Education, education, education. It may have been Tony Blair's mantra but it could equally apply to West Cork man Ray O'Donovan.

Ray has established a cutting-edge new educational company providing interactive white boards to schools in Munster. Ray's background in IT and teaching has proved invaluable to him in establishing the business which he says is proving very popular with schools already.

Born in Drimoleague, Ray studied computer science in Waterford and a Masters at UCC before going to work for Apple in Cork. With his strong grounding in IT and interest in education, his next step was to take PGCE course in primary teaching at Kingston University in London.

From there he gained a strong grounding in teaching spending three years working as a teacher in Inner London. And while there he didn't stray to far from that popular West Cork passion of Gaelic football getting involved with a local club and training young kids.

His teaching experience and IT expertise gave Ray the essential skills to set up Interactive IT which he returned to Ireland to set up with his new wife Carolyn who is a director of the company. Ray chose Smartboards for the business because he had wide experience of using their products as a teacher himself in the UK where they are widely used.

An interactive whiteboard is basically a large interactive display that connects to a computer and projector. A projector projects the computer's desktop onto the board's surface, where users control the computer using a pen or finger. The board is typically mounted to a wall or on a floor stand. Ray says, "The advantages are multiple. It's a method of teaching that really enthuses the kids and can be use for a variety of learning styles. If children are more comfortable with audio, visual or kinaesthetic (by touch) methods Smartboards can be used in any of these ways".

Though a new venture, Ray is very optimistic about the future prospects for the company. "Practically every classroom in the UK has an interactive whiteboard but in Ireland penetration is only at about 5-10 per cent".

Ray says that they can be particularly useful for motivating classrooms, brining subjects to life and teaching in a new way. He adds that using the boards can be an excellent way of including more disruptive pupils and making lessons inclusive.