Belarus develops electronic navigator to help schoolchildren better master chemistry
The innovation aims to supplement usual textbook learning, but is especially useful in including multimedia content: verbal, graphic, audio and visual. It also uses hypertext, to take students automatically to the correct chapter, paragraph, vocabulary or tests, from one part of the e-book to another quickly and efficiently.
Work began on the project in early summer and, by late 2015, a draft version will launch for 10th grade chemistry, explains the Head of the National Education Institute’s Educational Centre, Candidate of Philological Sciences Irina Shevlyakova-Borzenko. She notes, “As with an ordinary paper textbook, this electronic book needs to pass all stages of expert assessment and be approved by the Education Ministry. Only then will it be introduced into schools. We’ll study how it meets the needs of the curriculum, and the efficiency of its design, as well as its safety. At the same time, we’re looking at the best use of electronic devices in the classroom: interactive whiteboards, personal computer terminals and mobile phone links. E-textbooks can significantly expand the possibilities of an ordinary printed book.”
The new e-textbook is compatible with several e-devices: tablets, interactive whiteboards, notebooks and smartphones. It can be used at home, on a large multimedia screen, and at school, via a pupil’s tablet. It’s practical for individual use at school, during laboratory work, enabling pupils to compare their results with ‘display’ experiments (recorded by a group of teachers). In addition, it contains experiments unsafe for recreation in class and links to references in encyclopaedias or elsewhere.
By Anton Kostyukevich
