Cost: FREE

iTunes: Download

Subject: Social Studies

Age: Accessible for any students who want to use the iPad for visuals.  More advanced features might be difficult even for older students.

Fun? Tour Wrist is one of the coolest apps I have ever seen.  360 degree panoramic photographs aren’t necessarily unique, but having iPad respond as if you were looking certainly is.  You literally have to move the iPad to your left or right if you want to see what is left or right.  I can easily imagine a classroom full of kids having a blast simply by getting their body into the viewing.  As is the case with many great apps, it is addicting–you’ll definitely browse through several different tours to check things out.  You may even click on the information icon once in a while.

Easy to Use? Searching for tours is very easy and viewing the tour is even easier.  All you need to do is imagine that your iPad is your lens to the world and look through it.  Move as you would move if you were there.  It is incredible.

If panoramic photography was a bit easier (there are some apps that can help here and here), adding your own tours would be really cool and could open up a whole lot of activities.  Older students might be able to get the hang of it.

Gets the Job Done? I think this app would be fantastic for a class to check out a visual of a place they are studying.  However, Tour Wrist is currently being used mostly by hotels and businesses hoping to draw in more customers with a quick visual tour.  It’s a great marketing tool, but unless you are lucky to be studying a tour someone happened to make, you’ll be out of luck.  A little more information would be nice, but this app is purely geared towards the visual.

This is the kind of app you would see in a commercial.  Admittedly, it is a lot of show, and you may have difficulty finding a relevant use for it in class.  But, wow, it is fun.

If I had an iPad in class I’d

1) Tailor parts of units to tours I have found on Tour Wrist.

2) Recommend it strongly, offer extra credit, do whatever it took to get some students to try making their own.  It’s hard to find a place for it in the curriculum, but I would love to see what they could come up with.

Use it in a cool way?  Let us know in the comments.

Final Grade: 3.5