By Graham K. Rogers

To sing a song that old was sung,
From ashes ancient Gower is come
Assuming man's infirmities,
To glad your ear and please your eyes.

Pericles

When I first came to Thailand, I worked in the south. I was invited by a friend with whom I had studied in the USA as she knew of my interests in literature. While she was still finishing her doctoral degree I took a chance and headed for The Land of Smiles: a country about which I knew nothing at that time.

I did teach some literature, including English novels, English Poetry and American Poetry, managing to sneak in Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" and Ginsberg's "Howl". It was apparent, not long after I arrived, that my main tasks would involve teaching conversation and the like. I am an expert because I am a native speaker. The reality is not quite like that.

After some years, I moved to a university which has a strong emphasis in Medicine and Science. Luckily, I arrived at about the same time the Faculty of Engineering was set up and while I initially taught those students, I eventually moved to the Faculty where I have remained.

My teaching now focuses on communications skills, such as presentation and writing, with some other media mixed in for interest. I also teach reading skills with some lower-level groups. My skills concerning literature have not been used, although I still maintain a strong interest.

A core area of any course of study in literature must include Shakespeare and as well as studying all of the plays, I had seen many. Where I lived in the UK had good access to both London and Stratford-on-Avon.

I did have a copy of Shakespeare's complete works for many years but this has now been lost: after the serious flooding here a couple of years back. However, I had an early edition of an app called Shakespeare (by Readdle) that contained all of the plays in an accessible form that worked on the iPhone and later on the iPad, where the text is much clearer. A search in the iTunes app store will now reveal almost 1,000 related apps, some of which are individual plays and some complete works.

An app from Cambridge University Press - Exploring Shakespeare - for the iPad, has just appeared in the New & Noteworthy section in the Thai App Store. It does have some of the plays of Shakespeare, although what is provided with the free version of the app is rather limited. The text is annotated so a student or teacher would be able to use this as a modern study guide. There are some restrictions, however.

While it is advertised as a free app and can be used up to an extent as such, there are in-app purchases that are offered. These are not cheap and may limit the attractiveness to some users. As it arrives, installed on the iPad, only four plays are currently available: Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Macbeth and Midsummer Night's Dream.

In its free guise, only the first couple of Scenes are installed initially, for example in Twelfth Night, only the first three scenes of Act 1 are included. However, there are a number of tools available that will assist those studying (or even teaching) Shakespeare for the first time.

Turned on by default were the Standard Glossaries that made it easy enough to check the meanings of words or phrases which some might find obscure. Using the toolbar at the top, other tools that can be used include Academic Glossaries and Academic Notes.

The toolbar also includes activities (solo, pair and group), synopses, photos (thumbnails are enlarged when pressed) and a tool called, "Circles". This option displays the relationships within a scene. When any tools are active, their icons are shown on the right of the screen when related information is available.

If the full text is required a purchase can be made, which will also include other features, such as spoken output by some famous names. The cost of the full version - of each play - is $13.99 (some 448 baht), which would limit the use for some families and certainly some school districts. At this rate, one play for a class of 25 students with iPads would be $349.75 (11,200 baht). A better investment might be a video, an app like Shakespeare (by Readdle), or one of the free books from Apple's iBookstore.

I am ambivalent about this well-produced app. With more than 40 plays in the accepted canon, Exploring Shakespeare - currently at version 1.2.1 - does not have a wide enough coverage. Perhaps the plays available now have been selected for a particular exam or curriculum. At the stated price, not all who wish to study will find the app and its pay-for contents attractive. However, as a teaching tool it may provide more than the traditional Cliffs Notes (which range between $7.99 and $13.99).

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand where he is also Assistant Dean. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.