iain.johnson@gazettenews.co.uk CENTURIES of heads buried in booksmay be at an end after two Brentwood schools signed up to a schemeallowing youngsters to download revision materials directly to theirmobile phone. Just before the Easter break, Shenfield High Schooljoined Sawyers Hall College, which took up the scheme in January, tobecome the second senior school across town to make therevolutionary GCSEPod available to students.
The service, which is currently aimed at Years 9, 10 and 11 onlybut will be rolled out to the lower school in time, allows childrento download, for free, audio files from the internet.
Easy access The podcasts have been created by a firm in Newcastleto provide easy access to study materials, based on exam boardrequirements, to pupils anywhere at anytime. Soundbite Learning UKused about 30 experienced teachers to help it compile the materialwhich is available for English, maths, science, ICT, history,geography and religious studies.
James Loten, acting assistant head teacher at Shenfield, isexcited by the initiative, which will cost the school about Pounds10,500 over three years.
He said: "I think the attraction of it is that it's enabling kidsto revise wherever they are in the world and it enables them tocombine learning styles such as visual and audio.
"The students have been very enthusiastic as they can usetechnology they're used to as a means of revising for their GCSEs.The auditory learners in particular have said how effective theproduct is.
"So far we've downloaded 2,575, podcasts since the launch onApril 4."
"We are exploring it and there is a possibility of anothercompany being used to make our own podcasts for the lower years.This is a powerful thing."
He claims it is not a substitute for classroom learning however,just a more flexible way of revising.
He added: "It taps into a media that they are into, but it's nota teacher replacement. It defines a new way of learning. It's areenforcement." The podcasts break the core subjects down into bite-sized chunks and the narrated audio files supported by relevantimages cover everything from Shakespeare to the Vietnam war.
GCSEPod - the future of studying IT was launched in 2008 and isnow used by three per cent of schools across the country There are300 podcasts available across seven core subjects A service formodern languages is not yet available but is in the pipeline It hasbeen produced in collaboration with more than 30 experiencedteachers A narrator talks through the information on the podcast It is based on study material from the six main GCSE exam boards Itis compatible with computers, laptops, iPods and mobile phones everyday and all year round
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