Evaluating the Khan Academy App on Ipad

So many people were excited with the 60 Minutes feature on the Khan Academy. Additionally, I was excited when the Khan Academy broadened its model to include other disciplines, specifically the art video discussions from Smarthistory--the open art history textbook.

And then the iPad and iPhone apps were released. I was euphoric. So I downloaded it to my iPad.
As did a reviewer Lisa Caplan: http://www.appolicious.com/education/articles/11373-the-khan-academy-goes-mobile-with-new-ipad-app.

Compare with The Wasteland app, for T.S. Eliot's great poem: http://www.touchpress.com/titles/thewasteland/ The Khan Academy would benefit from the tips feature in this app. Validating that is this blogger's observation: http://ipadinsight.com/ipad-app-reviews/quick-look-the-waste-land-for-ipad. What I also love about this app is all elements are contained within so you don't need to be online once you've downloaded the app to your device.

My first app was the History of Jazz timeline--it's newest version does provide some tips on the features, an improvement over it's earlier iteration and videos are now embedded in the app:
http://www.appsafari.com/books/15576/the-history-of-jazz-an-interactive-timeline/.

But back to Khan Academy iPad App. Future iterations could incorporate some tips from the apps above. I found it difficult to find the exercises and videos -- they were available as small links in my profile. Not all parts of the app are populated with content, and while it gave me "energy points," with no orientation, I am not clear on what the points indicate. Additionally, the points for watching a video were not tracked, though I did watch more than one. So here's to future iterations--with Smarthistory added to Khan, it will be great to have these impressive resources available on a variety of devices.