Tech Task 11

Show and Tell - RefMe

One app that I have found that I would like to share with my future students and you guys as future educators and it is called RefMe. I found this app somewhere in my post-secondary education and have used it ever since. Essentially it is an app that can help you organize and easily cite all the references you use, either for a paper, project, or whatever else. I found this to be one of the most difficult parts of transitioning from high school to university. You get to university and all of a sudden you are expected to write these academic papers; and there are all sorts of different formats MLA, APA, Chicago Style. If that is not intimidating enough, they scare you with the fact that it could be considered plagiarism if sources are not cited properly. That is one thing that I wish I would have came out of high school with more knowledge on. Which is where I think this app can be used; to teach students how to references sources in their writing and how to do it quickly and easily.

The app is available for your phone, tablet, ect. There is also a website that you can use. You sign up for an account and then everything is all in one place. The coolest aspect of the app has to be the fact that you can scan the barcode on a book and the app will give you the reference for that book instantly. I have used this so many times for textbooks. Professors always ask you to reference the textbook in your paper. So I just hold my phone camera up to the barcode on the back of the book, the app recognizes it, it asks you what format you want the reference in, and it gives it to you. Almost like magic!!

The format of RefMe is easy to use and easy to stay organized. It is like most programs where you can have different folders and within the folders different files. The files on RefMe are called projects, and within them you can store all the resources you have used for that project. How I liked to use it was have folders for each class then if there was a paper I would create a project for it. Then when you are done your paper you can simply export all the references. It also makes collaboration easy as you can share the projects. So if you are working on a group project you can share the RefMe project with your group members. Then everyone will be able to add the resources that they use for the project. There is no longer the need for one group member to go around collecting a list of all the resources everyone used. Everything is in one place and the references are made for you.

Referencing isn't the only skills you need to write a good academic paper. For teaching students how to structure their papers in the appropriate format I would recommend the Purdue OWL.

If you give your high school students these writing skills and show them this app they are going be thankful. Start them into it slowly and gradually show them more and more. Even just leaving high school with some awareness and skills will make the transition to college/university that much easier.