Pocket Heart – iPad App of the Week

Pocket Heart – iPad App of the Week

This is a regular feature of the blog looking at the various iPhone and iPad Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive.

This week’s App is Pocket Heart.

Pocket Heart™ on the iPad is a novel way to visualize, hear and understand how the human heart works, in 3D!

Whether you’re a human biology student needing to learn, understand and memorize all of the anatomical features and functions of the heart, or a health care professional looking for a novel way of communicating a diagnosis or procedure to a patient, colleague or trainee, Pocket Heart’s unique 3D interface can facilitate this.

– Students: You can use this App as a study tool to help you brush up on your knowledge of the heart in preparing for your human biology exams.

– Doctors/Health Care Professionals: This app offers you a unique communication resource on which to demonstrate your diagnoses and surgical procedures to patients.

– Parents: Use Pocket Heart as an educational aid in showing your children how the human heart works in a fun and game-like 3D environment.

£3.99

This is the kind of app that for me is what makes the iPad special and useful. It makes use of the touch interface and contains just the right information, animations and diagrams needed to gain a better understanding of how the human heart works.

This is also the kind of app that worries me about the impact of the iPad as a source of information in that this is a closed app, now way to copy information (easily) from the app to say an assignment. There are no links either, in or out of the App. How does a practitioner for example “link” to this app from the VLE, e-mail or social network.

This is also the kind of app that creates challenges for practitioners and learners in how do you reference information from such an app? Do practitioner only rely on traditional resources, or can we ensure that learners are able to use new resources such as these.

In terms of the content of the app itself, I am no human biologist or medical doctor, however having showed a few well informed people they were impressed with the detail, the content and the animation.

I do think the animation in the Pocket Heart is very engaging, I especially like the fact that you can “feel” the heart pumping via the iPad speakers.

From a navigation perspective the app is very easy to use and move between the different sections of the heart.

There is additional information on the heart with added diagrams and information.

There is also an iPhone version that costs £2.39. This is not an universal app so if you want it on your iPhone and your iPad, you will need to buy two different versions. I am not a fan of that and prefer universal apps.

If you need more than the heart, then you can also get Pocket Body Musculoskeletal for £11.99

Pocket Body features a fully anatomically accurate human character with nine layers of musculoskeletal content and over 30,000 words of learning content.

From the screenshots it looks like it has a similar look and feel.

Overall I do like this app, there are printed study guides available, but this app is cheaper (just) and for some learners the animated version will be more engaging and effective.

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