POST PRIMARY LEVEL e-books will be used in place of paper copies by thousands of students this year, following a successful two-year pilot of the programme with selected schools by the Educational Company of Ireland (Edco).

The company announced that it has completed the first full curriculum of post-primary e-books in the Irish market, with every core subject now available in an e-book format for the 2012 / 2013 academic year.

Edco say its e-books have been adopted by over 4,000 students across Ireland, who are using over 100 e-titles featuring 8,000 interactive resources. These e-books, developed over a five year period, are interoperable across all major devices, from iPads to laptops.

“Our e-book initiative is the culmination of extensive work over the past five years with teachers, pupils, developers and designers. We are proud to be the first publisher in Ireland to offer a full curriculum of e-books for next year’s students,” said Martina Harford, Chief Executive of Edco.

“Uniquely, we have developed a system which can be used by the children on a range of hardware, so they can work off a laptop in school and jump onto their parents’ iPad in the evening and carry on with their interactive learning. The feedback which we are receiving from our e-book schools across Ireland is extremely positive,” she added.

Edco has been rolling out its post-primary e-books to schools around the country over the past 18 months, following a two-year pilot of the programme with selected schools. The e-books aim to bring significant cost savings to schools and parents, as well as providing a more interactive learning system in the classroom, according to the company.

The interactive system features resources including videos, e-tests, animations and podcasts, and allows students can take notes, highlight and search text and create bookmarks.

Speaking about the initiative, Adrian Dungan, Deputy Principal with St Gerard’s School in Bray said that the e-book system has enhanced both learning and teaching in our school.

“Pupils and teachers have taken very quickly to the new technology,” he said.

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