Hasanul Banna Joy  

Junaid Ahmed, a Dhaka University student, has been using “Duolingo”, a language learning application, for six months. A gadget fanatic and keen on learning different languages, he used to go to the Alliance Francaise in Dhaka to learn French, but now he practises the language using the handy app.
According to Junaid, Duolingo is a fun and easy way for students to learn a new language, and is quite addictive. One can learn languages, such as Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, through listening and speaking exercises, interactive games and by translating sentences by tapping on the correct words. There are hundreds of apps available on various app stores that provide useful guidelines on learning a foreign language.
Like Junaid, many students these days are very comfortable with using smartphone applications. It can be safely said that smartphone apps are playing a role in reshaping the future of education. There are thousands of apps to help teachers and students alike. Educational apps can help achieve better performance in organising, managing and monitoring classroom activities. The use of educational apps is gradually increasing in colleges and universities across Bangladesh. Not too long ago, students used to face difficult times managing all sorts of lecture notes, assignment sheets and reading materials. Now, things have become easier and smartphone app developers are creating more and more educational apps everyday worldwide.
There is a diverse range of smartphone apps that caters to education. A number of applications are available from Apple’s App Store, Google Play Shop or Blackberry App World. The number of users is amazing as millions of apps are downloaded every month. You can find top educational offering in any app store, but it is sometimes difficult to locate the best ones. Some apps target high school students, some are made for university students and others are for those who merely seek more knowledge. Whether you are specifically looking for ways to exercise your mind, organise your coursework, learn to draw or just indulge your love for history or geography, there is more than one app especially designed to get the job done.
Akram Hussain, a student of Dhaka College, recently shared his positive experience with educational apps. He regularly goes to TSC on the DU campus to use free WiFi.
“I always download apps from Google play store as it has a number of updated educational info. Some useful apps like Math Expert, Wikipedia, Coursera and Advance Bangla Dictionary have become part of my life,” said Akram.