Dubai: Five new educational apps created specifically for Al Noor Training Centre for Children with Special Needs were unveiled on Monday.
The apps will support the educational curriculum at Al Noor by enhancing the skills of children with special needs in five educational categories: Academics, Safety, Sharing, Grooming and Semantics.
The applications were developed as part of a competition by Samsung Electronics Co Ltd’s programme ‘Samsung Hope for Children’. Participants were required to develop an app based on the specification and input provided by Al Noor teachers’ specifications and input.
Marco Vocale, Head of corporate marketing at Samsung Gulf Electronics, said that 120 participants took part in the competition but only three developers who developed a total of five apps won.
Winners
Mohammad Al Lababidi, owner of Dubai-based animation and development company Allababidi Tech, won with his academic app which teaches children how to identify shapes, colours and characters as well as a safety app which teaches children about safety practices. Al Lababidi spoke about certain adjustments needed to appeal to children with special needs. “Just meeting the kids was very educational because we discovered certain colours they don’t like, sounds that are too loud and that they get bored really easily so there should always be movement in the app.”
Syed Iftikhar Shah, CEO of ilmasoft, won for his Sharing is Fun app which teaches children to share. “We have been developing apps for children and with special needs and there is a lot of demand in this market. We have applications being downloaded in different parts of the world.” Shawn Frank, cofounder of MindHyve and recent computer science graduate, won for his ‘Matchalon’ and ‘Groomar’ apps which teach children about grooming practices as well as how to match and put things together.
“It’s really exciting for the team at Al Noor to introduce and implement these apps into the classrooms as we have played such an active role in the development process. These apps will make learning more fun and interactive and we are confident that they will also help some students achieve their educational goals faster,” Isphana Al Khatib, Director of Al Noor, said.
Though the apps were tailored specifically for Al Noor, Isphana added that the app can be useful to a lot of other children from all over the world.
The five chosen apps will enable the children to identify objects, compare phrases and imagery, and start to apply classroom studies to their everyday life such as basic grooming techniques, sharing and safety skills.
Young Soo Kim, president of Samsung Gulf Electronics, commented on the unveiling of the apps: “We are thrilled to launch these educational apps in partnership with Al Noor Training Centre for Children with Special Needs. The application competition has also been a great way to give the UAE developers’ community an opportunity to get actively involved and make a difference for future generations.”
