Patrick Nulty (Dublin West, Labour)
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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he has or intends to commission any reports on the use of ipads uploaded with school text books in secondary schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13417/13]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Encouraging the deployment of high-quality curriculum-relevant digital resources is a clear priority for the ICT in Schools programme. In this context, I am fully aware of developments in the digital textbook publishing industry and I believe that the digital format has the potential to add significant value to teaching and learning for the future. I believe it is important for schools, in conjunction with parents, to retain local autonomy in deciding whether to recommend their pupils purchase e-books and how best to manage their integration into classroom practice over the medium and long terms. In making this decision each school should consider all the available information and in this regard the Professional Development Service for Teachers – which now incorporates the ICT in Schools function is available to advise schools.

Work has commenced on the development of a new ICT Strategy for schools. The first step in this process is the completion of an ICT Infrastructure census in schools. The census questionnaire will be disseminated to post primary schools next week and to primary schools in the coming weeks. The new ICT Strategy will address the new policy challenges and opportunities arising from major developments in curricular reform, digital publishing, digital content dissemination tools generally, cloud services, portable computing and student devices and the deployment of high speed broadband at post-primary level.