The Pupils of Jaŝiūnai school received the electronic book readers

There was a ceremony of handing over 10 e-book readers in Mykolas Balinskis Secondary School in Jaŝiūnai on 17 of April.

They were a gift from Mrs. Ewa and Mr. Adam Bąk, who live in USA. The presents came from over the ocean through agency called Foundation Supporting the Polish Education „Samostanowienie” and its president Stanisław Pieszko. The following dignitaries visited the school: Janusz Skolimowski, the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to Lithuania in Vilnius and Stanisław Cygnarowski, Counselor-minister, consul general, the head of Consular Department of Polish Embassy in Vilnius.

— The idea of bringing the e-book readers was discussed for a long time with the Headmaster Karpicz and Stanisław Pieszko — said the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland Janusz Skolimowski. — I think future lies in e-book readers, although myself I prefer the traditional printed books, but e-book readers are cheap on one hand, and are giving access to few thousand of books in the worldwide languages – on the other hand. If the school library runs out of a printed book – there is no problem with its availability in electronic version. What is more, such book in electronic version is easier “to digest” than traditional book, especially for the teenagers, who are so accustomed to such gadgets. You can take e-book reader with you everywhere – you can read it on a beach, in a train and in a bus.. This is very comfortable. Besides – I think, it will simply help the teachers in their work with the pupils. I would like to extend the program to the other schools. I think, that more e-book readers will be given to the schools — the Ambassador Janusz Skolimowski promised.

The e-book readers (in other words e-books) are available not for a long time in Lithuania. Only few years ago the nearest shops selling the e-books were shops in USA, an American company “Amazon” providing the mail-order sale of so-called Kindles, did not sell it in Lithuania. Because the Headmaster of Jaŝiūnai school Kazimierz Karpicz likes the technological innovations and takes care of the school technical teaching aids, therefore together with the former manager of the Education Department of the Ŝalĉininkai District Municipality Mr. Antoni Jankowski and publisher of the magazine „Kurier Wileński” – Mr. Zygmunt Klonowski – started thinking together, how to introduce e-books to possibly the largest number of Vilnius Region schools, as early as in 2008 year.

They could not raise the money that time, unfortunately; and although e-books became cheaper nowadays, the cost of quite a big number of them is still too high. The Headmaster is very happy, that Mr. & Mrs. Bąk agreed to sponsor the e-books; and the Foundation „Samostanowienie” paid for transport, custom duties and helped organizing the custom export/import papers.

— The former minister Gintaras Steponavičius project was to buy the tablets for schools as the technical aids to help the students reading the books.  But there is the other side of the idea — says Kazimierz Karpicz — I am not sure whether the students will be using tablets for reading only, rather than for playing the computer games or surfing through internet. The good point about e-book readers is, that they enable you to read only. You can hear the English text in audio version. You can read texts written in Polish, Russian, Lithuanian fonts in mobi format without any problem.

Apart from the required reading, there are many dictionaries published as e-books – as the Headmaster says, for example Polish – English dictionary, comprehensive specialized dictionaries. A pupil can acquire the full list of recommended reading from 1-st to 12-th grade, required dictionaries and encyclopedia, all in one e-book; and as time goes on the textbooks as well.

— The II-nd part of textbook „Lietuvių literatūros chrestomatija” for grade 12 was published this year, and in e-book version as well. It will be a big help for the teachers and students if everyone of them has such a book in front of him/her. Especially that there was a shortage of traditional textbooks last year; whereas just one e-book could have sorted the problem out —says the Headmaster.„Kindle” is light — it weighs only 230 g, the whole library can be downloaded in it, and you can change the font size as you wish. The e-books in mobi, or e-pub format are compatible with it. You can read graphics and pictures. You can hear the books in audio version. You can connect to internet. “Kindle” is pleasant to the touch. The list of good things about it can go on and on.

Foundation „Samostanowienie” will carry out the next delivery of e-books for the schools — the Foundation President Stanisław Pieszko said.

Source: http://kurierwilenski.lt/2013/04/17/uczniowie-w-jaszunach-otrzymali-czytniki-elektroniczne/

Tłumaczenie Jadwiga Granowska w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Jadwiga Granowska within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.