News Article about the jetBook Color in Russian Schools

We stumbled upon an article today from Progorod11 - a Russia news site in regards to eTextbooks in classrooms with a big picture of the jetBook Color being used by a student and teacher.

When we partnered with Amsco Publishing for eTextbooks in the US we stated it was 'one small step for schools, one giant leap for education' - and this is surely proof which we're excited to be a part of!

See the official site in Russian here

A translated portion of the article is below:

Schools will test electronic textbooks

Students will be engaged with eReaders

In the near future, five classes in five schools in the Komi as an experiment will go from paper to electronic textbooks.Readers and netbooks will benefit students 6-7 classes. In each class entitled to 36 devices, with a reserve, in case of the failure.

Compare the parallels. "Readers" have come to the school through participation in a federal experiment, Komi, "Testing of various types of interactive multimedia e-books (IMEU) in secondary schools a number of subjects of the Russian Federation." - The purchase of units spent about three million rubles, divided into technical and humanitarian Wow high schools, school № 1 Vylgorta, Lyceum of public diplomacy, and Syktyvkar Ezhva gymnasium № 1, - said the expert of the department of information Minobraza Komi Vitaly Olshanov. - What class will use the "reading room", to solve the educational institution. Under the terms of a parallel experiment, the class will be taught by the traditional scheme, at the end of the year to compare the results.

And eyes do not spoil? Readers can accommodate a textbook in all disciplines, so that students will ease portfolios. But here's a useful "reading room" for a view? Developers of electronic devices on their Web sites claim that readers are harmless, technology displays on electronic ink (e-ink) reduces eye strain, but not all that inclined to trust. If results are positive, the question will be placed on a gradual transition to electronic school textbooks. Health Standards reader is recommended to use no longer than 20 minutes on each lesson.

By the way

In the Komi Republican Institute of Education are working on electronic multimedia support for textbooks Komi language and literature. During the year there should be a training CD and website. 

Ectaco and AMSCO Publishing Team Up To Provide Students With eTextbooks

February 14, 2012 - New York, NY

One small step for schools, one giant leap for education.

AMSCO School Publications, Inc. and ECTACO, Inc. partner to finally bridge the gap between students and eTextbooks with the jetBook Color, the only color E Ink educational eBook system developed specifically for schools.

For over 70 years AMSCO has contributed to educating millions of people with their textbooks. ECTACO, known as the preeminent handheld language source, has developed and distributed devices and linguistic software in over 200 languages since 1990. A natural union of both companies occurred when ECTACO developed a dedicated eBook reader - ECTACO jetBook Color – which carries the highly regarded concept of “healthy reading”.

The jetBook Color was conceived by ECTACO to provide schools with benefits that cut costs and increase student productivity. Alongside being the only touchscreen color E Ink eReader in the world, it’s preloaded with many academic tools and resources such as the Oxford talking dictionaries and SAT prep courses; Math, Physics, Chemistry, Geography, and Biology references; graphing, accounting, and scientific calculators; multilingual talking translators; fluent Text To Speech for all books – a useful feature for students with dyslexia and more. Most significantly, it enables schools to add their own content in a multitude of formats at no additional cost. This means that every eTextbook purchased can instantly be loaded to the jetBook Color, along with any notes, homework, and other reading materials as well. The revolutionary color ePaper display delivers a high-contrast, sunlight readable, low-power performance that further closes the digital divide between paper and electronic displays. This is the only eye friendly type of display developed exclusively for the education community.

Many schools eager to procure the jetBook Color have discovered their current textbooks are not made available to them in digital format by their publishers. As a result, they have sought alternative publications that could be implemented into jetBook Color. AMSCO has recognized this dilemma and been considerate in uniting with ECTACO to address the needs of many schools nationwide. All AMSCO titles are now available for schools to review, purchase, and download through their jetBook Color “textbook console”. “Schools continued to ask us about which publishers we were aware of that could provide them with PDFs or ePUB or other formats compatible with their curriculums”, states David Lubinitsky, CEO, Ectaco, Inc. “Amongst all the publishers we reached out to, AMSCO stepped to the forefront of addressing the needs of those schools expeditiously - our orders have increased significantly as a result of this union and we look forward to convince educators to use AMSCO content on a larger scale.”

Contact Tim Houston at timothy.houston@ectacoinc.com or 800-784-8444 for further information.

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AMSCO is dedicated to providing high quality, inexpensive textbooks and support materials to the educational community. Their course texts, review, and test prep books reflect national and state standards for curriculum and assessment.

ECTACO, Inc., is a New York based company specializing in multilingual global communications, with more than 21 years of experience, 18 offices and millions of satisfied customers.



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