Dun Laoghaire student tops iTunes’ iBook charts – Hayes

Fine Gael MEP for Dublin, Brian Hayes, has congratulated 17 year-old student Stephen Alger for topping the iTunes book charts with his interactive revision book “iRevise Geography”. Stephen, a 5th year student in Blackrock College living in Dun Laoghaire, established his own company in 2014 from his home to promote his iRevise range of books.

“Stephen is really hitting the big time. He recently won the 1st Prize in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown’s Student Enterprise awards and has now gone on to top the iBook charts on iTunes.

“Stephen has written, designed and published a revision book for the Junior Cert geography curriculum. The key innovation is that he has made it into an iBook for digital devices. Anyone with school-age children knows the hours that are spent on digital devices. This revision book is reaching out to where student are learning today.

“The iBook is more than just words on a page, it is totally interactive. iRevise Geography makes use of the medium by including interactive materials like chapter tests, hi-res photos, HD video, annotation features and flashcards. Stephen is doing all this through his own company – Interactive Arts – that he started in 2014. The company is based in Granville Park and Stephen is the CEO.

“I was delighted to meet Stephen and to see first-hand iRevise Geography. As someone with a passion for education I think this is a real winner and I know we will be hearing a lot more from Stephen and iRevise. After winning the Dragon’s Den award in his school and then the award from the Dun Laoghaire Local Enterprise Office I was not surprised to hear that his idea was a success and had sold so many copies.

“We all know the cost and weight of secondary school books. Parents are shouldering the cost while students are shouldering the weight of books on their walk to school. Stephen’s idea is a real game-changer. Low cost, cutting edge and with the added value of video, along with automatic updates – there may never be another hand-me-down book in school again.”