The mobile way to learn for Brighton and Hove pupils (From The Argus)

The mobile way to learn for Brighton and Hove pupils

12:40pm Thursday 4th October 2012 in News

Using a mobile phone in class would usually get a pupil into serious hot water.

But thanks to an innovative new idea by a Brighton-based company, the mobile phone could soon become a key way for students to revise.

Maths Doctor has developed a series of worksheets and videos pupils can access using their mobiles.

The company, led by former Steyning Grammar School teacher Simon Walsh, has been working over the summer with some of the best teachers in the county to develop the project.

By way of thanks to local teachers for their help, the firm is making the product, which costs £49 a month, free to use for Sussex schools to help them prepare for November’s modular maths GCSE exams.

In return the firm hopes the students’ feedback will help fine tune the scheme.

The product has been developed at the company’s offices in the Innovation Centre at the University of Sussex.

The product has been launched with all nine secondary schools in Brighton and Hove, with worksheets and video tutorials accessed on pupil’s mobiles using a QR code.

The firm is looking to develop live chat support for pupils and feedback reports on pupils for teachers.

Mr Walsh said: “When a student goes into a classroom, they have all the teacher’s experience and knowledge available to them.

“But when they go home that expertise is lost so we aim to encapsulate all that teaching experience into their mobile.

“We are hoping we will see a spike in exam results for the students, especially those pupils teachers consider hard to reach, for example on the border of C and D.”

At a product launch at Varndean School, pupils got to try their hand at the new project.

Maths Doctor has been working with the school’s advanced skills maths teacher Zeb Friedman, who is also the maths subject facilitator for all the city’s secondary schools, on the project for the last 18 months.

She said: ‘The combination of traditional texts plus multimedia resources helps students to learn and focus.

“I’m convinced this will help them improve their results.”

For more details visit www.mathsdoctor.tv/QRworksheets.