On the way to a big out-of-town game and need directions to the school? There’s an app for that.November 10, 2009
On the way to a big out-of-town game and need directions to the school? There’s an app for that.
SchoolZapp™, to be exact.
The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) and Illinois Elementary School Association (IESA) have developed the first smartphone application designed specifically for use by high school coaches, administrators, officials, students and fans. For users of the Apple iPhone, SchoolZapp provides contact information, phone and email links, detailed maps, and driving directions for all 782 IHSA and 750 IESA member schools at the touch of a finger.
In addition, SchoolZapp gives the high school user community the unique opportunity to improve the database by providing geolocation information about various sports facilities. By using the iPhone’s built-in GPS feature, a user can report the location of a school’s football stadium, softball field, cross country course, or even the bowling center it uses for its home contests. These submissions will then be added to the main database and made available to all users of SchoolZapp.
“SchoolZapp is a fun way for IHSA to reach out to smartphone users,” said Scott Johnson, IHSA Assistant Executive Director. “As more and more people use iPhones and similar devices, we need to find ways to get our message out to them. This is a great start.”
SchoolZapp is available in the iPhone App Store and through iTunes. It is anticipated that school activities associations from several other states will be added to the SchoolZapp database in the coming months.
"We are pleased to partner with SchoolZapp," said Steve Endsley, IESA Executive Director. "This will be a very convenient way for smartphone users to access data about our schools. Not sure where an IESA member school is located? Not sure of the school telephone number? This won't be a problem for those with the SchoolZapp application."
The Apple iPhone debuted on June 29, 2007. A recent survey put iPhone usage at 30 percent of the smartphone market, and growing.