ODA Lab announced the release of the first product of its kind: an interactive gaming and learning app in Albanian for kids. The app is called “Hirushja” and it is an interactive learning tool for children of Albanian descent. HIRUSHJA will be one of the fairy-tails released under Lepuroshi Learning Center, which is a collection of interactive activities that allows young kids to play and learn at the same time while enjoying classic stories and games. The Hirushja app will become available to Android and iOS users on February 15, 2015.
HIRUSHJA is an Albanian app for learning recommended to children age three to eight. It offers a collection of fun activities that are designed to improve literacy through interactive games around classic children’s literature and familiar puzzle challenges such as the Rubik’s cube.
Concept – Message from CEO
“The idea for this product originated out of a real, personal need. I am one of the founders of ODA Lab and a father to a seven-year-old girl. Every summer I send her to my parents’ house in Kosova to make sure that she is exposed to Albanian culture and language. I noticed that shortly after she returns from the trip, she begins to lose everything she has learned over the summer months, because the young mind needs to stay active in order to retain the vocabulary.
Like most modern kids my daughter loves to spend time on her tablet. It has been a great challenge, as a parent, to find meaningful activities for her to engage in during the screen time. As I searched for apps to help her stay connected to the Albanian language, I realized that while there are plenty available to the English-speaking children, there isn’t the same pool of resources for Albanian children to learn interactively. My partners and I decided to put our heads together and create a tool that would allow kids to learn in a fun way in Albanian.
We didn’t want to cut into a child’s play time, in fact, our goal was to make kids feel like they are playing rather than learning and this is why we purposefully created a non-academic interactive tool that is free of drill-based exercises.
Our team dedicated the past year to researching and testing various learning techniques with focus to build out a technology that is effective, visually engaging and easy to use,” stated Rinol Alaj, co-founder and CEO of ODA Lab.
A Message From Our Founders
“We founded ODA Lab with a mission to give back to our community by utilizing the skills and knowledge we have obtained while studying and living abroad.
We are group of globetrotters, with origin from Kosova. Since we left the country of our origins we have established ourselves as professionals around the glove, thanks to the great opportunities awarded to us through higher education and stable economy. Several of us have recently returned home to continue our lives and professional development in Kosova.
With most of our family and friends residing in Kosova we still feel a deep connection to our native community. Throughout our many visits home, and to surrounding territories, we have uncovered that economic barriers prevent people from participating in newer technologies. This exposes them to the dangers associated with the digital divide, which perpetuates socio-economic inequality between the rich and poor countries.
Our mission is to help alleviate the technological gap by creating digital resources with purpose of increasing interactive way through use of latest technology and by working with government officials to solve obstacles around access, connectivity and content availability. We established ODA Lab because we believe that our mission is achievable if we apply creativity and innovation to incorporate digital solutions.
Technology is a powerful tool that has the capacity to change the way people communicate, learn and operate their daily lives. Our long-term vision is to work across cultures and industries to build tech products that improve the lives of the people and strengthen communities.
We begin this journey through our first offering HIRUSHJA, a digital learning tool that allows kids to play and learn at the same time in Albanian language,” said Driton Alaj, Chief Information Officer of ODA Lab.
About ODA Lab
ODA Lab (www.oda-lab.com) was founded early 2014. ODA Lab is an international digital services company with touch points in United States, Switzerland and Kosova, where it houses the main production facilities. It specializes in web and mobile application development, product design, and digital strategy – delivering end-to-end solutions to its clients and consumers globally.
ODA’s Headquarters are located in Pristina, Kosova, with a team comprising of professional Developers, Programmers, Researchers, and Designers which are overseen by the Chief Information Officer (CIO). The PR and Marketing Operations is located in Switzerland and United States, which is led by a team of great researchers with many years of experience brand and market research.
“Our multidisciplinary team consists of computer scientists, graphic designers, marketing specialists, business strategists and human factors researchers. Having a diverse team enables us to form a deeper understanding of industry pain-points and formulate comprehensive, transformational ideas.
We strive to be a holistic, socially conscious enterprise, which means that the products and business solutions we put out into the world must align with our core values – becoming successful, while enhancing the lives of individuals and strengthening communities,” said Alban Nevzati, co-founder of ODA Lab.