Help me keep my commute educational...

July 29, 2011 8:07 AM

What are some good educational phone applications?

I spend a lot of time on the bus and have been enjoying two apps I found, one which quizzes you on countries of the world and one which quizzes you on human anatomy. Both are really fun, and now I know the locations of both Lesotho and my capitulum! (They are not in the same place.)

I've got a Droid, but feel free to recommend apps for other types of phones. Please recommend anything that *you* find neat, but if you wants topics of interest, mine include: anything to do with science or history especially, anything to do with statistics, math, engineering, computer science, language learning.

I know that I like the quiz based apps that just help you memorize a lot of useful information, but if you have a different type of app to recommend, feel free! There's a lot of stuff to know that can't be easily formulated as a quiz game.

posted by shaun uh to education (5 answers total)

Here's an app that helps you create flashcards: http://blog.evernote.com/2011/05/10/trunk-spotlight-turn-your-evernote-notes-into-flashcards-with-studyblue/

But I prefer just reading books. I like the Kindle app for Android.
posted by markhu at 10:30 AM on July 29, 2011

There are a ton of flashcard apps which usually pull from big databases of flashcards which people have uploaded... Some of the sets I enjoyed were GRE word list, Countries/Capitals/Flags/Oceans, and one called Andy's Math which had a bunch of basic calculus identities. (I also just downloaded a Morse code one which I somehow missed my first time around.) The apps I've settled on as being the best flash card apps (right now) are AnkiDroid and AnyMemo.
posted by anaelith at 11:05 AM on July 29, 2011

MindSnacks Learn Spanish helped me a whole lot!
posted by Jon_Evil at 12:29 PM on July 29, 2011

(This one's for the iPhone users out there.)

Anki for iPhone. It's spaced repetition flashcard software, the premise being: it tracks a 'forgetting curve' for every single flashcard, so it knows exactly when you're about to forget that piece of information—which just so happens to be the very best time to get you to recall it to strengthen that memory. Hence, you do as few repetitions as possible to get stuff into your head. 'Stuff' can be anything: French, kanji, biochemistry, faces, Braille. The method is grounded in decades of psychological research on memory and learning.

It's as full-featured as the desktop client and very powerful. It's super easy to sync your flashcard decks with all your other devices and the web. I use it every single day, and I'm learning lots. If you used it for a few minutes a day for the rest of your life, the calculations show that you could learn—and never forget—a few million facts. But you have to stick with it. It's very pricey for a 'phone app, but I give it my strongest recommendation. You won't regret buying it.
posted by henryaj at 5:08 PM on July 29, 2011

Get a thesaurus and improve your vocabulary. Some word games can be good for that too. Get a first aid app. On the iPhone there's the OECD Factbook full of econimic, social and environmental facts and statistics. Try some wildlife field guides. Get some good podcasts like Matthew Parris's ‘Great Lives'.
posted by Deor at 8:51 AM on July 30, 2011