App to turn mobile phones into study tool

Manama

 An interactive portal created by a college student to help his tutors gain the attention of his classmates became a huge hit in his classroom.

Ebrahim Rajab, a student at Bahrain Polytechnic, decided to solve the problem of technology being distraction in his classroom by using an innovative solution. To aid his tutors and to help his classmates pay attention in class, he created an interactive online portal.

Instead of trying to take them away from mobile phones and computers, the technology itself was made the solution, Rajab told DT News. The portal is an interactive tool which allows the tutor to interact with students by asking them questions, the answers given by each students will be viewed by tutor as well the whole class. The online portal can be accessed through both mobile as well as computers by visiting its web address. Rajab created the portal as part of his project.

"Nowadays, technology has occupied a big chunk of our daily life, as its elements being used continuously in our daily activities. However, technology has its downside as well, as people are always attached to their phone screen, ignoring their surroundings, regardless if it was in a bus station, cinema or even in a classroom. This project will provide a solution for students to utilize the technology, by engaging them with the tutors through their phones via an interactive portal. The idea is to provide a better learning experience for the students through displaying questions in phones, prompting them to answer it, then displaying the results on the ActivBoard," he said.

"The aim of this portal is to eliminate the distracting elements in the classroom.  This project will help to develop the traditional education process to a modern way that keep students interested by involving technology. It will focus on controlling the use of phones and tablets during the class by shifting them from being entertainment devices to educational devices," he added.