[kictanet] Elementary schools to pilot using digital textbooks

[S.M. Muraya]

http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=302259

Elementary schools to pilot using digital textbooks
By DANIELLE ZIRI

06/02/2013Fifth and sixth grade students will use digital textbooks in
English, math and an elective of the school's choice. Some 100 elementary
schools across Israel will be using digital schoolbooks this year as part
of a new pilot project, the Education Ministry announced this week.

The project, led by Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar, is part of a national
program aimed at “adapting the education system to the 21st century,” which
has been in place for two years.

The schools were selected for the project according to their available
technological and pedagogical infrastructure and were provided with
Internet, a laptop for each teacher and projectors.

Pupils in the fifth and sixth grades in the participating establishments
will use digital textbooks in three subjects: English, math and an elective
of the school’s choice. The textbooks are presented in a PDF format which
the teachers can update and insert material into.

In class, some schools will have students use the book on their personal
computers, while others will make use of the classroom projector.

Educators also committed to 30 hours of digital textbook training and
another 30 hours at a course dealing with the use of the technology in the
specific subjects they teach.

“It really brings a fun atmosphere into the classroom,” Ilana Vagman,
principal of Alon elementary school in Haifa, told The Jerusalem Post on
Tuesday.

Vagman’s school, which is participating in the pilot this year, had already
been using the method prior to it.

“[The students] are excited to work with the computers, it opens a whole
interactive world, which for them, this is their world. They were born into
this,” she added, “this method appeals to them much more because of that.”

Vagman, who also teaches math, explained that besides allowing kids not to
have to carry heavy books, or forget them at home, the project also
facilitates their learning.

“The lesson becomes more attractive to them, they are more focused,” she
explained. “Not only are they learning the digital skills, they are also
learning the content at the same time. They think they are playing but they
are actually learning.

“I very much believe in this project,” she added.

Sa’ar stated that the transition to learning through digital books is “a
necessity, and the education system must adapt itself to the changing
reality and advance learning.”

He explained that the pilot’s success will then be empirically measured
with the aim of expanding it to all schools in the country.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/pipermail/kictanet/attachments/20130611/17e3d5b3/attachment.htm>