The app team was led by May Moqed Al Otaibi, and provides teaching for Arabic reading, writing, listening and speaking. Impressively, the app has already been shown to deliver improved learning over traditional teaching methods, with students achieving higher grades in Arabic, as well as improved self-confidence and communication skills. The app is the first of its kind in Arabic, addressing a largely unmet need for help with learning difficulties across the Arabic world. May’s team will now be taking their app to Barcelona, along with a $10,000 cash prize to help with the development of their app.
Arab Mobile App Challenge winners announced
The 2014 Arab Mobile App Challenge has finished, with hundreds of ambitious, talented hopefuls narrowed down to a select pool of winners, who'll now take their apps to the world finals in Barcelona.
This year 11 teams have been sent forward to the World App Challenge in Barcelona in March, including the first ever winners of the Pearson award for the best education app, ‘Learn with teacher May’ – an app specifically designed to help children with learning disabilities to learn in Arabic, which features an animated teacher named May.
There were three other cash prize winners:
- 1st place, $25,000 prize to Snowball – an Egyptian/Kuwaiti team producing an interface to enable even the least technically-savvy inventor to create using technology
- 2nd Place, $15,000 prize to Supermama - an Algerian team that produced a multiplatform app for mothers, providing personalised information, advice and notifications about the health and growth of their baby
- Mada Accessibility Award of $5,000 to Mimix – a mobile app that translates what you say or type into sign language immediately via an animated avatar.
We wish them all the best of luck in the world finals in Barcelona next month.
About the Arab Mobile App Challenge
The Arab Mobile App Challenge is a social, non-profit programme that was developed to address needs specific to Arab Youth; these include education about entrepreneurship, an easy path to starting a business, and enhancing employability skills.
The competition calls for participants to enter teams and develop mobile applications.
They are supported by expert mentors, volunteered from participating companies, and a range of sponsors to fund the prize awards and events. It launched in 2013, and has now completed its second year.
For more information please visit arabmobilechallenge.com.