AUN students develop apps forteaching Hausa , Fulfulde languages

Abuja – Dr Margee Ensign, Vice-
Chancellor, American University of
Nigeria (AUN), Yola, says Computer
Science students of the institution
have written a computer application
for teaching Hausa and Fulfulde
languages.
Ensign disclosed this while speaking
with newsmen at a two-day
Conference on Technology-Assisted
Learning in Nigerian Higher
Education organised by NUC and
AUN on Tuesday in Abuja.
She said that AUN deployed ICT
massively and would soon connect
Yola with fibre optics to boost access
to ICT.
“We have a programme called
Student Empowerment through
Language, Literacy and Arithmetic
(STELLA) where all our students are
teaching vulnerable people how to
read.
“Our Computer Science students
have written apps for teaching Hausa
and Fulfulde because people want to
learn in their mother tongues.
“We will sign an agreement with the
US Government to extend STELLA to
other parts of North-East Nigeria.
“We are training vulnerable children
on eight weeks free ICT access to
know how to access technology; we
hope to bring fibre optics to Yola so
that the whole community has
access to technology.’’
She said that the school had
established a strong internet
presence; which earned it a visit
from Google two years ago.
According to her, Google visited AUN
because it noticed AUN presence on
the worldwide usage map as the
institution used some Google
technology.
“We are using e-books everywhere;
every student and staff uses
computer – a laptop or ipad.
“So, we have access to world
knowledge; our jobs as faculty
members and teachers are train
people on how to access technology
and how to evaluate it.
“We have 22 programmes focused on
STEM- Science Technology
Engineering and Maths in the
secondary schools.
“The American Library Association
recently ranked universities
according to their digital holdings;
AUN was one of the top three in the
world – above Oxford and
Cambridge.
“We have one of the best digital
holdings.’’
Ensign said that AUN took into
cognisance the challenges in the
North-East and believed that
technology could be used in tackling
the challenges.
According to her, Nigeria’s population
is growing rapidly; and by 2025, it
will be the third largest in the world.
The vice-chancellor said therefore
that there would not be not enough
time to build more schools and train
more teachers; hence the need to
deploy technology.
“We believe technology is an
important part of the answer; we
thought it was right to partner with
NUC to bring all the VCs together to
see how we can map out strategies
on how to tackle the problem.’’
She said she believed that
participants at the conference would
leave with strategies on how to
jumpstart education through ICT.
(NAN)