L-R:Mr. Adebowale Akinfaderin, Dr. Lukeman Bello, Prof Kolawale Lawal, Grace Egenti, Prof Ibrahim Salawu, Dr. Vivian Nwaocha, Dr. Samuel Awolumate and Priscilla Ajibola Momodu
A 10-man delegation has represented the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) at the 4th edition of EdTech Summit and Award, 2022, which had the theme: “5th Industrial Revolution, The Future of Education.”
The university’s participation was sequel to its teaching and research responsibilities to develop critical mass of human resources that will help in solving educational problems.
The 2-day annual event was held from 18th through 19th October, 2022 and was hosted by the Baze University, Abuja.
The delegation was comprised of Prof. Ibrahim Salawu (Head, Course Material Development Unit and team lead), Prof. Kolawale Lawal (Dean, Faculty of Sciences), Prof. Grace Jokthan (Director ACETEL), represented by Dr. Vivian Nwaocha (Deputy Director, ACETEL), Dr. Samuel Awolumate (Director, DE&GS – Exhibition Coordinator).
Others were Dr. Lukeman Bello of DLCMS, Mrs. Grace Egenti from the Web Unit, DICT/Exhibitor, Mr. Akinfaderin Adebowale Oba, ACETEL Exhibitor and Mrs. Priscilla Ajibola Momodu, Exhibitor- North Central Incubation Centre).
This year’s edition was aimed at bringing together top minds in the industry to grapple with the crucial and timely questions in education and equity facing mankind as a result of various pandemics and insecurity.
It also threw light on disruptive technologies, tools, practices, and pedagogies with high impact potential to reshape academic and non-academic processes, and also offered the opportunity to see demos; learn more about existing and new EdTech products.
The summit also afforded the chance for a one-on-one meeting with technology product and service providers, who are making innovative technology advancements, transforming the education sector and leading the way in developing innovative and effective digital education.
NOUN, being technology-driven, had its team presented three products, which include, Tongues and Theatre Enterprise (TATE), My Pal Language, An ODL platform for the assessment of the visually-impaired.
TATE is an innovation by Ajibola Priscilla Momodu, a 400-level French Education student of the Abuja Model Study Centre.
She observed that the Nigeria indigenous languages are not spoken in a lot of homes including hers. Consequently, Momodu decided to run a survey and discovered that Nigerian languages and culture are gradually losing the values and going into extinction.
The survey showed that Nigerians are learning foreign languages, even as she also noticed that part of the disunity in Nigeria comes from the misunderstanding of languages and culture leading to suspicion and distrust.
TATE is involved in the promotion of culture via the teaching and learning of Nigerian languages, starting from the three major languages: Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba.
They are also involved for the teaching and learning of music, dance and drama (theatre) directed towards the passing on of cultural values as her website allows people to learn and teach these languages.
My Language PAL is a is a project designed by an MIS Students of ACETEL – Mr. Akinfaderin Adebowale Oba . My Language PAL is language learning application that is designed to help every Nigeria child learn the core languages Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba in a gamification way. It is uniquely designed in line with the curriculum to ensure learning is also fun for all age groups and it has the capacity to allow institutions to integrate the application into the day-to-day learning, Oba said.
While ODL examination Platform for the visually impaired is an innovative idea put together by Grace Egenti and Abayomi Bayonle, ( ACETEL students).
Presenting on behalf of both students, Egenti said, the blind students around us and some of them are eager to further their education, but these visual impairment poses a challenge, both for them and for education providers. This application will take care of the assessment of the blind and the visually impaired.
The platform reads out the instructions and the questions, and the student in turn respond to the question by providing their answers, which are then captures by the application, allows the students to make necessary correction before final submission is made to the server. More so, the Artificial intelligence component is also activated to capture and monitor the student throughout the duration of the assessment.
She further recommends that institutions, organisations, and other examination bodies adopts this ODL examination Platform for the blind and the visually impaired. This application would enable the visually impaired to write their examination in confidence and without hitches, thereby making education accessible to all and ensuring equality and inclusion in acquiring lifelong learning.
Highlights of the event includes; Conference; speakers and thought leaders focusing on the development of the education sector, Awards; to recognize, celebrate and reward the most outstanding contributors to the education sector, Exhibition; perfect summit for organizations to promote their brand/organization.
