Back to School Tech 2024: the best tips, devices, apps and student discounts

School is out for the summer, for children, teens, young adults, adult students, teachers and educators around the world. Except… it’s almost time to go back to class. Has everyone sharpened their pencils, planned packed lunches, washed and ironed their uniforms? We didn’t think so. It’s fine: technology can help.

Over the next month, Tech Advisor will share back-to-school tech tips for students and teachers in elementary school, middle school, high school, elementary school, high school, college, university and other educational institutions. We will also highlight offers and discounts for students and make recommendations on the digital devices they need to study or furnish their dorm rooms, and suggest software and apps that can help them learn, think and even get some rest so that they stay fresh. and ready to learn all semester long.

You might also want to check out the best back-to-school tech tips from our sister sites Macworld And PCWorld. Our family of editors has decades of experience in school, raising kids, and yes, tech, so you can trust us to make only the best recommendations for your school supply list.

Read on to learn more about:

• The apps and services that can target anxiety and stress, keeping your mind healthy and ready to learn
• The technology that can help you sleep better, keeping you fresh all school year long
• The apps that can boost your educational experience
• Technology that can find school bags left on buses, and take the worry out of younger children who are out of your sight for the first time
• Devices that could encourage college and university students to live on more than just beans and toast, without blowing their budgets
• Gadgets that keep their student house clean and make them feel at home
• How students can save money on, well, everything (including technology) with the best deals and student discounts during the back-to-school sale
• Technology that could transform future education – and create new problems for teachers in the process

Back-to-school technology that can teach you something new

When you think of back-to-school technology, you probably think of tablets, laptops (and specifically laptops that are best for students) and Chromebooksdigital devices on which you can research, write, and submit courses, and laptop bags in which you can cram these devices next to your books.

You might be thinking about software like Microsoft’s Office suite – Word for essays, OneDrive for storing and accessing homework in the cloud, and Teams for virtual learning and collaboration – or maybe you’re using Google Classroom.

Many schools now also have apps that keep you informed about class schedules, homework, detentions and upcoming trips, which you can download to your phone – if that’s allowed in class, of course.

These things are all important, of course. We report on the best student deals and discounts on back-to-school tech, and you can read our coverage of the best tablets, laptops And Chromebooks. But we’re much more interested in the technology you may have overlooked, or for which there are possibilities you hadn’t thought of yet.

Let’s look at a few examples here, and we’ll dive deeper into our broader back-to-school coverage:

Greater mental health awareness for more powerful learning

Adults who think schoolchildren have it easy have only forgotten their childhood; In fact, anxiety and stress are very real issues for students of all ages, whether they have difficulty settling into a routine, find it difficult to manage their workload, need help coping with high expectations placed on them are asked, dealing with bullying or general teenage problems. anxiety…the list goes on.

While we have to take screen time into account, technology can also help you switch off and give your mind a break, which is necessary if you want the device to perform at its best and absorb all that valuable knowledge you are putting into it. For some, switching off can be a result of gaming; for others it may come from streaming music or movies (and there are loads of streaming deals that students can buy, some of which will offer a wider range of content when combined with a VPN, so check out the best VPN deals for students too ); for still others it may come from playing your own music. Whatever your vibe, you can be sure that technology can help in some form or another.

Part of keeping your mind healthy is making sure you get a good night’s sleep. We spoke to a sleep expert to find out how a smartwatch can help you achieve this. Headphones like the Kokoon Nightbuds, smart rings like the Oura Ring, and light alarms can help you track and manage your sleep, ultimately helping you sleep better, wake up softer, and feel fresher. We find that listening to audiobooks can help us fall asleep, especially if you use them with a smart speaker in the bedroom, and they’re great for learning too (check out Audible for some great audiobooks).

Don’t even get us started on mobile apps: there are so many that can help you manage anxiety and stress, from Aura to Calm, Breathwrk and Headspace.

Back-to-school apps and online learning resources

…And there are even more educational apps. Do you want to encourage younger children to read? Try Epic: Children’s Books & Reading and track their reading goals with Bookly. Didn’t you do the reading assignment? Try StoryShots. Do you have difficulty with math or science? Try Khan Academy or Photomath. Do you need a note or to-do list app? Try Evernote. Want to check your grammar before submitting courses? Try Grammarly. Do you want to take the hard work off your hands and replace reading with listening? Try Peech. Do you want to brush up on your languages? Try Duolingo or Babbel. Do you want to learn something completely new? Attempt Udemy. Do you want to test your knowledge? Try Quizlet. There are apps for all sorts of things, even figuring out what to put in their lunch (try LaLa Lunchbox – iPhone only; Android kids get hungry).

Not long ago, we used physical dictation machines to quickly jot down notes and ideas during lectures. These days, Windows, Android, and iOS all have built-in dictation functionality, but if you’re looking for a more advanced solution, check out Otter.

These are just a handful of hundreds of app-based learning resources available at your fingertips, so go find them. You can find even more online learning services in our separate guide.

Technology can also help concerned parents

For parents with children who are just starting school, or perhaps leaving home to go to university or college, there can be a huge sense of worry that they are disappearing from view.

Many parents will decide to purchase their child’s first smartphone so they can easily contact the child, or they can use a tracking app to keep an eye on the child. But while there are some great basic phones and cheap, kid-friendly prepaid plans on the market that won’t break the bank, you don’t want to give them a phone until they’re ready.

A smartwatch is another option, which also allows tracking. Fitbit has a range of smartwatches for kids, including the brand new Fitbit Ace LTE. But some schools are strict in their policies regarding children’s use of phones and smartwatches in the classroom.

Another – and even cheaper option – is a Bluetooth tracker, like the Tile Mate. Attach it to their school bag and you always know where they are. Or at least you know where their bag is if they leave it on the school bus. (Books are expensive, you know.)

For older children who are mature enough that you don’t need to keep an eye on them all the time, there may be a greater concern that they are eating well and taking care of themselves when they are away from home. And when we say good food, we mean something more substantial than beans on toast.

Consider an air fryer: it will save them money when every penny counts, and it’s small enough to fit right into the corner of their enclosure (just check first if this is allowed). Our Group Home Tech Editor, Emma, ​​managed to feed herself exclusively for a month using an air fryer, and she’s still alive.

If you’re worried about them cleaning up after themselves, how about a robot vacuum cleaner? They can set a cleaning schedule and forget about it.

Students get the best discounts (on technology and everything else)

Being a student isn’t cheap, even if you don’t have to pay for your education, and there isn’t a whole lot of time to work on the side if you want to get the best grades possible. Many companies offer student discounts, so it’s always worth investigating whether you can save money as a student before purchasing.

If you’re specifically looking for technology, all major suppliers offer student discounts Apple and Microsoft, to Dell and HP, Adobe, Samsung and Google. Students can even get free access to Office 365. Even Amazon Prime and YouTube offer student discounts.

UniDays is a great resource for all types of student discounts and is not limited to technology. StudentBeans is also worth a look.

Future education could be transformed with AI

We thought Amazon Alexa-powered Echo speakers, Google Assistant-powered Nest devices and the Apple Siri-powered HomePod would transform education and provide answers to students’ homework problems with a simple spoken command. And there were those who feared that over time, users of these digital assistants might even lose their ability to retain information. Shocking.

But AI (artificial intelligence) has gone much further since the advent of smart voice assistants and could now transform education by providing capabilities such as personalized teaching, study programs and lesson plans, and has the potential to be a huge help in research. and revision.

AI can of course also be misused, with the potential to spread false information and encourage plagiarism and cheating.

If you’re even considering using AI to write your dissertation, remember that if it’s not obvious to the trained eye, there are AI tools available (such as Surfer) that can be used to detect AI-generated content. Trust us, the teachers will be excited about this. Don’t even try.

More tech tips for back to school

We’ve barely scratched the surface here when it comes to how technology can be used in ways you might not have considered to aid in education. For more tech tips, check out our Back to School hub.