First of its kind and in line with 43rd National Day celebrations

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates - Sunday, November 30th 2014 [ME NewsWire]

Lt. General HH Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, launched the “Aqdar Smart Heritage Village” game at the Abu Dhabi Police General Headquarters (GHQ) on Sunday. The videogame, which is the first of its kind in terms of raising awareness, comes in line with the country’s celebrations of the UAE National Day and reflects the vision of the smart government and the online applications of the Ministry of interior (MoI).

The game aims to enhance awareness in national, traditional, educational, and health-related topics, while additionally fighting crime. It takes a step from traditional forms of educations that include dictation and repetition, and moves towards smart education, empowering actual efforts and personal research.

This game is the fourth educational project launched in the Apple Store and in Google Play as part of the integrated smart education program within the Khalifa Student Empowerment Program.

HH Sheikh Saif was briefed on the achievements and results of the Khalifa Student Empowerment Program and the five executed initiatives. HH Sheikh Saif praised the efforts of the Khalifa Student Empowerment Program, for which 50 ministries and federal and local authorities are working to achieve its goals, and stressed the importance of this program as a nationwide resource that empowers the spirit of the union.  

The game’s launch was attended by Major General Nasser Lakhrebani Al Nuaimi, Secretary General of the Office of HH Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior and Head of the Khalifa Student Empowerment Program; Advisor Rashid Salim Lakhrebani Al Nuaimi, Secretariat General of the Federal Demographic Council; Brigadier Ali Khalfan Al Dhaheri, Director General of the Headquarters Affairs at Abu Dhabi Police; Colonel Mohammed Hamid bin Dalmouj Al Dhaheri, Strategy and Performance Development Director General; Colonel Expert Dr. Ibrahim Al Dabal, General Coordinator of the Khalifa Student Empowerment Program; and Lt. Colonel Dr. Abdurrahman Al Ansari, Deputy General Coordinator of the Khalifa Student Empowerment Program.

Major General Al Nuaimi said: “Launching the ‘Aqdar Smart Heritage Village’ Game highlights the importance of such videogames to establish our community values and to reflect our culture, identity and civilization, alongside providing an alternative that suits our children and the future generations.

The strategy of the Khalifa Student Empowerment Program, working under the ‘Aqdar’ slogan, aims to develop an integrated system of efficient, high-quality smart video games that are based on the best global engines, and developed by internal specialists. The program also aims to develop other educational games on different systems, including iOS from Apple and Android from Google; and will target different smart devices including iPhone, Galaxy, Xoom, iPad, in addition to internet, social media (Facebook) covering both Windows and Macintosh systems. These games feature national traditional characters and highlight the participating entities. These characters can be modified and the games can be developed based on different scenarios, in cooperation with the National Committee and in line with the goals of the national program. New levels can be added and the games support Arabic language.”

Major General Al Nuaimi added: “This achievement reflects the real need for educational games to serve students, through useful, educational content. Based on this, videogame development under the Khalifa Student Empowerment Program guarantees that educational, valued and moral targets are met; and are done so in order to empower the love of our homeland, through introducing the history, establishments, achievements and capabilities of the UAE, while additionally securing future achievements.

The idea of the Khalifa Student Empowerment Program was an initiative by the General Secretariat of the Office of H.H Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, to prepare a national program for student awareness, covering all academic years and to fulfill educational prospects, with joint efforts made by the government, and civil and private institutions.”

For his part, Colonel Expert Al Dabal, gave a comprehensive presentation in front of His Highness the Minister, where he addressed the achievements and outcomes of the program, as well as the five initiatives that were recently achieved by the Khalifa Student Empowerment Program, most notably the “Aqdar for Smart Games”, “Aqdar for Supporting Partnerships”, “I Aqdar Smartly”, “Aqdar for Community Leaders”, and “My Dream, My life”.

Colonel Al Dabal noted that the “Aqdar Smart Heritage Village” game is a unique electronic game that seeks to achieve several goals. “It is the result of the integrated program for electronic awareness. It teaches children a variety of knowledge and information, and aims mainly to enhance national awareness by allowing players a cognitive link to vocabulary related to heritage and historical facts,” said Colonel Al Dabal. He explained that game was locally designed, utilizing national talents, under the supervision of the Khalifa Student Empowerment Program, in cooperation with the Virtual Training Center at the Dubai Police GHQ.

He stated that the game is a virtual city, which includes geographical landmarks, and classes for lectures in various topics, where players gather information through knowledge dirhams and treasures. The game also includes written informative materials with expressive pictures and videos. The players can interact with others in a knowledge competition of 45 levels that include 10 questions each. Ranking will be decided based on the results.

He assured that the game promotes the definition and preservation of heritage; education regarding health and food through the identification of food groups; and the training and development of personal skills such as knowledge, attention, concentration and self-esteem. The game allows the child to play which activities reflect his interests, and develop social interaction and communication skills in the process.

“The game works to strengthen the national consciousness, and fight against crimes- especially cybercrimes- by introducing positive uses for modern technologies. The game as additionally raises moral and ethical awareness, by discussing the harmful effects of drugs and the risks of fireworks, and by promoting positive behaviors such as first aid training, active interaction with visual media, academic and environmental excellence, and time management. The game also provides general information of educational topics in: biology, geography, history, math, literature, Islamic education, science, religious information about integrity, behavioral conduct in the light of Biography of the Prophet, the virtue of the month of Ramadan and of religious endowments.

The educational content of the game, “Aqdar Smart Heritage Village” focuses on providing a variety of reliable general, cultural and scientific information to create a diversity of knowledge amongst the students who roam around the city. The game also promotes an important educational aspect of transforming education through dictation or through conducting personal research, the information becomes more applicable in practical life when the students actively participate in their own education,” he said.

He added that the game provides scientific information in an attractive format, which reduces the likelihood that the learner will feel bored, and will subsequently be more eager to absorb the information. The game is a quantum leap in presenting scientific and educational material to students in an electronic format, which is considered a stepping stone towards smart learning which we are hoping to achieve at the level of the curriculum.

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The Arabic-language text of this announcement is the official, authoritative version. Translations are provided as an accommodation only, and should be cross-referenced with the Arabic-language text, which is the only version of the text intended to have legal effect.

Contacts

The UAE Minister of Interior's General Secretariat, Tactical Affairs and Security Media Department

Abu Dhabi Police GHQ - Security Media

Chris Cron +971-(0)-50-987-1317

E-mail: cron.media@hotmail.com

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