Edutainment
APPLYING THOUGHTS IN LEARNING The time was the early days of digital era in Bangladesh. Desktop computers have just started to occupy the table-tops of affluent people in Dhaka city but their usage was limited to only word processing. I, along with two of my friends, took the challenge of producing something different for the tender-aged modern children of time. Being aware that the conventional method of educating children is too formal, cliché and infrastructure oriented, we started to design and develop a computer based multimedia tool for children particularly for those who could be impressed upon by music, animation and visual aid to the learning; not in a formal way but through playing and making fun. Since the object was to educate through entertainment, we termed it EDUTAINMENT! Starting from 1999, it took almost three years to complete the program which has been named 'Aaj Amader CHHUTI'. These three Bangla words translate as 'It's Our Holiday Today'. It's an interactive bilingual multimedia tool in vernacular Bangla and in English language. This tool has got some features interesting for all but we considered it to be most appropriate for children aged below 14 years. I led a team of three content creators and developers for long three years to develop 'Aaj Amader CHHUTI'. It was formally inaugurated in 2002. 'Aaj Amader CHHUTI' was programmed, produced, and authored mainly in the then Macromedia Flash version 4 and 5. Since Adobe Systems have decided to stop updating and distributing Adobe Flash/Flash Player from December 31, 2020, we can't even display the contents now in web browser keeping all its interactivity intact. Here, a linear version of the intro is kept for them who may like to have the original version for their desktops or laptops.