BBC STUDENTS

BBC learning for school students is a great tool for students as well as teachers. It presents many subjects for both primary as well as secondary students. Subjects like art, geography, history, music, mathematics etc are listed under primary student category, while these topics are presented with some advancement for the secondary students.

Further many interactive games, videos, quizzes are given. Then there is exclusive section for parents and teachers. You can also find revision guides, chat, TV and radio shows.

There is much more for you to discover. Visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/students/ to check yourself.

Does music in class affect concentration/grades?

As children we are encouraged to listen to music, to sing and dance in the classroom. But as we grow older many people suggest that listening to music whilst studying can be distracting. Others say that it helps them concentrate better, and if you can concentrate better then in effect your grades will improve, too.

A research team from the Stanford University School of Medicine has showed that music engages the areas of the brain involved with paying attention, making predictions and updating the event in memory. Peak brain activity occurred during a short period of silence between musical movements.
The research also showed that musical techniques used by composers 200 years ago help the brain organise incoming information.

Another research team, the Australian Music Association, looked into the positive effects on academic, mental functioning and social skills resulting from a music education. The results showed how learning music can help your child in so many more ways, the areas were identified to be:

• Improved reasoning capacity and problem solving skills
• Improve maths and language performance
• Better memory
• Greater social and team skills

Another study conducted by a Big Ten school has shown music to elevate and intensify the emotions of college students. Professor Arthur Harvey, an internationally known neuromusicologist from University of Hawaii added in his study, "Of all the music we tested in medical school with patients, colleagues and others, Bach's music consistently made the brain work in a balanced way better than any other genre".

Many studies have been done to find out the effects music has on the brain whether positive or negative. The type of music the research mainly refers to is classical as opposed to up beat music such as techno. Perhaps listening to music could help the concentration if taking into account many factors seperately and jointly, these could include:

• The time of the day your listening to music
• The type of music
• And the subject you are studying

Despite research some feel music helps them and arguably others find it to be a distraction. However it seems to be up to the individual schools, teachers, parents and students to choose to involve music in their learning environments as it is down to indivudual preferences to study with or without music. Only the individual can really feel the effect that music has on their level of concentration, stress and other emotional feelings whilst studying.

Reference: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/

E-book Readers to Replace Textbooks?

With children immersing in the quickly advancing digital age, in a couple of years they're likely to forget what a new text-book even smells like. Apparently, Australia may be the pioneer country where school-goers will experience this drift.
According to a news report, e-books will replace school books in Australia as soon as in three years time, as quoted by Richard Siegersma, executive director, DA Direct, Australia's largest distributor of portable reading devices and e-books.

What's likely to happen?

The Good

Moving beyond notebooks and netbooks, we're talking e-books, or electronic books, here. A single e-book reader will be able to house many textbooks, reference books, notes, etc. Access to a huge resource of content being available at one point - online and offline - students will be able to garner more knowledge about a subject than they could using just a textbook.

"There will be just-in-time and customized delivery to flexible, full-color screens; textbooks with audio and video components; touch screens for handwriting and margin note-taking and text highlighting," says Siegersma.

There will be no burden on the back to carry a bag full of books, and yet a student will never have to worry about forgetting a textbook at home.

Libraries will lend students e-textbooks to students, or they will be able to purchase them from online stores. Perhaps, the digital content will be cheaper too?

Goodbye, school bag!

The Bad

Is the seemingly good actually bad?

How do you feel when you lose important data on your computer? With all possible notes jotted digitally, imagine the stress of losing this data - unless, of course, one saved it online.

Along with data loss, add problems like bad handwriting and bad spellings. The addiction of auto-text input and spell-checks, it is a common phenomenon even nowadays. With vast amount of content available on e-books to read, students will be glued to the e-book reader for hours - add bad eyesight to the list!

Further, there will be no excuse to share a book with the cute girl who sits across in the next row as students will be able to share text instantly online.

Lastly...

Of course, there cannot be total elimination of tangible books in the next couple of years - unless some angry person magically burns down every single book on earth. But yes, a digital domination of the text is inevitable. Further, years down the line, we won't have enough trees to make paper - expect to pay a bomb for buying a hard cover book collectibles!

Reference: http://www.techtree.com/

CBSE Seeks Feedback on External Public Examination

Take this survey by CBSE on your perceptions about an External public Examination. This survey is for Students, parents, principals and teachers. Some of the question asked for students are:

• Feel pressure to cover the syllabus early
• Feel that marks are the only way to assess my worth
• Feel that teachers are seriously involved in teaching
• Study seriously due to pressure of examination
• Feel that studying from textbooks helps in getting good marks
• Feel that getting marks is more important than learning
• Feel unhappy and depressed most of the times
• Suffer from a lack of appetite or indulge in overeating
• Not get time for reading books, magazines, news papers etc

You must take this survey. Go to the survey: http://cbserod.net.in/eq/ques1.asp