Mr. Con McMahon:

May I respond to the question on video gaming? In essence it brings competition into learning. Students excel when they have to compete against themselves and against others. It is a very valuable way to encourage learning. Schoolbag is involved in an ICT policy unit with the Department of Education and Skills which is seeking to develop technical specifications for a national e-portfolio system. Within those specifications it looks for collaborative learning which is a feature we have in Schoolbag, a discussion area that in essence is competition where a teacher might post a question or put students into a project group and they will see each others' learning. This has a huge influence on students. When they see that somebody else is able to read their post they can delete it and rewrite it. It puts a whole new emphasis to what they are writing. It will not just be corrected by the students, it is peer-to-peer learning. It brings in competition which has been one of the most successful features in Schoolbag which is a feature that the ICT policy unit in the Department of Education and Skills is promoting along with many others.