News & Events

Back to school is around the corner and one resident of Ryerson's Digital Media Zone (DMZ) has some tips to help students use digital media to their  academic advantage.

The DMZ is Ryerson's workplace designed for young entrepreneurs. Students and alumni are offered space and resources to innovate, collaborate and market their products and services to turn them into commercial enterprises.

Ted Rogers School of Management student Brennan McEachran is the founder of Hitsend, one of 24 companies currently incubating at the DMZ. He created the online platform Soapbox, where users can submit and vote on any idea that can be used for community-based changed. McEachran came up with a list of tips to help students use social and digital media to their advantage.

- Social media can be overwhelming; the trick is to focus on a couple of key platforms and target them. Don't like too many groups, just pick what's important to avoid getting overloaded with news and updates.
- Twitter is great for keeping in touch with the administrative staff of post-secondary institutions. You can stay updated on campus news and events, and even on 'did you know' type items like school policies. Twitter can also be used to pose questions to other students at school and to recommend changes at the institution.
- Take advantage of the wealth of information social and digital media can provide. Using search engines like Quora or Google can optimize primary research.
- Focus Booster is a great app that can help organize study and break time. Based on a countdown, a timer is set to suit an individual's needs. For example, scheduling 20 minutes of study time and a five minute break. Knowing a break is coming can help you stay on task. For Mac users, using the Self-Control App can eliminate browsing time-wasting websites. This self-set site blocker can optimize work time by restricting access to distractions.
- Google calendar can be synced to cell phones to transfer important times and dates as well as class schedules. Also, Google docs can increase productivity for group projects: team members can upload their work on Google docs, and other members can edit and share their own work easily online.

Watch McEachran offer up his tips in this DMZ video.