The Easi Listener is not just any old CD Player and radio. It’s got a few little surprises. The little surprises come in the form of 6 ports for ear phones. That way up to 6 children can listen to the same piece of audio at the same time. To be honest, I’m struggling to think why one would need this in a classroom but it wouldn’t have been invented otherwise if there was no need. So, I did a bit of research and found out why 6 children would ever need to listen to a piece of audio without the rest of the class hearing it.
The following reasons were listed on the web site:
- Develop speaking and listening skills
- Understanding instructions
- Ideal for use with Primary Foreign Languages
- Group or individual learning
- Extended schools
- Develop language skills
Thinking about this, I could see how when differentiating a task, some children may need it re-enforced, while the other groups are working quietly. I could also see how a small group of children learning something completely different would like to hear it without the rest of the class being subjected. I didn’t understand why they singled out foreign language learners or developing language skills.
Further thinking had to be done. So far, its only selling point was that you can get a group of up to six children listening to something without disturbing the rest of the class.
I started with the price. It costs around €60, which is not bad for a nice looking, child friendly CD player. For an extra €30-40 you could get 6 headphones. Even so, a CD player these days doesn’t cost much.
It has an mp3 input jack to allow one to plug in their mp3 files. That’s kind of cool, but fairly standard nowadays.
Finally, the speakers are supposed to be more powerful and ideal for the classroom. On testing, I found them to be good quality but not significantly better than any others I’ve used before.
I like the product’s design and it seems pretty sturdy. If a teacher doesn’t have a CD player, it’s a strong option. However, I wouldn’t be throwing out my old CD player and investing in an Easi-Listener.
