Two years on and EducationApps (www.educationapps.co.uk) is poised to launch 50 new apps for Common Entrance, GCSE, AS level and A level, most featuring more than 500 multiple-choice questions with detailed on-screen explanations if students select the wrong answer.”

Read the article on TES.co.uk

In this post I’ll cover the product announcements; the way these products will affect end-users (including educational institutions); and both their benefits and limitations.

As at any other Apple event, we were first presented with statistics:

• There are over 20,000 educational apps for the iPad alone
• There are 1.5 millions iPads in use in educational institutions
• There are over 1000 iPads in one-to-one programs

The announcements soon followed:

iBooks 2

First up was a new version of iBooks which has been created to offer a “new textbook experience for the iPad”. This “new experience” is made possible with the inclusion of a number of new interactive enhancements, referred to as ‘widgets’. The widgets and additional functionality include:

• Intro movies
• 3D diagrams and animations
• Interactive infographics and diagrams
• Interactive glossary terms
• Easy search, with suggestions
• End of chapter review questions
• Easy-to-use highlight and note capabilities
• Interactive study cards drawing upon highlights, notes and glossary items

With these additional features, and Apple’s ability to design and develop so well, the end-result is an incredible set of textbooks which are extremely fluid, colourful, interactive and engaging. In fact, one analyst predicted that in the three days following the event more than 350,000 copies of the textbooks have been sold.

As with most Apple products, it appears as though Apple has drawn quite a bit of inspiration from other companies; in this case there are definitely strong similarities to Inkling’s app from a functionality perspective, and to Push Pop Press’s Our Choice app in terms of navigation (Push Pop Press produced Al Gore’s Our Choice iPad book, before it was bought by Facbeook).

However, Apple has also taken the ideas presented in these apps and innovated on them. Though their study card functionality is somewhat gimmicky, it is nevertheless a useful tool for students. The inclusion of images and movies in the glossary, and turning this into a digital index, is also a new idea. Their end of chapter review sections also appear to allow for a variety of different question types, unlike other apps which limit this simply to multiple-choice questions which predominantly use text.

There are some features still missing though: one of these is social functionality – the ability to share notes and highlights with friends (in this case, classmates). The Kindle has offered this for some time, and the Inkling app now supports such functionality as well. While not necessarily crucial to a student’s learning experience, I do think such functionality can be helpful for a teacher. A teacher could highlight sections which students should pay particular attention to, or perhaps even add additional notes alongside the text.

One of the disappointing aspects of the announcement is the mechanism through which textbooks are bought; there was nothing new here. While ebooks can easily be bought through the iBookstore, this does not reflect the way in which textbooks are used in schools where they are either given to a student for a year, or handed out at the beginning of a class. Frasier Speirs, Head of IT at Cedars School, which has a one-to-one iPad program, summed this up nicely: “The ownership model for ebooks is out of step with the way schools buy and use most books. Unfortunately, Apple’s announcement didn’t change that much. I had hoped that on Thursday we would see a mechanism for checking books out and back into some kind of “school library” through iBooks.”

Perhaps to help overcome this problem, Apple has set a price limit for its textbooks. This has been reported in the media as an actual cap, but I haven’t yet been able to establish whether or not it applies to all textbooks submitted to iBooks or just those which were mentioned in the announcement. Currently the cap is $14.99.

The Textbook category of iBooks is currently only available in the US, though I hope Apple will be spreading it to other countries shortly. We’re in the process of releasing a number of revision guide apps, basically ebook-style apps. Our first revision guide, for iGCSE Biology, was made available last week and we’ll have others following shortly. Now that Apple has released iBooks 2 (and iBooks Author, see below) we will definitely consider publishing the revision guides in this format. However, our work currently focuses on the UK and we’d obviously need the Textbooks category of iBooks 2 to be available in the region first.

iBooks Author

In my opinion the most exciting announcement at the event was the release of a new Mac app called ‘iBooks Author’. This free app allows anyone to easily create and publish ebooks through iBooks 2. It allows users to import a document from Word or Pages and even has an auto-layout mechanism which takes this existing content and presents it nicely.

Users can simply add widgets, such as thumbnail image galleries or 3D models, to make their ebooks interactive. They can even create interactive presentations in Keynote and then import these as widgets! Apple is essentially empowering non-coders to create interactive infographics and diagrams. Of course, those with more technical skills can also code more complex widgets in HTML and Javascript.

This new app is one of the first to make ebook creation easy and accessible to anyone without the knowledge of basic HTML. It makes the creation of ebooks, even those with interactive elements and rich in multimedia, super simple and relatively quick but it also presents a number of issues which I think are going to be of big concern to users, particularly those in education:

1. Quality of content is likely to fall. With the new iBooks Author app anyone can easily create an ebook for iBooks 2. Once published, the ebook can easily be found in the iBookstore. However, there is no quality control in place. An ebook written by a random teacher (or parent, or student?) will appear alongside other books published by well-known companies and which have gone through a relentless editing process. What measures are in place to ensure students buy the ebooks with the best quality content? None. We’re already having to deal with the same problem in the App Store where our content sits alongside weaker content from competitors who only attract customers because of their cheap prices.
2. The new iTunes U app (see below) can directly open an ebook in iBooks 2 onto a specific page. This is one example of increasing linkage between apps. However, will it be possible for any developer to link directly to a specific page of a textbook? Having spent some time already exploring the issue, I expect it is unlikely, though I’m not certain. However, this is something of great importance to us. One of the advantages we have of publishing our revision guides as apps is that we can then link to them from our self-assessment apps (a feature we’re adding in the near future). In this way, our users can take a quiz in one of our self-assessment apps and then get recommendations as to which chapters they need to study in our revision guide apps. Would we still be able to do this if we published our revision guides as textbooks in iBooks 2?
3. As previously mentioned, it appears a price cap of $14.99 has been imposed in the US iBooks Textbooks category. This is a clever move by Apple, who are trying to overcome the fact that the way ebooks are sold differs from traditional print textbooks. The textbooks on iBooks 2 are sold directly to the student, while print copies are sold directly to the school and used over a number of years. This means that overall revenue should still be about equal for publishers, as quantity simply increases (more analysis on that here). However, it may scare off some publishers, particularly those in higher education who often charge hundreds of pounds for their titles.
4. Related to price, is cost. While ebooks may cost nothing to distribute, they certainly cost something to produce in the first place. In fact, the cost of producing an enhanced, highly interactive textbook for iBooks 2 will be much higher than a typical book because of the need for additional multimedia elements such as movies, interactive graphics, 2D and 3D animations. Yes, in some cases publishers already produce this sort of material for companion CDs or websites, but for the majority of titles such material will have to be created from scratch, and it certainly won’t be cheap.
5. The Textbooks category of the iBookstore is not yet available in the UK (I haven’t found any date for a UK release, but if someone knows please do note it in the comments).

iTunes U

Apple’s final announcement on Thursday was that it has extended its iTunes U program to an app. iTunes U began as a section of iTunes which comprised of lecture material from top universities around the world. This they gave away for free. The new iTunes U app will now allow universities and other academic institutions to present all the material necessary for a course: a professor can post messages and students will then receive notifications; tapping a reading assignment automatically takes the users to the correct page in iBooks; tapping a video opens it within the app; students can mark assignments as complete; highlights are automatically synced from iBooks and users can add notes to these.

In the spirit of iTunes U, this is all free and anyone can subscribe to a course.  However, down the line we may see Apple develop this into a more closed system which academic institutions could use internally. I expect this would make for a very interesting product.

Conclusion

Apple’s focus on education is certainly very exciting, and we obviously see it as being quite beneficial given that Apple will be pushing these products into the hands of more students and educators around the world. The new iBooks 2 is a delight. Having already experimented with some of our revision guides on here, I can confirm that reading and interacting with a textbook in this form is a much more engaging and exciting experience.

iBooks Author is by far the most exciting product, though it could lead to an overwhelming amount of poor quality content on the iBookstore, which is of major concern. How one stands out amongst the crowd is going to become a big issue, just as it is for app developers selling through the App Store.

iTunes U could be very interesting in the future, and it’s certainly a nice way to learn about new things. However, it might be limited by the number of institutions who have the time and resources to post all the necessary content need for a single course. If Apple decides to make it available in some sort of private format in the future, for individuals within a single institution, it could be more of a game changer.

There is definitely some exciting progress here, I just hope Apple continues to expand and build on these products.

Read the article on thetimes.co.uk [Pay Wall]

Users can:
- Highlight sections of text
- Add notes to enhance the content or simply to act as reminders of certain points
- Search the entire text or certain sections for keywords or phrases
- Tap a word for a definition or links to Google and Wikipedia
- Tap images to view them in fullscreen

Why not download our Biology GCSE multiple choice assessment app, designed to compliment this revision guide, to test your knowledge?

Questions include extensive explanations to help you understand every element of your course and links to Wikipedia provide opportunities for further reading. You can even compete with peers and friends via Game Centre!

Continuous upgrades and updates ensure that you will have access to an ever increasing number of questions, perfectly tailored to cover your syllabus, with a fun, slick user experience.

- Mark off the topics that you’ve learned and tailor your revision to suit your needs

- Choose a specific topic to brush up on a certain area or just do a random test. You can even pit yourself against the clock for a quick-fire round!

- Detailed explanations with links to Wikipedia provide opportunities for further reading and a deeper understanding of the subject matter

- Review your incorrect answers immediately after a test to consolidate and better learn from your mistakes

- View your individual progress report at any time to analyse your results and improve on past performance. Share your scores via Apple’s Game Centre and compete with peers and friends

Filter questions by topic to ensure you target your weaknesses and only receive questions relevant to your course.

Continuous upgrades and updates ensure that you will have access to an ever increasing number of questions, perfectly tailored to cover your syllabus, with a fun, slick user experience.

- Mark off the topics that you’ve learned and tailor your revision to suit your needs

- Choose a specific topic to brush up on a certain area or just do a random test. You can even pit yourself against the clock for a quick-fire round!

- Detailed explanations with links to Wikipedia provide opportunities for further reading and a deeper understanding of the subject matter

- Review your incorrect answers immediately after a test to consolidate and better learn from your mistakes

- View your individual progress report at any time to analyse your results and improve on past performance. Share your scores via Apple’s Game Centre and compete with peers and friends

Filter questions by topic to ensure you target your weaknesses and only receive questions relevant to your course.

Continuous upgrades and updates ensure that you will have access to an ever increasing number of questions, perfectly tailored to cover your syllabus, with a fun, slick user experience.

- Mark off the topics that you’ve learned and tailor your revision to suit your needs

- Choose a specific topic to brush up on a certain area or just do a random test. You can even pit yourself against the clock for a quick-fire round!

- Detailed explanations with links to Wikipedia provide opportunities for further reading and a deeper understanding of the subject matter

- Review your incorrect answers immediately after a test to consolidate and better learn from your mistakes

- View your individual progress report at any time to analyse your results and improve on past performance. Share your scores via Apple’s Game Centre and compete with peers and friends

Filter questions by topic to ensure you target your weaknesses and only receive questions relevant to your course.

Continuous upgrades and updates ensure that you will have access to an ever increasing number of questions, perfectly tailored to cover your syllabus, with a fun, slick user experience.

- Mark off the topics that you’ve learned and tailor your revision to suit your needs

- Choose a specific topic to brush up on a certain area or just do a random test. You can even pit yourself against the clock for a quick-fire round!

- Detailed explanations with links to Wikipedia provide opportunities for further reading and a deeper understanding of the subject matter

- Review your incorrect answers immediately after a test to consolidate and better learn from your mistakes

- View your individual progress report at any time to analyse your results and improve on past performance. Share your scores via Apple’s Game Centre and compete with peers and friends

Liz Cross, Children’s Publisher at OUP says:
“These books have been delighting children and their parents at Christmas for many years, and it’s wonderful that they are now available to share in a new way.”

George Burgess, 19-year-old Founder and Managing Director of EducationApps says:
“We’re excited to take these fun Christmas titles onto the iPad and make them available to children all over the world. We hope the splendid, humorous narration will bring the spirit of the festive season to children and parents alike.”

Within the app, children can tap ‘Read to me’ to have the entire book read to them or ‘I’ll read’ to try and read the stories themselves; if they have difficulty at any time, they can simply tap a page to hear the narration.

Mobile devices are personal, portable and accessible, making them ideal study aids for students. EducationApps is a leader of the mobile education market in the UK and is working with several academic publishers as well as producing its own range of assessment and revision guides to revolutionise the way students at home and abroad prepare for their exams. The release of these storybooks marks the beginning of an ongoing relationship between EducationApps and OUP, with numerous academic apps already in the pipeline.

Burgess says, “We’re thrilled that Oxford University Press and other academic publishers are interested in what we’re doing to revolutionise the mobile learning space. With their support, we can help bring the highest quality educational content to students via their mobile devices.”

Learn more about the two apps using the links below:
http://www.educationapps.co.uk/apps/ipad/nonsensechristmasrhymes
http://www.educationapps.co.uk/apps/ipad/12daysxmas

Burgess is available for further comment, please contact george@educationapps.co.uk

Teenage Entrepreneur Launches New App Platform for Publishers 

London, England…

EducationApps Ltd., an educational mobile app development company, has created a new Multiple-Choice Question (MCQ) Platform, allowing publishers to release MCQ apps quickly to mobile devices. The new platform is available on the iPhone, and the company is committed to updating the platform frequently to add new functionality and make it compatible with other mobile devices.

Currently, EducationApps has deals with two of the UK’s largest academic publishers who plan to publish MCQ content using the platform. “We’re excited that some of the UK’s best-known academic publishers already want to make use of our new platform,” said Burgess, aged 19. “All apps created using our platform will share a slick, simple user interface while giving users the opportunity to tailor their revision and learn in a way which suits them,” he added. In the past EducationApps has teamed up with such prominent organisations as BBC Active, a joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Pearson.

Since Burgess founded his app development business at the end of 2009, more than 50,000 apps have been sold. “Within the next few months we’ll create over 50 new apps using this platform. That’s a huge number of apps in a very short space of time and it will triple the number of apps we currently have for sale!” he said.

EducationApps has released three apps for Psychology revision at GCSE, AS and A2 levels to highlight the type of content which makes use of the MCQ platform. Each app contains over 500 multiple-choice questions, written and vetted in-house by EducationApps.  Extensive explanations for each question and hundreds of links to Wikipedia, provide opportunities for deeper understanding of the materials and further reading. “After each test, users can review their incorrect answers and see an in-depth explanation, which helps them retain information more easily,” explained Burgess.

Users can filter questions by topic, sub-topic and even exam board, permitting students to personalise the app to suit their needs and give them the best chance of success. An option to share scores via Apple’s Game Centre creates an environment for friends and peers to compete, further enhancing the learning experience.

Burgess said: “The Psychology revision apps we released represent a new era in mobile learning for students in the UK – one that brings extensive, in-depth, quality content to all students in a beautiful and simple way.”

The series of apps to be rolled out in 2012 using the MCQ platform covers numerous subjects for a range of qualifications, including Common Entrance, GCSE, AS Level and A Level.  The company will also capitalise on its existing strong relationships with world-renowned publishers to broaden its coverage and provide content for students at undergraduate and graduate level. Details of the publisher deals will be announced in the New Year. “Expect exciting things from EducationApps,” says Burgess.

Pricing and Availability

Psychology GCSE (Self-Assessment Series) is available for £2.49: http://www.educationapps.co.uk/apps/iphone/self-assessment/gcse/psychology

Psychology AS (Self-Assessment Series) is available for £2.99:
http://www.educationapps.co.uk/apps/iphone/self-assessment/as/psychology

Psychology A2 (Self-Assessment Series) is available for £2.99: http://www.educationapps.co.uk/apps/iphone/self-assessment/a2/psychology

Contact Details

Contact:         George Burgess, Managing Director

Telephone:     +44 (0) 7766 727 747

E-mail:             info@educationapps.co.uk

Website:          www.educationapps.co.uk

Date:                8th December 2011

Copyright (C) 2011 EducationApps Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Filter questions by topic, unit and exam board, to ensure you target your weaknesses and only receive questions relevant to your course.

Questions include extensive explanations to help you understand every element of your course and links to Wikipedia provide opportunities for further reading. You can even compete with peers and friends via Game Centre!

Continuous upgrades and updates ensure that you will have access to an ever increasing number of questions, perfectly tailored to cover your syllabus, with a fun, slick user experience.

• Questions can be filtered by exam board (AQA, Edexcel, OCR and WJEC) and you can even mark off the topics that you’ve learned and tailor your revision to suit your needs

• Choose a specific topic to brush up on a certain area or just do a random test. You can even pit yourself against the clock for a quick-fire round!

• Detailed explanations with links to Wikipedia provide opportunities for further reading and a deeper understanding of the subject matter

• Review your incorrect answers immediately after a test to consolidate and better learn from your mistakes

• View your individual progress report at any time to analyse your results and improve on past performance. Share your scores via Apple’s Game Centre and compete with peers and friends

Filter questions by topic, unit and exam board, to ensure you target your weaknesses and only receive questions relevant to your course.

Questions include extensive explanations to help you understand every element of your course and links to Wikipedia provide opportunities for further reading. You can even compete with peers and friends via Game Centre!

Continuous upgrades and updates ensure that you will have access to an ever increasing number of questions, perfectly tailored to cover your syllabus, with a fun, slick user experience.

• Questions can be filtered by exam board (AQA, Edexcel, OCR and WJEC) and you can even mark off the topics that you’ve learned and tailor your revision to suit your needs

• Choose a specific topic to brush up on a certain area or just do a random test. You can even pit yourself against the clock for a quick-fire round!

• Detailed explanations with links to Wikipedia provide opportunities for further reading and a deeper understanding of the subject matter

• Review your incorrect answers immediately after a test to consolidate and better learn from your mistakes

• View your individual progress report at any time to analyse your results and improve on past performance. Share your scores via Apple’s Game Centre and compete with peers and friends

To say “we” is a bit of an exaggeration. At the time, I was in my final year of high school, juggling A-levels and my ongoing interest in entrepreneurship. I had been toying with the idea of releasing an iPhone app for some time; this was at the beginning of the app “gold-rush” with thousands of individuals and companies hoping to make lots of money from the App Store. I was hoping for a share.

I can’t remember exactly when I decided to produce educational apps, but I know the idea came to me quite suddenly. I was still at school: I had that proximity to education which might give me a slight advantage. I quickly concluded that a GCSE quiz app would be the simplest (and therefore cheapest) to produce. I found a freelancer online to create the app, found an incredibly passionate teacher at my school to help me write content and spent somewhere in the region of $500. A simple app really can cost very little to produce!

  

But that was all it was: a simple app. While that first app helped students study for their Geography GCSE, there were so many improvements that could’ve been added. So many other subjects we could cover. So many other qualifications we could explore. EducationApps was born.

Today we have a team of three, and scores of freelancers and authors who work with us very closely. We have deals with the world’s largest publishers. We have over 30 apps on the iTunes App Store. A couple on the Android Market Place. A few Kindle eBooks. We’ve been experimenting with all sorts of ideas, and we’re now delighted to announce that we’ll be releasing and updating more than 100 new apps over the next six months or so.

Bring on 2012!

As of January this year, piracy is said to have cost the iTunes store $450 million in revenue. But further analysis suggests that it may not be so detrimental.

Yesterday, I learnt that two of our apps had been pirated and made available online. I was furious, furious with the person who had taken our apps and posted them on the Internet for anyone to steal. I began checking the legal procedures to deal with such issues, finding the appropriate contact details for the host sites and researching the information I would need to send them. But everything I read suggested that these sites were unlikely to care, unlikely to respond, unlikely to do anything. This was the low point of my day, my week even.

But the more I thought about it, the better I felt. Every cloud has its silver lining. Those people who download pirated apps are never going to buy them in the first place but at least they might expose them to other potential buyers, thereby increasing the number of legitimate sales.

And consider the number of people who actually download pirated apps. To do so, a user must jailbreak their iPhone, download an application which lets them install cracked apps and then actually find the apps they want to steal. Flurry, the iPhone analytics firm, estimates that under 10% of iPhones are in fact jailbroken, which is a pretty reassuring figure. While anyone can play a pirated DVD, only 10% of iPhone users will install a pirated app. So is piracy really a problem?

Gizmodo recently concluded that it “isn’t a big deal”. Interestingly, they point out that in-app purchases can be used as a method to protect apps from piracy. This means that users can download a free app and then upgrade it or purchase some sort of subscription. While this does not resolve the issue completely, it does go some way to prevent piracy by making it much harder to crack an app. At EducationApps, we have recently considered introducing in-app purchases and are now more encouraged to do so in order to protect the work of the teachers we partner with.

So it seems piracy may not be so damaging after all. Nevertheless, it’s not nice to know your work is being stolen. So if your part of the 90%, thank you, we appreciate your support. If you are part of the 10%, then at least tell other people about our apps! Remember that developers spend huge amounts of time and money building their apps, how would you feel if it were the other way around?

GCSE Bitesize Last-minute Learner: Additional Science covers the following main topics for the AQA exam spec:

• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics

Please note that all questions are now being checked for the second time. Some questions are intended to be difficult or trick-questions, but we are aware that there are some errors in the app and will be issuing updates to address this.

The app incorporates most topics from the major exam boards and is a fantastic way to revise for your exams, tests or just to brush up on one’s mathematical skills. The GCSE is a UK degree for secondary school students aged about 15 and the app therefore covers all the basics.

Features include:

• Random tests: draws questions from all topics
• Topic tests: select a specific topic to be tested on
• Beat the Clock: tests with a time limit

Topics include:

• Accuracy
• Angles
• Arithmetic
• Arithmetic (Fractions)
• Averages (Raw Data)
• Bounds
• Calculator Work
• Circle Measurements
• Circle Theorem 1
• Circle Theorem 2
• Collecting Like Terms
• Conversion of Fractions + Decimals
• Differentiation
• Differentiation (Application)
• Estimation
• Functions
• HCF + LCM
• Integers
• Length, Area + Volume
• Linear Equations
• Linear Equations (Fractions)
• Linear Inequalities
• Linear Simultaneous Equations
• Mean (Raw Data)
• Multiplying Out
• Ordering Numbers
• Percentage (Increase + Decrease)
• Percentage (of)
• Polygons
• Powers
• Probability
• Proportion
• Pythagoras
• Quadratic Factorising
• Quadratic Formula
• Quadratic Inequalities
• Quadratic Simultaneous Equations
• Ratio
• Rearranging
• Recurring Decimals
• Roots (Surds)
• Sequences
• Sequences (Recurrence)
• Similarity
• Simple Factorising
• Simplifying Expressions
• Simplifying Fractions
• Simplifying Powers
• SOHCAHTOA
• Solving Equations from Graphs
• Standard form
• Straight Line Graphs
• Straight Lines (Gradients + Equations)
• Straight Lines (Gradients + Points)
• Straight LInes (Intercepts)
• Substitution
• Symmetry
• Trigonometric Equations
• Trigonometry Equivalences
• Volume

The app is constantly being updated with additional questions!

Questions are divided into different topics, making it a fantastic way to revise and practice before exams and tests at school. Each topic has a lower and higher tier section, both with 20 questions.

The GCSE is a UK degree for secondary school students aged about 15 and the app therefore covers all the basics. It can also be a fantastic way to test your chemistry knowledge!

Features include:

• Random tests: draws questions from all topics
• Topic tests: select a specific topic to be tested on
• Beat the Clock: tests with a time limit

Topics include (more being added all the time!):

• Atomic Structure
• Bonding
• Crude Oil and Alkanes
• Electrolysis

GCSE Bitesize Last-minute Learner: Maths Higher covers the following main topics:

• Number
• Algebra
• Shape, space and measures
• Handling data

GCSE Bitesize Last-minute Learner: Maths Foundation covers the following main topics:

• Number
• Algebra
• Shape, space and measures
• Handling data

GCSE Bitesize Last-minute Learner: Geography covers the following main topics:

• Natural hazards
• Rocks, weathering and glaciation
• Rivers Coasts Weather and climate
• Ecosystems Population
• Urban settlement and the changing countryside
• The global economy and an unequal world
• Tourism Sustainable development

Tests: see if you know how to spell all that vocab

• Random test: drawing vocab from all topics
• Topic tests: select a particular topic which you want to practice (eg. Animals or School)
• Multiplayer: play against your friends. Get exactly the same questions and see who scores the highest
• Flash cards: a quick way to learn your vocab
• Dictionary: quickly search a word you’re unsure of
• Results: see how you’re progressing by checking your last 5 results

GCSE Bitesize Last-minute Learner: Religious Studies covers the following main topics:

• Central Christian beliefs
• History and Christian life
• Sacraments
• Holy days
• Wealth and poverty
• Medical ethics
• War, peace and justice
• Family, relationships and gender
• Global issues

GCSE Bitesize Last-minute Learner: Schools History Project covers the following main topics:

• Medicine through time
• Crime, punishment and protest through time
• The American West, 1840–95
• Germany, 1918–45
• Britain, 1815–51
• Medicine through time
• Crime, punishment and protest through time
• The American West, 1840–95
• Germany, 1918–45
• Britain, 1815–51

We are constantly updating the app and so more questions will be released in the future!

The app currently incorporates the two largest topics covered by most schools: the Gospels and Ethics. These cover the majority of the material required by the largest exam boards.

The app is a fantastic way to revise for your exams and practice for your tests. The GCSE is a UK degree for secondary school students aged about 15 and so the material covers the basics of Religious Studies.

Features include:

• Random tests: draws questions from all topics
• Topic tests: select a specific topic to be tested on
• Beat the Clock: tests with a time limit

Topics include:

• Abortion
• Authority
• Background to Jesus’ Life
• Creation, Environment + Media
• Crime, Punishment + Forgiveness
• Discipleship and the Sabbath
• Eucharist and Baptism
• Euthanasia
• Faith, Prayer and Miracles
• Prejudice + Discrimination
• Rich + Poor Countries
• Rich, Poor + Jesus’ Teaching
• Sex, Marriage + Divorce
• The Kingdom of God and Parables
• The Person of Jesus
• The Resurrection of Jesus
• War, Peace + Nuclear Weapons

GCSE Bitesize Last-minute Learner: Modern World History covers the following main topics:GCSE Bitesize Last-minute Learner: Modern World History covers the following main topics:

• The First World War, 1890–1918
• The League of Nations, 1919–39
• Russia in revolution, 1917–41
• Germany, 1918–45
• The USA, 1919–75
• The Second World War, 1939–45
• Superpower relations since 1945
• Britain, 1900–39
• Britain, 1939–79
• The First World War, 1890–1918
• The League of Nations, 1919–39
• Russia in revolution, 1917–41
• Germany, 1918–45
• The USA, 1919–75
• The Second World War, 1939–45
• Superpower relations since 1945
• Britain, 1900–39
• Britain, 1939–79

The app is constantly being updated with additional questions!

Questions are divided into different topics, making it a fantastic way to revise and practice before exams and tests at school. Each topic has a lower and higher tier section, both with 15 questions.

The GCSE is a UK degree for secondary school students aged about 15 and the app therefore covers all the basics. It can also be a fantastic way to test your biology knowledge!

Features include:

• Random tests: draws questions from all topics
• Topic tests: select a specific topic to be tested on
• Beat the Clock: tests with a time limit

Topics include (more being added all the time!):

• Digestion
• DNA
• Genes and Inheritance
• Living Organisms
• Transport in Plants

GCSE Bitesize Last-minute Learner: Business Studies covers the following main topics:

• Business types and objectives
• Business production
• Business finance
• People in business
• Business and marketing
• The business environment

The app incorporates all required topics from the major exam boards and is perfect for revising on the way to and from school or at home.

The app can also be used by other users to brush up on their geographical knowledge. The GCSE is a UK degree for secondary school students aged about 15 and the app therefore covers the basics of Geography.

Features include:

• Random tests: draws questions from all topics
• Topic tests: select a specific topic to be tested on
• Beat the Clock: tests with a time limit

The 15 topics include:

• Climate Change
• Coastal Landscapes
• Development
• Economic Change
• Energy and Waste
• Farming and Countryside
• Flooding and Water
• Glaciated Landscapes
• Globalisation
• Migration
• Population Change
• River Landscapes
• Settlement Change
• Tectonic Landscapes
• Tourism

The questions are similar to those that children sit when they take verbal reasoning exams at age 11 for grammar school entry and also for many UK private school pre-test entry exams.

The questions have been written by Chalkboard Learning in partnership with Keystone Tutors. Chalkboard Learning is an online learning platform where you can access thousands of Reasoning and Maths questions. Keystone Tutors is one of London’s leading tutoring agencies.

GCSE Bitesize Last-minute Learner: Science covers the following main topics for the AQA exam spec:

• Biology Unit B1a Human Biology
• Biology Unit B1a Evolution and Environment
• Chemistry Unit C1a Products from Rocks
• Chemistry Unit C1b Oils, Earth and Atmosphere
• Physics Unit P1a Energy and Electricity
• Physics Unit P1b Radiation and the Universe

Burgess has secured financial backing for the company and expects to bring more apps to market soon. “We’re working on a whole suite of secondary school apps to launch in September. We aim to have all major subjects covered at Common Entrance, GCSE, AS and A-level, with multiple-choice questions and sets of revision notes available,” he says.”

Read the article in ICT for Education [PDF]

“Downloading the BBC Bitesize last-minute learner series of apps is the ideal way for any student to ace their GCSE grades later this year”

Read the review on MSN.com

Read the article on thesundaytimes.co.uk [Pay Wall]

Read the review on activedad.co.uk

Read the article on guardian.co.uk

Read the review on recombu.com

Read the review on itouch-magazine.eu [German]

Read the article on teachingnews.co.uk

Read the article in First Eleven [PDF]

Read the article on macworld.co.uk

17 Year Old Release GeoRev 1.0 – iPhone App for Geography Revision

London, England…

Dec. 9th 2009

George Burgess, an A-level pupil at St Paul’s School, London has released a Geography GCSE revision application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. On 24th November, 2009 the application was made available for sale on Apple’s iTunes application store.

The app, GeoRev, is designed to help students revise for their Geography GCSE exam and consists of 600 multiple-choice questions. These questions are separated into 15 topic areas with both foundation and higher tier options. The topic areas aim to incorporate the majority of material required by major exam boards.

The app can also be used by users who want to test their general Geographical knowledge, or those taking exams in other countries. GeoRev is the first of many revision apps Burgess will produce as part of his business EducationApps. The business aims to produce high quality education applications for the iPhone and iPod touch which help pupils to learn and revise for exams.

Burgess outsourced the development of the application. The 600 questions were written by Will Williams, Head of Geography at St Paul’s, and Burgess himself.

Device Requirements

iPhone or iPod Touch 3.0 or later

Pricing and Availability

GeoRev is available for just £0.59 until 1st January 2010. It can easily be found on the iTunes application store by searching GeoRev or ‘Geography revision’. Graphics can be provided on request. George Burgess is also available for further comment.

EducationApps produces high quality learning and revision mobile applications for students. It was started by a student, for students. For more information, please visit our website. Copyright (C) 2009 EducationApps. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.