Top 5 apps in education news for making yourself smarter
The iPhone isn’t just a communications tool, it’s a personal computer connected to every piece of electronic information in the world. It’s the most powerful tool in existence and the biggest thing to happen to education news since the invention of writing.
It can compress the Einstein’s life work and the philosophy of Marcus Aurelius into three by four inches, and most people waste it on Angry Birds instead. Increase your IQ and become a better person by using these education apps instead.
Star Walk
Star Walk turns space itself into an open book, one read through your iProduct. It adds augmented reality to the entire universe to identify constellations, map out satellite paths, and even help with spotting the International Space Station and close-approaching asteroids.
Keeping up on the latest education news certainly makes you look informed, but casually tossing off the names of the stars or being able to point out a spaceship will turn you into the wisest person any young relations have ever seen.
Mathemagic
Education news isn’t all nanotubes or the latest breakthroughs in learning psychology. Because neither of those will help you when you’re stuck dividing a dinner bill between six people after adding a 15% tip, especially when Beth is reminding everyone she didn’t drink and so should pay less. Because that’s exactly the sort of thing the sober one will bring up at a party.
Of course you can crack open your iPhone’s calculator, but you feel sort of stupid being incapable of even basic arithmetic. That’s where Mathemagic steps in: a stylish set of simple mental arithmetic tricks and practice exercise, to speed up your brain for everything.
Basic Spanish For Dummies (and French, and Italian, and…)
The For Dummies series has succeeded so hard it now means the opposite. You’re not a dummy, you’re a smart person who understands the first part of learning is admitting you don’t know it yet. Of all fields of study, languages benefit from apps more than anything else. Learning a new app needs regular practice, every day if possible.
You might be able to sit down and cram your way through history in a night or two, but if you want to speak you need to practice all the time. You can’t carry books everywhere, but you’ll always have your iPhone in your pocket. Whip out your language course and you’ll be squeezing in practice for a few minutes at the bus stop, the post office queue, in the supermarket – all the places you’ll most need it when you eventually travel!
Unnecessary Knowledge Free
Honesty is a big part of intelligence and that title is full of it. Unnecessary knowledge free is the ultimate antidote to boredom, and even the least useful information is one million times more productive than Fruit Ninja.
Instead of sitting around indulging in rhinotillexomania you can be learning about the world around you, including what that Scrabble-busting word means. From fun facts to table quiz training, an essential and free app.
TED
TED takes education news, entertainment, and the expanding of your mind and combines them with smarter people than you’ve ever met. You might remember education as a stern schoolmaster shouting at you, but true learning is fueled by amazement and passion. People dedicate their entire lives to incredible projects, and on TED they compress that down to a few minutes to teach you all about it. Utterly essential.
