How Long Will It Take Schools In Ireland To Embrace E-Books?
Bank of Ireland have already stopped sending out monthly bank statements on paper, instead encouraging customers to use online banking. With so much talk in the media about tablets like the iPad for reading and online connectivity, how long will it takes schools in Ireland to ditch paper? Science-fiction films and television programs have always portrayed the future as somewhere where we will have truly embraced technology.
From Spacely’s Space Sprockets to Planet Express, and from flying cars to robot dogs, the future is always technology-driven. The same is true of schools in these films. The “talk and chalk” approach has been replaced by a more interactive learning experience. The thing is, that’s not just science-fiction, advances in technology in schools, particularly now through the use of e-books are making learning much, much more interesting. Across the Atlantic, Microsoft teamed up with the School District of Philadelphia to form the “School of the Future”. It cost $63 million, and was imagined as the world’s first paperless (and therefore textbook-less) school.
Many of the students they took in were from under-privileged backgrounds, and flourished in an environment where pencils and red pen are a thing of the past. With its first batch of students graduating last year and all going on to college, it has become an example to follow for many schools.
Minimising costs and maxmising resources is easy to say but always difficult to achieve. At Software Asset Management Ireland, we’ve been helping schools, colleges and other academic institutions across Ireland save money for many years. From Philadelphia To Co. Meath it’s not just happening in America either, Irish schools and classrooms are now using technology to improve education standards.
Just last week, St Fintina’s Post Primary School in Longwood, Co Meath received laptops with e-books installed for all of its first year students. Computer giant Intel is one of the backers of this project, using their Fizzbook Spin Laptops to make learning much more enjoyable for these Meath teenagers. Classroom experiences like these are only going to become more widespread in the next few years, as teachers and curricula adapt to advances in technologies.
With Microsoft and Intel leading the way, it seems the perceived coolness of Apple has fallen behind and needs to catch up. But can we expect the Department of Education to bankroll these much-needed technological developments any time soon? There needs to be a strategy in place for investment, money needs to be spent wisely. There are hundreds of schools around the country who bought cheap computers to quickly fill a hole, but now see these impulse investments lying idle in the corners of classrooms.
The money that is invested by the new Irish government on information technology in schools needs to be spent on things that will last, computers and laptops and e-book readers that will not just do for now, but will continue to help educate Ireland’s students in ten years’ time.
Talk to Software Asset Management Ireland today and discover how Edvance can help teachers and students get the most out of Primary School resources.
Phone us now on 01 8973100.