First there was music – ipods and the like holding hundreds of songs that you could slip into your pocket and listen to anywhere, anytime. Then there were videos – I’ve started to get used to seeing people sitting on the subway watching TV on their pocket-sized video ipods. Finally, the next breakthrough in personal entertainment technology has arrived: history lessons.

Ok, not what you were expecting. But Yaron Abramowitz of Ankori high school in Tel Aviv thought otherwise. With his students’ pre-college exams coming up, he was looking for a good way to help the average students get ahead and perhaps make things easier for those who have a hard time sitting down for hours going through textbooks and notebooks. So he branched out into the medium his students seemed to work with best: mp3s. Abramowitz, noting that the vast majority of his students walked around with mp3 players, took on the task of recording lessons, summaries, and entire book chapters as mp3s so that his students could study anywhere, anytime.

As for the students? Well, granted it’s not the entertainment they’re usually looking for. But it turns out that they love the idea. Far from monopolizing their lives, the students say that it’s a lot more fun studying from mp3s than having to stay home with their books. Plus, they can use free time that they have anyway – sitting on a bus, walking on the street, even shopping – to prepare for their tests.

The school is considering whether to use this as a pilot to expand into other subjects, but for the meantime, my guess is the real test will be their scores.

Thanks for bringing this story to our attention goes to Israel’s daily Yediot Aharonot.

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