Alexa, please recite a poem for govt schoolchildren

NT Correspondent
Bengaluru

Children’s LoveCastles Trust (CLT) India, in collaboration with Amazon, has provided 10 government schools with Alexa, the voice-controlled virtual assistant, to promote interactive learning. CLT is a non-governmental organisation that aims to make education more accessible to underprivileged communities. The organisation, which turns 25 this year, is now harping on learning transformation through digital intervention.

Turning 25 years this year, the CLT aims to help the underserved communities to bring about learning transformation through digital intervention. They depend on a vast repository of about 15,000 educational videos which will reach the government school children through partnership-funded TVs. They also have an ongoing project in Karnataka called the Eshala, wherein 2,000 government schools are provided with a 50-inch TV with their preloaded content.

“The children can ask Alexa questions on general knowledge or current affairs. They can also ask her to recite a poem for them,” said Sachin Nadig from CLT. Alexa is capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, and providing weather, traffic, sports, and other realtime information, such as news.

“The objective of the programme is to increase engagement during class hours and to make the learning process not only interactive but fun,” he added. The project has now been implemented and the impact of which is being awaited.

An IT team from Amazon taught teachers from the 10 schools the functioning of Alexa – how to register the device, how to ask questions and other basic aspects. CLT had earlier collaborated with K J George, Sarvagnanagar MLA, to provide educational resources to 28 government schools in Banaswadi