"Textbooks Are Outdated" Is Ireland Falling Behind?

Online, March 1, 2010 (Newswire.com) - "Textbooks are outdated" said Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California last summer. He has sanctioned replacing traditional textbooks in favour of Digital ones, beginning in autumn 2010. "It's nonsensical and expensive to look to traditional hard-bound books when information today is so readily available in electronic form."
Proposed as a cost saving measure, California's initiative has been replicated elsewhere already. The Spanish government has negotiated contracts to digitalize their educational system, promoting one laptop per child (OLPC) throughout the country. Computerizing their classrooms has begun this year with 33,000 students. Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero declared "a great opportunity for Spanish publishing industry, since we are speaking of a market of 400 million students," Agreements have been made that 50% of this digital transition will be funded by the Spanish government.
Taiwan also plans to provide every child with a laptop and Taiwanese publishers already offer exam textbooks digitally at a 40% discount. That's a real saving for parents and schools.
Children aged 8-18 spend more than 7.5 hours each day on electronic devices - the mobile and online revolution has arrived in the lives and the pockets of every child - shouldn't education engage the new generation? According to the INTO, "Ireland has one of the lowest rates of ICT usage in education in the developed world. It is close to the bottom of OECD tables in relation to ICT."
"I think we would all like to get these huge bags off the backs of our children!" said Gareth Cuddy, Managing Director of Directebooks Ltd, a company specialising in eBooks and digital texts. "The technology is there today and the danger is that without sufficient funding and resources, Irish graduates of the future will be at a serious disadvantage in the increasingly IT based workplace. He sees the recent downturn as an excellent opportunity to plan for the future. "We can now source the hardware and software at much - reduced prices to invest in the future of our children."