With the thousands of apps available on the iPad, how do you decide which one to purchase when there is always the chance that the one you selected turns out to be a turkey, rather then a gem.

Until now, you were stuck with guessing or visting iPad app review sites geared towards everyone, and not corporate universities and educational institutions.

Starting today, that has changed.

Every week, CorpU will present a round-up of the top iPad apps covering various areas.

From boosting productivity, to writing and taking notes, to presentations with ease to experiencing the real power of mobile learning.

Plus each week, our new feature, “iPad apps you may never have heard of”, will present an in-depth and detailed review.

Our debut begins with an app you may never have heard of, but in reality is an impressive solution that shows the possibilities.

The Civil War Today

Price: $7.99
Made by: History Channel and Bottle Rocket

The Civil War Today is an incredible app that shows the power of self-contained mobile learning (that is to say, without having you go to a web site).

The feature set offers incredible capabilities that frankly shows the real power of what is possible in a self-contained app.

Features

  • Lasts exactly four years, the length of the Civil War
  • End users can view only up to the current date and not move forward
  • You are able to view photos of the day, see data tied to the Civil War, read feature articles on informational topics tied to the players and way of life during that time
  • Read the diaries of 15 people, including President Lincoln, for that day

    • What is great about this feature, is that you see the image of the person, their role, their actual handwritten note – in their own handwriting via a scan, and finally the text of the note.

  • Images that can expand with the touch of a finger, occasional video embeds, battle maps and a daily quiz tied to achievement badges
  • Daily scanned image of a local newspaper, click and see the front page, zoom and read the articles of that day

    • But that is not all, especially when it comes to the social media.

    Do you want to send out a Tweet? No, problem, but there is a twist, because as you know back then the Internet did not exist; so if you wanted to send a message you had to use a telegraph.

  • To type a tweet, you see morse code and an image of a telegraph, along with its touch pad
  • Each letter is represented in its morse code language, so “A” is “._”, “E” is “.” and so on
  • Tap the appropriate number of times for each letter and when finished click “send”. You have now just sent out a tweet

    You can also send the daily diary postings from individuals including President Lincoln, to Twitter, Facebook or via e-mail.

    Audience
    Educational Institution – educators and students, individuals who love history

    Possibilities

    For an educational institution, eliminate the textbook or e-book format and move into something that is highly interactive and engaging.

    Corporate universities can develop apps for any product or topic area, including leadership development and enhance it with additional social learning tools, even a collaboration component.

    Bottom Line

    The power of a self-contained app which does not require the learner to constantly synch or have access to the internet, is in of itself, powerful. Add real scanned articles and diary postings, toss in images and embedded objects and you have a real engaging learning solution.

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