Oxford Personal Revision Guides: A-level Physics 1999/2000 Syllabus GCSE Physics 1999/2000 Syllabus
Kerry Parker · Physics Education · 2000
Is it any better than a textbook and a pad of A4 paper? That's the question we have to ask if we consider investing in a `Revision' CD-ROM. Of course, nothing, in our lifetimes, will quite replace the students' own notes, some paper and a pencil. But, so far as private study is concerned, the computer offers a number of potential advantages: sound, animation, hyperlinks, interactivity, a calculator and a clock. For those with a modem, we can add Internet connections too. A few years ago the only revision materials available for computers were simply electronic versions of textbooks: a few animations and voice commentaries, with maybe a few multiple choice tests was the best you could expect. I was universally disappointed with all such CD-ROMs; they were a waste of money. At last things are changing and these Oxford Personal Revision Guides are definitely software of the new generation: there is commentary, there are animated diagrams (ripple tanks, Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams, falling stones...), there are plenty of hyperlinks to other sections of the CD, and to exam board websites on the Internet, so that students can check their own syllabus.... This CD is not a rip-off! The software uses Microscoft Internet Explorer to produce a screen that looks as if you are connected to the Internet. Few students will have any problems in navigating the system. It is a massive piece of programming requiring a fairly modern PC (Pentium 166, 32 MB RAM, quad-speed CD-ROM drive and a good monitor and sound card really are the minimum; I loaded the programme on an older machine and it struggled!). Installation took a good while because the software insists on installing/updating Internet Explorer to 5.0 and checking for, and loading if necessary, Real Player 7, Microsoft Java Virtual Machine and Macromedia Shockwave 7.0.2 Player. Once all this was loaded it worked extremely well, and at first I kept imagining that I was in fact connected to a fantastic educational site on the web! Both CDs begin with an introductory section which guides the student into the Revision Plan Wizard. The authors have suggested how much time each section requires, so depending upon what topics the students needs to work at, and the date of their exam, they can design a revision timetable. The student is simply told how long they have to revise each day, and then in the main physics section they are told what they have to study each week. Both packages also feature an equation handler: `a piece of software that allows different manipulations on a predefined equation and is aimed at bettering one's arithmetical skills.' (I think the language gives away the fact that this software is not designed for lower ability GCSE candidates!) The GCSE physics content is divided into seven `chapters' - Making things happen, Heat, Forces at work, Waves, Electrical and magnetic phenomena, Properties of materials and The cosmic onion. There is also a comprehensive introduction, an equation handler, some exam board questions, tests and reports. The physics is well written and is taught in colourful images, many of which are animated and have a brief commentary. There are plenty of brief six-minute tests, interspersed with the revision materials, to keep the students on their toes, but I was disappointed with the interactivity in the physics content pages. To progress, the student only has to keep clicking `I've read this page'. The A-level material is subdivided into Foundations, Key topics, Further topics and Physical data. Foundations involves motion, work, electricity, magnetism and waves, while Key topics looks at dimensions, vectors, moments, circular motion and other material from the core syllabus. Further topics cover most of the material required by the options from different boards, like many revision books. The text is clearly written and the graphics are colourful, but most of the content is still a slightly animated electronic textbook. I was disappointed, for example, that although I was asked for my exam board when I constructed my revision timetable, this didn't appear to make any difference to the content I was given to work through. I was recommended to get the current syllabus from the board's website, but given that this CD is aimed specifically at the 1999-2000 syllabus we might have hoped.... There are some advantages to having an electronic version of a book, of course. These CDs will allow a student to copy text and paste it into their own revision notes, and also the beautiful pictures can be printed. With imaginative support there is a lot more you could do with a resource like this. Inevitably, there are still lots of bugs, mistakes and problems. For example, the diagnostic pre-test to indicate my weak areas was `currently not available' for the A-level revision programme, while as a GCSE student I faced a very daunting diagnostic test. (It wasn't just that the questions were difficult - the test is two hours long, with a stop clock counting down the minutes!) Having played with the programs for a while, I still can't see how to get the answers to the questions. (Each test question has a `show me the answer' button, but I couldn't get it to work!) At the end of each test you get a summary score, but I couldn't get it to tell me which questions I had got wrong! There seems to have been a bit of a mix-up with the commentaries for the animations. Many of the commentaries simply tell you to `click to start the animation'. This was very frustrating in some of the sequences - for example, the evolution of the Sun is shown very nicely animated on a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, but the text that explains this evolution remains unspoken - and unread, of course, if you are a student watching the sequence. And there are the usual errors in text and graphics which inevitably get into textbooks. Multimedia is not exempt, for example, from diffraction at a wide slit producing no central maximum, there was no arrow for my iron core to label the correct place in the electric bell.... The usual slips, just like paper-based publishing. So - is it worth it? For a bright student who likes surfing the Internet - definitely. It may not have flashing lights, but if you are disciplined enough to work through it, it is more supportive than a book. My guess is that most students would dip into it, find that the physics is the same as their book, and go back to the book. For teachers, some of the materials might provide excellent material for an electronic white board. In short: useful, if you like that sort of thing, good value for money, but nothing to revolutionize your teaching.