When it comes to the use of technology for educational purposes, the Arabic world is lagging behind. Whilst there are a plethora of different fun, English-language computer-based resources available to facilitate learning, the same cannot be said of those that are aimed at Arabic speaking communities. A new Arabic website has recently launched that promises to provide 50 educational cartoons to make education more enjoyable and rewarding.

The website, entitled Al-Adkya, has already had almost 6,000 registrants, and was only launched two months ago. It offers learning materials in 4 areas: Quantitative reasoning, Verbal Reasoning, English and Non-systematic Education, and is divided into 4 educational sectors: online questions and exercises, educational files, online lessons and multimedia. The 50 videos will fall within the latter of these sectors, and aim to present unconventional ways of learning. They are currently being financed via the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo.

Al-Adkya claims to represent a shift from traditional learning methods to innovative, interactive techniques that are likely to capture learners’ attention. It’s high time such a shift occurred within the Arab world. In order for Arab countries to advance, it’s important for Arabic education to be entertaining, as the only way that people are ever going to develop a genuine passion for learning is if they enjoy it. The question is, ‘Can al-Adkya provide a viable solution to this issue?’

Previous attempts to make Arabic education more fun using innovative online teaching methods have been made, and were not as effective as they could have been. It’s difficult to ascertain precisely why this was the case. It’s possible that the resources were simply not well made enough for the users to properly engage with them. However, it’s also possible that the Arab world is not yet receptive to the idea that learning is not just a case of remembering facts; it needs to involve the learner developing a love of absorbing information, which can only come from making the experience of being educated a pleasurable one.

Previous research on whether or not affluent Arabic-speaking nations like Saudi Arabia and Qatar are ready for the onset of e-learning and other more advanced technology-based learning methods has concluded that these nations are not suitably prepared. However, this may just be due to the fact that suitably engaging resources do not yet exist. It is difficult to say for certain whether hesitance to update learning tools stems from a lack of effective tools, or whether the reason that the tools don’t yet exist is that there is a a lack of willingness to use them. Only time will tell what the answer to this question is.

Whether or not Al-Adkya will be capable of stepping up to the challenge remains to be seen. It seems more sophisticated than previous attempts to improve the state of Arabic education. Perhaps it is the change that the world of Arabic-language learning has been waiting for. For more information, you can visit the Indiegogo page here.