Turning Cell Phones Into Study Buddies
Nov. 12, 2004 — -- In this week's "Cybershake", we take a look at a high-tech way U.S. teenagers can prepare themselves for the standardized Scholastic Aptitude Test. Plus, we hear how one combat veteran thinks video games honor those who fought in World War II.
Calling for an SAT Study Aid
Teens and cell phones seem to be an inseparable combination in these high-tech times. And now, youngsters could give parents and educators a whole new reason why they should be on the phone.
It's not that they're talking to friends instead of studying. Being on the phone is helping them to study -- for the Scholastic Aptitude Test, the standardized exam most students take before entering college.
Princeton Review, a New York publishing company, has recently introduced a specialized version of its renowned SAT preparatory course work that can be delivered to students via the cell phone.
"Sixty-six percent of American kids walk around with cell phones every day and they have spare moments," says Robin Raskin, director of communications for Princeton Review. "They're at the bus stop they're riding somewhere they're hanging out on a corner and you always see them twitching with their phone and playing with their ring tones and games. Well, why not play with their SAT?"
The Prep for the SAT service downloads practice exams and questions that drill the student subscribers in sentence comprehension, critical reading, arithmetic, algebra, geometry and vocabulary.
Students can drill using a quick "Flashcard" mode which involves only two to six various questions of reading, vocabulary or math. Correct answers are acknowledged by a chime. An incorrect answer causes the phone to vibrate and pops up an explanation of the right answer.
In addition to quick drills, the service also has a test option which offers practice exams modeled after the real SAT. Each downloaded test features two sections -- one math and one reading and writing -- and takes about 10 to 15 minutes to complete.
The results of each drill and test completed by a student can be sent to a personal section of the service's Web site so progress can be tracked by both parents and students.
Raskin says the service isn't a replacement for an in-class SAT prep course. But the power of current cell phone technology makes the service a good supplement to any conventional study method.
The Prep for SAT service is currently available on the Verizon wireless network for $6.95 per month. Raskin says the company hopes to add other cell phone service providers soon.
-- Aaron Katersky, ABC News
A Veteran on War Video Game
Can a video game help kids learn the significance of World War II? One combat veteran thinks so.
"I wish that the generation of youngsters that we raise [today] would studiously sit down with the most academic tome there is about world affairs, about history, about warfare and what soldiers go through in a state of war," says Dale Dye, a retired Marines Corps captain with three Purple Heart medals for his combat actions in Vietnam. "But we've learned that that's not always going to happen."
Enter the "Medal of Honor" video game series from software publisher Electronic Arts. On Thursday -- Veterans Day in the United States -- Electronic Arts introduced its latest installment, "Pacific Assault." The PC game recreates the Pacific theater of action of World War II on your PC.
Dye, EA's military consultant for the Medal of Honor games, says he and EA's producers designed "Pacific Assault" to be as realistic -- and historically accurate -- as possible in a video game. And to do that, they consulted with the Congressional Medal of Honor Society as well as conducted countless interviews with WWII veterans.
In the "director's edition" of the game, Dye says there's an interactive timeline that gives the details behind each mission a player must complete. The special edition also includes some of the "behind the scenes" interviews with surviving World War II vets.
"These folks are in their 80s now and 90s now and dropping off the ends of the Earth at the rate of a thousand a day," says Dye. "Now's the opportunity [for vets] to share, a chance to tell their story ... the chance to say, 'Look, in some small way I'm going to contribute to an understanding of the things that we went through [during the war]."
Some have criticized violent video games -- especially those based on actual battles -- for desensitizing players to the horrors of war by making it an entertaining game. But Dye, who has consulted on war films such as "Saving Private Ryan," "Platoon," and "Band of Brothers," believes otherwise.
"If they play a video game like "Medal of Honor" which is a PC game and they therefore have some [historical] context, I think youngsters can discover that war isn't a joke and that my grandad or my uncle or my dad [who fought in World War II] really did something that was extraordinary," says Dye.
-- Cheri Preston, ABC News
Cybershake is produced for ABCNEWS Radio by Andrea J. Smith.