Write Review

Teacher Review for WORLD BOOK - This Day in History for iPad

Great idea, but lacking depth.

Chad S.
 Technology coordinator
Perris High School
Perris, United States
Show More
My Grades 9, 10, 11, 12
My Subjects English Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies
Save Changes
My Rating
Learning Scores
Engagement
Pedagogy
Support
My Students Liked It Yes
My Students Learned Yes
I Would Recommend It Yes
Setup Time Less than 5 minutes
Great for Knowledge gain
Whole class
Great with General
How I Use It
This app can be potentially used as a catalyst for a warm-up exercise like a free write or adding to a daily journal. I projected it in the classroom as students came in at the beginning of the period and asked them to comment on one event, describing why they chose it and what significance it has for the world today. Used within this limited scope, World Book has the potential to ignite an interesting dialogue in your class.
My Take
This app is a great idea but is inexplicably lacking in depth. I like the idea of having an easy to use resource that lists important historical events/people for a specific day, yet, why are there so few items per day? Some days have 6+ entries, others have little more than 3. You can't tell me that ANY given day in history couldn't have at least 10+ historically significant occurrences! When you tap on a specific event/person, you get a nice, concise summary, but nothing to help the user conduct more in-depth investigations. Would it be too hard to include a link or two to some additional resources? On the plus side, the controls are easy and intuitive and the visuals are adequate and utilitarian.