Google Bolo reading-tutor application launched to enhance reading skills in India
New Delhi : Aimed at people living in the rural areas of India, Google on Thursday launched 'Bolo' reading-tutor application to spread quality education as the smartphone reach is increasing in the remote areas.
New Bolo Android app is a speech-based reading-tutor app that has been released in India first. It is currently available on Google Play Store for free of cost. Interestingly, the application is capable of working without internet.
Despite school being present in various rural areas, there are many things which go untouched and restrict quality of education among the students. Google is hoping to change it with the help of smartphones which are becoming a common site these days.
“We believe technology has the power to help transform teaching and learning, and have been actively directing our products, programs and philanthropy to ensure that all students are able to benefit from it,” Google said in a statement.
Bolo application is capable of helping students in improving their Hindi and English reading skills. It comes with a large number of engaging stories, which the company hopes, will help the children in improving their comprehension skills.
Google mentioned that all content on the application is free and they are working with more companies to enrich database of the application. The app relies on Google's speech recognition and text-to-speech technology.
Elaborating more the company said that an animated digital assistant has also been introduced in the Bolo app, it has been named as Diya. This assistant can read the text out loud for the children and even explain the meaning of the English text. Diya can speak English as well as Hindi, and will encourage the kids by giving them compliments when they finish a task.
Bolo app can be downloaded from Google Play and works with all Android phones running KitKat or above. It comes with 16 preloaded stories and more can be downloaded. The overall size of the app is less than 50MB, which includes the speech modules and the entire experience.
