Pictured: Front (l-r) Connor Saliba (16) and Chloe Harris
(19). Back (l-r) Mike Bailey, Darek Kostrzewa and Chris Sexton, who
designed the programme
A Coventry education firm is aiming to help students achieve
success in their battle with GCSEs thanks to a new social media
programme that brings revision to life.
The Arena is an online practice and consolidation application
that combines revision with social networking and is due to be
launched later this month by Mercia Business Village-based
Progressive Educational Tools (PET).
PET has over 15 years experience developing digital learning
programmes after it became one of the first companies to present
subjects in this innovative way in 1995.
Today their applications are used all over the world and this
latest addition has been in development for the last nine months
with a unique combination of its in-house digital team, training
specialists, language experts, teachers and pupils - all geared
towards creating a revolutionary approach to revision
techniques.
Students that use The Arena will interact with each other using
an online profile with a gladiatorial theme and they are encouraged
to challenge each other to revision tests.
The programme will initially focus on French, German and Spanish
GCSEs but will soon incorporate Mandarin Chinese and Arabic before
being adapted to different subjects.
It aims to help students achieve qualifications in subjects
which the government's latest policy changes have deemed
'desirable' with regards to the English Baccalaureate - languages
being one of these.
Chris Sexton, joint managing director of the award-winning
Progressive Educational Tools, led the development of this
application and believes it demonstrates the firm's adaptability
which has been the key to their success.
He said: "It is almost like we have come full circle with this
application as we were focussing on language programmes when we
first started 15 years ago.
"Since then we have had to adapt to many changes such as when
languages were dropped as a compulsory GCSE subject in 2004.
"Now we are back to designing language programmes and I think
The Arena is one that will really capture the imagination of
students.
"As with all of our training, either face to face or online, we
focus on engaging and motivating the learner so they can get real
ownership of the material.
"The sharing of such information can often be very dry and
boring so by focussing purely on the revision side of preparing for
exams, we bypass that problem and bring motivation to all learners,
which is always one of our key focuses."
Chris added: "Bringing a social element to learning and revision
will provide added motivation as will encouraging students to
practice by battling their friends and trying to beat each
other.
"It will initially be made available to schools but we are
already getting requests from parents who want to sign their
children up and once they are signed up they can use their
individual profile for different subjects too.
"It was challenging trying to incorporate social networking into
such a programme but that is what will separate The Arena from
other learning applications and thus make all the difference in
helping students to achieve their full potential."