UP NGO adopts Amazon smart speakers in 100 schools for interactive learning

The National Association of the Blind (NAB), an Uttar Pradesh-based non-governmental organization (NGO), has partnered with US tech major Amazon to adopt the latter’s smart speakers — to enable interactive learning for the visually impaired. A joint statement by the two organizations stated that the move to adopt the smart speakers, powered by Amazon’s artificially intelligent (AI) voice assistant, Alexa, would benefit over 34,000 students — with and without disabilities.

The move follows a pilot program between the two organizations, which introduced Amazon’s Echo smart speakers among state branches of the NAB in Basti, Gorakhpur and Lucknow. The pilot program, according to Amazon, reached 2,000 students across the three districts in UP.

SK Singh, managing trustee of the NAB, UP said in a statement that the adoption has facilitated “a substantial increase in attendance in the classroom, habit of actively asking questions, confidence in young students and a significant improvement in spoken English.”

Amazon’s partnership with NAB, UP comes amid a step-up in the adoption of smart classrooms across India through state department initiatives. In April this year, a report by The New Indian Express stated that the Department of Collegiate and Technical Education, state of Karnataka has adopted smart classroom technologies across 2,500 college classrooms in the state since April last year. By FY23, the number was projected to reach over 6,500 classrooms.

Tech firms have offered smart classroom technologies to state government departments for years. In 2015, Microsoft collaborated with the government of Meghalaya to offer smart classroom technologies to school students.

Companies, such as Amazon itself, have also run hackathons as part of their student skilling initiatives to impart digital skills at both school and college levels.