Do you like to know about the world around you? Want to give your students that same opportunity? Well I have two great apps to help quench that thirst. The Field Trip App from NianticLabs@Google and HISTORY Here from A&E Television Networks Mobile.

The Field Trip App is Niantic Labs (a startup inside of Google) first app. They have recently become more known for their other location based app Ingress. Even though this app is their first endevor, there is nothing to complain about. Field Trip lets you explore your current location or can be set up to give you notifications about interesting things around you. This can be historical landmarks to great places to eat, you choose what you want see. An excerpt from the app’s description at the Google Play Store summarizes the app’s potential well:

“The hyperlocal history experts of Arcadia and Historvius will unveil local lore in places you never expected. Trend-setting publications like TimeOut, Thrillist, Food Network, Zagat, and Eater will point out the best places to eat and drink. Experts at Sunset, Cool Hunting, WeHeart, Inhabitat, and Remodelista will guide you to the latest unique stores and products. Atlas Obscura, Dezeen and Daily Secret help you uncover hidden gems no matter where you are. Songkick and Flavorpill guide you to local music.”

Even though this app is optimized for phone and people on the move, it could feel right at home in a school on a tablet. The cool feature of this app is that its location aware notifications can even prompt you by voice when you are near a placemark but there are other ways to find this information. Open the app and it will launch into all of the placemarks that are close to you. Swipe to the map and drag to a desired location and it will pop up any placemarks for that area.

Is your school in a “History Rich” area? Have your students learn about the history around them. What an excellent reference tool to help students learn about their community. Even in my little community I can see great historic landmarks and learn things about my community that I never knew. Even if you are not in a “History Rich” area you can just search for an area and find the history there. Are your students studying the California Missions? Put the map in the right location and click on the placemark for the mission.

The HISTORY Here app is also location aware, does not have the cool notifications, but does have a search feature. This could really help in the classroom. You can use your current location or enter a U.S. city to search in that location. Another added benefit, because this app is tied to the HISTORY Channel, is that if there is an A&E based video available for that location you can watch it right from the app.

Be sure to install these apps on your Xperia Tablet and give your students the opportunity to learn about the history around them.

Go on a Field Trip today! - Field Trip App

History Here App