Microsoft plan aims to cut costs for parents

Microsoft is joining forces with one of the country's leading publishers in a plan which aims to cut the cost to parents of school books.

The software giant is partnering with CJ Fallon to deliver a range of school text books via cloud computing.

The CJ Fallon eReader platform will be available by the beginning of the 2012 - 2013 school year, and Microsoft claimed that it will a cost saving for parents of up to 25% per student.

The platform, available through Windows Azure, will also make lesson planning for teachers easier, and support the move of the Irish education system to an online forum.

“Through this service, CJ Fallon are cuttings costs for parents, making lesson planning for teachers easier and supporting the move of the Irish education system to an online forum,” said Microsoft Ireland's consumer channels group director Orla Sheridan.

CJ Fallon CEO Brian Gilsenan stated: “We’ve many of our books already available through the cloud and are set to bring all of them online by September 2012.

“As well as the distribution of schoolbooks to students through the cloud, we will be launching a new personalised ‘MyCJFallon’ service in coming months.

“Through this, teachers will be able to access and save all of their favourite CJ Fallon resources which are provided to support all of our major titles, from e-books, animations, audio, video and interactives, to their own profile via the CJ Fallon website.”