With summer drawing to an end, students across the country all drift back to another year of education. However, technology is helping make this return less of a chore with may neat ways the Catholic Geek can get into their education and have fun with technology at the same time. Firstly, what has become a staple for practically any student serious about their study: laptops . There are a great range of basic models available from as little as $700 now, which are all fantastic for taking your notes, writing assignments, and even a occaisional bit of entertainment between lectures. If you are looking for something smaller you can pick up a netbook for even cheaper – a light way of carrying all you need round on campus. However, it’s important to remember to back up your information in case your laptop suffers from an accident – keeping copies of important information on a USB stick or two is highly reccommended.

Moving on, more and more textbooks are moving into the digital era. While NZ doesn’t directly get great devices like the Kindle (www.amazon.com/kindle) and Nook (www.bn.com/nook), their software versions let you access their libraries on your PC or mobile device. For those who prefer the comfort of paper, www.amazon.com, and the local equivalents www.fishpond.co.nz, www.thenile.co.nz and www.realgroovy.co.nz have a great range of textbooks; often at cheaper prices then the University bookshops. If you have friends in the same courses go in together and save on shipping.

Finally, open to anyone wanting to broaden their education, iTunes U brings a heap of University content freely online – including content from a number of leading Catholic Universities. This makes for an easy way to study while en route to Uni via your MP3 player. Fire up the iTunes store (www.apple.com/itunes) and check it out!