Alva Academy school children are to trial a new concept in teaching, one which utilises MP3 players and MP3 downloads. The ‘virtual teachers’ is a new pilot scheme being trialled in Clackmannanshire, to help pupils with their homework.

The new scheme has been dubbed ‘vodcasting’. Teachers will be recording short video clips of themselves explaining different aspects of the schoolwork, and posting them on the school’s website. They will also be recording audio clips, which will be uploaded as MP3 files so that pupils can download them and play them on their MP3 players and computers.

The head teacher, Stuart Clyde, believes that the scheme will be popular because it enables pupils to use their favourite technology.

Children learn well when they have the best practice demonstrated to them; these videos do just that.

Alva Academy hopes to further engage parents in their children’s learning as the videos can act as a refresher-course for parents too, enabling them to help their children with homework.

Anyone that doesn’t have the Internet can still benefit by using the computers in the library. If the scheme proves successful, it will be rolled out to the entire school.