtual, applications such as Zoom, Google Meet, and Canvas flock our gadgets. The following platforms are must-have applications that are user-friendly and essential in accomplishing our daily tasks: CamScanner A compact mobile scanner—easy scan, easy share. Its optical character recognition feature allows you to extract texts for easier editing. Moreover, its auto-enhance feature makes the image quality in PDF forms appear sharp. In this era of online submissions and soft copies, this application lets you do more than just capture; anything within reach is possible— scanning, saving, archiving, uploading, and sharing made easy! Google Drive Google Drive is undoubtedly one of the known cloud storage services that everyone can utilize with the use of a Gmail account. Storage and organization of data may be done on your phone or laptop, and allows you to control and limit access to every file you share. Unlike other platforms, Google takes pride in its advanced security systems, including its famous two-step verification and activity tracking. Grammarly College sees to it that every student must know how to write—essays, research papers, thesis, you name it, we write it! What comes with this is the great deal of grammar-checking and proofreading that never seem to make sense, especially when you are closer to the deadline than possible. Worry no more, as this application allows you to automatically detect
and correct grammar, punctuation, spelling, style, enhancement, sentence structure and plagiarism—your writing, at its best! Focus To-Do: Pomodoro Timer & To Do List Procrastination takes up double the time of accomplishing tasks, but the well-known Pomodoro study technique helps with time management like no other. This application breaks down your tasks into manageable chunks to keep your mind sharp and fittingly occupied. It is an all-in-one Pomodoro timer and to-do list that categorizes sessions and sets task priorities. You can beat procrastination! Forest This self-discipline application restricts phone usage and helps you dedicate your time focusing on school-related tasks instead. Plant a seed, set a timer, and then get your work done. Staying off of your phone lets you grow one virtual tree, literally nurturing your forest while you stay productive! Merriam-Webster Dictionary This well-known dictionary can be downloaded in a snap, and all your words fit in one place! It features quick searches, describing word origin, pronunciations, and examples that use the words in sentences. Indeed, a quick way to expand your vocabulary! Notion Combines the features of a note-taking app, a task-management app, and a spreadsheet tool, among many others. All these work together to create a powerful application that provides a personal or team
workplace. It also offers several templates when writing your notes, to-do lists, and organizing your schedules in a creative way. You can show your artsy self and be productive at the same time! Photomath Calm your Math fears with Photomath—a free mobile application that can read, analyze and solve mathematical problems through your phone camera and in one quick snap. Photomath also lets you see a step-by-step procedure on problem solving; answering for you and teaching you at the same time. Shoo the math stress away! Quizlet Quizlet is a free online study-buddy that features flashcards and interactive games to help you in reviewing your notes. Quizlet is the best study companion for your upcoming exam; this application allows you to focus and learn, to self-test your knowledge, and to create your own study guide sets through games such as speller, learn, test, scatter, and space race. Learn better with a virtual study companion and ace that test! And the list goes on… Maximize and explore what your institutional email can access, as AUF allows access to other useful online applications such as Canva and MS Office. However, one should keep in mind that amidst the convenience provided by technology, we must stay sensible individuals. In the words of Eleanor Roosevelt: “with this freedom comes great responsibility.”
Homemade Quarantine Creations
Tips on Surviving Online Classes
FILIPINOS MADE VIRAL
By Leslie Layug
| BY ANN CLARISE MERCADO
help you focus and be more active in participating during your online class.
Months of lockdown did not bring Filipinos’ resiliency into a halt; these periods of confinement unleashed their creative minds in developing viral food trends. Despite the farrago of emotions, they did not just find joy, satisfaction and comfort in these foods, they also turned it into a source of extra income. Here are the top 5 quarantine food trends that we go loco with during the lockdown: Dalgona Coffee As months slowly ticked by, people increasingly missed having coffee in their beloved coffee shops, and settled with making their own alternative. Hand-whipping 4 simple ingredients, namely instant coffee powder, sugar, creamer, and warm water together make a butterscotch foam which looks similar to Dalgona. When spooned over milk and mixed, it makes a perfect Dalgona coffee, which originated from South Korea. Filipinos, however, experimented with Milo, juice, cake, and other variations possible, which presents a true Filipino color—we never lose when it comes to creativity. Ube Cheese Pandesal Pandesal is a signature Filipino bread and has always been a Filipino staple but we never got to partner it with anything but coffee and hot chocolate. While in quarantine, someone came up with the genius idea of mixing ube to the dough and adding cheese in, turning it into a total online craze! The vibrant purple bread and melted cheese, and the taste of rich sweet and salty combination captured the palate of not just the Filipinos but also those abroad. Other than the ube cheese pandesal, various other bread crazes went viral, such as the sourdough bread, banana bread, and cinnamon rolls. Baked Sushi Upon hearing the word “sushi,” an image of rolls of several ingredients wrapped in rice and seaweed instantly come across our minds, but during the quarantine period up until today, Filipinos have made another version of it—the Baked Sushi! Deconstructing the ingredients of sushi and layering it onto a pan—from the layer of fluffy Japanese rice, crab stick, salmon to its toppings of mayonnaise or cream cheese, once baked, will grant us another delicious way of eating it! DIY Samgyeopsal Korean samgyeopsal really captured the Filipino heart because of its unlimited servings of meat, side dishes, drinks, and incomparable barkada time. Missing this Korean feel pushed Filipinos to be creative, resulting in DIY samgyeopsal or samgyup sa bahay creations, and home delivery samgyeopsal. Fancy-fied and Upgraded Canned Goods and Instant Noodles Saving up money in such times and stretching out available resources is a must, giving birth to these five-star quarantine dishes. Transforming varieties of local canned goods into dishes like corned beef hash, sardines spaghetti, hotdog sisig, and sardine nuggets became a popular trend. Among these came the upgraded instant noodles, sparking everyone’s interest and utmost c r e a t i v i t y.
Have an organized schedule.
Online classes both serve as a convenience and a challenge; you can be time-flexible and timeconstrained at the same time. It is essential to know how to deal with distractions, such as Netflix, mobile games, vlogs, and social media. Keeping in mind the following steps would substantially change your self-discipline, dedication, and focus during online classes. Wake up early, take a shower, and eat breakfast. Similar to our habits before the pandemic, it is better to wake up an hour earlier than your class. This will give you time to prepare yourself before attending your first class. As we are always told, early birds catch the worm. Another thing is to make sure that you’ve taken a bath which makes you feel refreshed and recharged— this boosts your body to be more active and awake. On the other hand, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and it helps your brain function better. Spot your perfect place to do online classes. Most of us took the liberty to attend classes in our beds, which only attracts us to go back to sleep. Look for a peaceful spot at home where you can focus solely on studying. Ensure that there will be no distractions, such as your family members, noises, and devices. A perfect spot for learning will
Aside from the given schedule on when to attend your online classes, it is essential to plan when to do your tasks and study. If your mind functions well at night, you must follow it. If you feel comfortable assembling your task and learning in the afternoon, plot your schedule in that time frame. You may allot an hour to study, a fiveminute break, and another hour to finish your tasks. Stay away from distractions. We disregard completing our modules and decide to continue watching our pending Netflix series, playing our favorite mobile games to rank up, or shooting a new Tiktok challenge. However, it is essential not to be distracted when completing our tasks and studying. Instead of treating these as distractions, use them as rewards for finishing all your daily tasks. Take a rest. Despite all the tips above, always remember to take a rest. It is essential to recharge when you feel tired and exhausted for it makes you think and seem more prepared to face and complete your tasks. Resting will make you think, recharge, and ready again to face the screen and complete your pending tasks. Everyone is struggling with distance learning. Some may even take this as an advantage, which is why it seems to be easy for others to complete their modules in a day or two. Whatever type of online student you are, you must know how to balance work and life. May these tips help you in taking your online classes.
Prank booking and the worries of online delivery riders— Carl Dave Santos With approximately one-third of the global population on lockdown, assistance that delivers groceries, medicines, food, and other essentials have significantly grown in-demand. In our current situation, where most establishments are closed, and it is seemingly difficult to get food and supplies from the market stores, these online delivery systems have proven to be useful and necessary. Despite the potential health risks they might acquire for being exposed during this pandemic, they are still up to do their jobs. In that sense, delivery crews deserve so much regard and
appreciation in their service that supply us all the necessities we need, straight to our homes. These services that endlessly cater to accommodate, bringing no further trouble to everyone, has made our quarantine lives a lot more manageable.
Continued on P8
VOLUME XLIX | NO. 2 | SEPTEMBER TO DECEMBER 2020
