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From: Mobolaji Aluko
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From: Mobolaji Aluko
My People:
Two days ago, I got myself an "Opon Imo", the innovative product supported by the State of Osun under the visionary governorship of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.
This is how it is described on its website:
QUOTE
The device
The Opón Ìmò, "Tablet of Knowledge", is a standalone e-learning tablet that provides the senior secondary students with the learning materials required to prepare for school leaving examinations. It provides 3 major content categories; Text Books, Tutorials and Practice Questions. 150,000 of these tablets are being distributed to all senior secondary students across state schools in a move that is expected to radically democratize 'access' to learning, regardless of means, location or status.
Opón Ìmò delivers compelling self- paced standalone courses, conducted in a highly interactive computer- based learning environment and synchronized to a library of relevant e-books and a computer- based testing environment. Opón Ìmò is a first of its kind initiative in Nigeria and arguably Africa. Opón Ìmò tackles the learning problem using contemporary ICTs, indigenous content while taking into account socially embedded factors accordingly. The tablet is a portable electronic device, which is controlled through its touchscreen interface, and is available across the open source Android operating system.
Android 4.0 Platform
The Android 4.0 PC Tablet has a Dictionary, Bible, Koran and Health book. It also has development games such as chess, Sudoku and Tetris. It has 512MB of RAM and an internal storage capacity of 32GB.
E-book Library
The E-book Library consists of 17 core subjects and 7 extracurricular subjects for senior secondary 1, 2 & 3 levels.
Virtual Classroom
The Virtual Classroom consists of 17 subjects for senior secondary 1, 2 & 3 which, culminates into a total of 51 video tutorials made available to students.
There are 823 chapters in total with about 900 minutes (or 15 hours) of audio voiceovers and an average of 16 chapters per course.
Integrated Test Zone
The Integrated Test Zone makes available Mock Exam tests for 14 core subjects in WASSCE comprising of 10 years of past questions with an average of 500 questions each and approximately 1800 images.
There are Practice tests for 46 courses with approximately 1220 chapters containing approximately 29,000 questions referencing approximately 825 images.
- See more at: http://www.opon-imo.com/the_device.php#sthash.U0fwbDsE.dpuf
UNQUOTE
To convince the many Thomases and Theresas on the Net that I have it, here is me looking at it at my Otuoke office two days ago with a colleague who got me the Opon. He is the head of FUO's Educational Technology Unit, on sabbatical from the University of Ilorin, whose student is working on the Opon for research. (My colleague is Yagba by the way, so I have discussed the Yagba matter with him. But that is another matter entirely.)
Let me assure you that the device is what it is cracked up to be; it is NOT a toy, but a veritable learning device.
(1) it is fast, and NOT clunky. It scrolls from screen to screen very quickly, and responds to touch commands just like any Android device. In fact, it sports an Android 4.0 Operating System.
(2) It is compact, solid and handy, truly tablet. Its sturdiness/ruggedness means that it will stand the bashings of the young people it is ORIGINALLY meant for (note "originally" others will find it useful too).
(3) Most importantly, it is indeed LOADED, with a knowledge database: humanities, social science, science, religion (Christian Bible, Koran and Ifa), games (my two favorites: chess and sudoku), test examinations (including for JAMB), etc. The E-book library and the Virtual Classroom are really well-done and rich in content.
I cannot say good enough things about the Tablet.
Any shortcomings? Just two that I can find at this time.
(1) A number of the icons are not intuitive enough, even though once you experiment with them, you will get to remember what they are.
(2) The Wifi and the USB ports are currently not enabled - are disabled, actually - and one would hope that a Teachers' Version, and/or a University Version of the future - or a commercial version of the Opon - will have these features.
Kudos to Gov. Rauf Aregbesola of the State of Osun and his team for this product. I hope to introduce it to Bayelsa State at the shortest possible time, and maybe get it called "Pelimo-Efere" or "Nimi-Efere" - a Tablet/Plate of Learning or of Knowledge - in Ijaw (Izon). If you have other names for it in your Ijaw/Izon dialect, please let me know. Ikwerre, Igbo, Urhobo, Edo, Tiv, Tapa, Itsekiri, Fulfude, Hausa, etc. are fine too: I am collecting translations in preparation for indigenization/localizations!
And there you have it.
Bolaji Aluko
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