Educomp launches 'MagiKeys' at Goa IT Conclave Educomp, India's largest Education company has launched a unique software application that will allow millions of Government school students to communicate on the web, email, chat and write documents in their mother tongue. MagiKeys has been developed by Israel based software company FTK Technologies Ltd and will be introduced to government schools in the country in collaboration with Educomp.
This initiative is being supported by Intel's World Ahead Education Program. In India Intel and Educomp are involved in a number of initiatives aimed at bringing the benefits of technology to students and teachers. MagiKeys was launched last evening by Hon'ble Minister for Information Technology, Government of Goa, Dayanand Narvekar in presence of Minister of Education, Government of Assam, Ripin Bora at the inaugural session of Goa IT Conclave held at the Marriot Hotel in Panjim. Speaking on the launch of MagiKeys, Mr. Soumya Kanti, President-ICT, Educomp Solutions Ltd said, "We perceived a great need for this technology over the years while implementing computer-aided learning in Government schools across the country since most children speak and write in their mother tongue. While we provide curriculum content in local languages, it is difficult for these children to write emails, chat online or prepare documents on the computer since they are not proficient in English." He added, "These children will now be able to enjoy computers in their own language. Using Educomp MagiKeys online, they will be able to e-mail, communicate on the web, create blogs, chat, all in their mother's tongue, exposing them to new friends and new experiences. In addition, it will also empower teachers to communicate effectively and make presentations for teaching and learning purposes in regional languages". India is a multilingual country with 18 formal languages. These 18 languages use 10 different scripts and include hundreds of different characters. It is virtually impossible to arrange Indian languages characters over regular keyboards (too many characters). As a consequence, Indian languages keyboards are not widely available. According to a market research conducted by Frost & Sullivan, less than 10% of Indians can read or write English, therefore the vast majority are prevented from using computers. Lack of Indian languages keyboards have therefore prevented majority of Indians from using the Internet, sending emails, chatting, online shopping and basic word processing. Mr Shlomo Ariel, Director, FTK Technologies said," Our vision is to provide hundreds of millions of Indian languages speakers a tailor-made Online Word Processor. We are happy to collaborate with Educomp to bring our revolutionary software application which act as a substitute for Indian languages keyboards to millions of government schoolchildren across India". He added, "MagiKeys' USP is its ease of use. Unlike some other regional language keyboards that require extensive training to be able to use, MagiKeys requires no training and moreover it has an intelligent and intuitive software that predicts the next letter to be typed making it not just easy but also the fastest system for typing in regional languages." Based on a technology developed by FTK Technologies, Educomp MagiKeys provides a user-friendly, Indian language Online Word Processor, with virtual keyboard. The dynamic virtual keyboard provides the first comprehensive Indian languages data entry tool. It includes features like a Web Based Editor, quick e-mail creator, over 3000 different letters and combinations in 11 Indian languages (Hindi, Marathi, Gujarathi, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Punjabi, Urdu, Telugu, Bengali and Konkani), making Educomp MagiKeys a holistic solution for the educational needs of children in India. About Educomp: Educomp Solutions Ltd, India's largest technology driven Education Company and a pioneer in Education Process Outsourcing (EPO) space was incorporated in 1994 with a vision to be a global learning enabler through Management of Learning, Creation of learning content and Delivery of learning. Educomp today works with over 6000 schools and is India's number one K-12 education Technology Company and the only listed pure education company in India. Over the years, Educomp has been at the forefront of various pioneering initiatives in the e-education space. Notable among them are the "teacher-led" content system called Smart_Class that dramatically improved learning effectiveness in classrooms. The development of India's largest K12 content library with over 15,000 topics of rich 3D content that is aligned to Indian as well as various international learning standards., India's first structured pre-school learning system: Roots 2 Wings, Online learning initiatives like Mathguru.com and pioneering Education Process Outsourcing in India through various innovative initiatives. On 25th July 2007, Educomp crossed a market cap of US $ 1 billion thus becoming the first Indian education company to reach this milestone. Educomp today works with over 7000 schools across India, US and Singapore. In the US Educomp's presence is via its fully owned subsidiary Edumatics Corporation based in Ventura, California. In APAC region Educomp has recently acquired Singapore based Ask 'n' Learn Inc., a premier Pan-Asian provider of education solutions and services that caters to over 140 educational institutions in Singapore, China, Thailand, Japan, and Brunei. Headquartered in New Delhi, Educomp employs more than 2400 professionals and has a presence in 39 locations across the country and a fully owned subsidiary in Singapore and the US. http://www.pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=104872&Itemid=34
