Expert: Russians become more loyal to use of gadgets in schools

MOSCOW, Aug 27 (PRIME) -- The number of the Russians opposing the use of gadgets in teaching decreased to 28.5% in 2014 from 40% in 2013, analysts of Internet company Mail.Ru Group said Wednesday in a report.

“A more positive attitude to gadgets in teaching is explained by the abundance of products for pupils and students,” Anton Spiridonov, editor-in-chief of Hi-Tech Mail.Ru, said.

Spiridonov said the most useful devices are tablets and multimedia boards this year, while smartphones serve more entertainment purposes.

The number of respondents choosing paper textbooks decreased to 44.7% in 2014 from 54.0% a year earlier. Dictionaries and translators were chosen by 30.4% of respondents as the most popular software. Office programs and applications for notes were popular among 15.7% of respondents this year.

“This back-to-school season has witnessed several changes in the demand structure, which are different from the market trends. Average daily sales of mobile phones and laptops in August are higher than in July. The growth in purchases of mobile devices is 15% and 131% for laptops,” Viktor Lukanin, an executive vice president of multichannel retailer Euroset, said.

He attributed the tendency to parents’ desire to provide children with comfortable portable laptops for school and mobile phones without operating systems.

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