Scoutmaster

Scouting with the iPod Touch - U.S. Historical Documents

U.S. Historical Documents
As a counselor for Citizenship in the Nation merit badge having the Constitution and Declaration of independence close at hand is helpful. (Note that there are free applications for both but they lack the note making and bookmarking capacities of this app.)

U.S. Historical Documents contains over 200 of the most influential documents in U.S. history with powerful search, note making and bookmarking abilities.

I have the basic ($.99) version but a 'pro' version ($4.99) features email capabilities and a paragraph 'slider'. 

Available from Standard Works through iTunes.

Scouting with the iPod Touch - The Backpacker Checklist

The Backpacker Checklist application allows you to build a virtual inventory of all your camping gear and construct trip-specific lists to aid your preparations for backpacking or any other sort of camping trip.

Aimed at backpackers but not limited to backpacking trips users can create car camping or cabin camping lists. Each piece of gear is identified by a description, category, weight and location (where it is stored at home) and can be assigned to multiple lists. As items are added to the list the weights are added so one can keep an eye on total weight.

Items are also assigned a status when they are included in a list "need it, have it, maybe" so they can be tracked as they are found and packed. The list may then be filtered by status and location to help focus your packing on relevant items and locations.

The Backpacker Checklist may not guarantee that I won't forget some vital piece of gear again but it is a step in the right direction!

Scouting with the iPod Touch - iBird Explorer

For years I always packed a portable CD player on car-camping trips with the Scouts (and on a couple of backpacking trips back in the dark ages when we carried 40-50 pound packs). I  listened to music as I went to sleep and again in the mornings as I was waking up. I found that this helped my disposition by at least partially drowning out the noise of a Scout Troop falling asleep or waking up.

When MP3 players came along I never really understood why anyone needed to carry around their entire collection of music. I was reasonably pleased with (and frustrated by) a sucession of less expensive small capacity devices. Beyond listening to music I enjoyed listening to FM radio, audio-books and podcasts.

The iPod Touch expanded the possibilities of a standard MP3 player. One can now carry photographs, movies, access the internet (where a wireless network permits) and choose from thousands of applications. The iPod Touch's big brother the iPhone is continuously connected to the internet with a camera and GPS capability to boot. The iPhone doesn't fit into my budget so I have an iPod Touch.

Just as cell phones are now routinely carried on most camping trips devices with greatly expanded functionality like the iPod Touch are becoming just as common. As has been previously noted the most recent edition of the Scout Handbook has been adapted (somewhat imperfectly) for the iPod and iPhone.

Over the next couple of weeks I'll be reviewing some iPhone - iPod touch applications that have been useful to me as a Scoutmaster;

iBird Explorer Plus
Printed and bound field guides have been a great tool for learning about the natural world. Imagine a field guide that is cross referenced, searchable, regularly revised, expandable, audible and weighs 0 ounces and you have described the iBird Plus application.

The application features;
■ Songs and calls of bird species of North America, loud enough to bring the bird right to you
■ Icon-driven search engine, for identifying species by color, shape, habitat, location, and more
■ Hand-drawn Audubon-quality full sized color illustrations, with perching and flight views
■ Multiple professional photographs of most species, showing various plumages, sexes, and seasons
■ Identification and behavior information, including what the bird eats, egg color, and much more
■ Full color range maps for every species
■ Detailed Wiki pages for every bird (with internet access)
■ Lifetime updates to bird species information (for example, if the range of a bird changes, we will change your app to reflect the new information for free)
■ Favorites feature, for bookmarking your birds and Flickr photos for every bird (with internet access)

This virtual field guide is easy to use, thorough and engaging. The iPod Touch adds a few ounces to my backpack but nowhere near as much as a really comprehensive field guide. At first a balked at the $19.99 price for iBird Plus. I downloaded the iBird 15, a free version of the app with only 15 birds, and I was convinced. iBird offers several regional guides at $9.99 each but I thought that the iBird plus would probably be the better deal (914 birds).
iBird website