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TechLife | 25 May 2012 :  The Educational Company of Ireland (Edco) has announced that it has completed the first full curriculum of post-primary e-books for the Irish market. Edco e-books have been adopted by over 4,000 students across Ireland, using over 100 titles featuring 8,000 interactive resources. The e-books were developed over a five-year period and, uniquely within Ireland, are compatible with all major devices, from iPads to PCs.

Following a successful two-year pilot of the programme with selected schools, Edco has been rolling out its post-primary e-books to schools around the country over the past 18 months. The e-books were produced by Irish authors, designers and developers, and bring cost savings to schools and parents over regular textbooks, as well as providing a more interactive learning system in the classroom. The system features resources such as videos, e-tests, animations and podcasts. Students can take notes, highlight and search text and create bookmarks enabling them to personalise their educational resources as they progress through the exam cycle.

Martina Harford, chief executive, Edco said: "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. 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."

Adrian Dungan, deputy principal, St Gerard's School in Bray, said: "The e-book system has enhanced both learning and teaching in our school. We are especially impressed by the interactivity of the Edco e-books. Pupils and teachers have taken very quickly to the new technology".

TechCentral Reporters