i agree, also easy access to time wasting apps on the ipad for kids. kindle is lighter and costs 1/5 of an ipad.

Not mention the Kindle battery stays charged almost forever!

That’s why they need to be told to be extra careful with their stuff

You have to get insurance out for the iPad at a cost of around 60euro

Maybe you could do a bulk buy deal with Apple
They have over $110 Billion in cash.

Think they are doing that, they said it would be cheaper to bulk buy so I don’t know why they are saying 420 for an iPad 2 when in store it’s 399. I thought they might have been buying iPad 3′s but no they are buying iPad 2′s.

In general ebooks tend to be about the same price as normal books. Apparently the costs of setting up and maintaining the infrastructure for selling ebooks is more expensive than you’d think.
Also as far as I know, ordinary books do not incur VAT but ebooks do, making them more expensive.

€120 a year for books ? Not a chance, more like €350 per teenage student last summer. Not sure the e-pad is the answer but I am sure of what I spent!

When my daughter started in secondary school last September, we paid over €350 for her books and supplies alone, and about the same for our eldest son in sixth year.

Kindle doesn’t use epub. It has its own Kindle format. I think it’s so that you have to buy your books from Amazon. Folens wouldn’t be allowed to make and sell books in the Kindle format: they’d have to sell them through Amazon.

I think you`re nitpicking a little. Amazon does provide free software to convert all standard e-publishing formats including .epub to it’s own native format. It’s called KindleGen. Chances are it won’t work for Folen’s incantation though which was my main point. Incidentally, the beauty of the Kindle and other e-readers is that the display mimicks paper in that it does not require light emmision to be viewable. To my my mind it’s important that we don’t replace back strain with eye strain.

For exam years it may as well be your entire locker in your bag.

In my son’s school, first year students have preference over sixth years when it comes to lockers. Which makes no sense to me, since the sixth year students are carrying books that resemble doorstops and weigh a lot. I know several of the boys in my son’s year who have complained about the sheer weight of their bags this year, to no avail.

We had 9 classes a day and of those 9,I’d say 7 would give you homework. So you’d still bring home 7 books + 7 copies + lunchbox,pencil case etc….lockers are ok for in between classes as you can take what you need from break to lunch or whatever. Still carried a very heavy bag to and from school though

In principal your point is a good one, but with 8/9 classes a day, the subjects all require study that night. It just doesnt work that way, and yes LOTS of books stay at home daily and still Ive weighed both daughters bags at 15Kilos. Its nuts. I have also spent 750 on physio for eldest daughter, her back is wrecked, always fine during holiday times. It’s the bag!!

Sadly, no. Textbooks are changed almost every year, and some schools would use different books from other schools.

yes, it’s true school books are changed every few years. sometimes this is justified eg language books should have up-to-date articles and illustrations. but it’s often a cynical excercise aimed purely at eliminating the market in second hand books.once a book has been in circulation for long enough for there to be a significant second-hand stock it’s a bit like a drug going off-patent. the content is changed just enough to make it impractical for the teacher to manage a class where the kids are using two different editions.
the school can’t just continue with the old edition (which may be just fine) because the second-hand market can’t be relied on. A few will always need, and/or want, to buy the new edition.

Your old fashioned lol ..u did ask

They won’t be typing out work everything has to be hand written.

There has been at least one study done that concluded that retention is much higher for information we read in a book than information we read on a screen. On that basis I think ebooks are a bad idea. Also, as the first commentator said, you can’t break a book just by dropping it.

The weight of school books is a product of how the market for them works. Take Junior Cert English for example; it would make sense to have seperate books for the poetry section and the writing/comprehension section. Students would only need to bring home one slim volume. The problem with this modular approach is that teachers could mix and match eg go with the Folens poetry book but the Edco Paper I book. So it makes sense for the publishers to bundle the whole course into one book. That’s why Folens publish the very heavy “Take the Plunge” book. This is also why students sometimes carry the same textbook eg for science for three years.

There needs to be a maximum weight set for individual school books. ebooks are not the answer.

That question was asked at the meeting, and there are more pros than cons with the iPad . Most of the teachers are familiar with the iOS on the iPad and it’s easy to use, other tablets are not as straightforward as the iPad, the iPad is reliable and is virus free. It’s tried tested and trusted. It’s also of a better size.

OK, I can understand that, the school / parents seem to have every angle covered! You have me convinced! The only thing I have for see as being a problem is, will the be let charge them at school? Like will schools/ class rooms have enough plugs to go around? In university, the library never had enough plugs for all of the laptops being used, highly annoying to say the least.

On a lighter note, how will parents wallpaper their kids Ipads?

Charge at home during the night, full battery the next morning, think it will take a few weeks for kids to learn this and get into a routine.

As for wall paper, have to fork out 49 euro for a retro hard cover… Bit dearer than wall paper, and tipex better not go any where near it…

I was just thinking “Sorry teacher, I can’t read/ do my homework, I forgot to charge my Ipad!” The Ipad covers are crazy expensive but are worth it. I am just curious about the whole thing, but it’s a good thing and times move on etc. I thought the change from blackboards to whiteboards was revolutionary!!!