Wizz-e The Company Bringing Literacy to Children
Suite 101 Chats to Director of EBooks4Kidz Ltd Jeanette McCleod
May 2, 2009
Your company Wizz-e is an inventive new way of bringing literacy to children. What inspired the creation of Wizz-e?
In the UK 20% of children leave primary school unable to read at the appropriate level for their age and the figure is similar in the USA. To give the gift of literacy is to give a gift for a lifetime. Reading improves fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and the basic literacy rules to prepare our kids to be better readers in the future.
On our website our books come to life with animated illustrations, words that highlight as the narration reads aloud, and click on a word audio for emerging readers. Children need to enjoy reading to want to read more, having access to interactive digital books can encourage them to read more. We wanted to use the technology that was available to enable kids to have access to books in a medium they enjoyed using and support busy parents by providing an option for them to encourage their children to read. Our ultimate goal is to get kids reading.
We also support RoomtoRead - 10% of all the profits from Wizz-e support this literacy charity. In the long term we want to provide all ours books for free to support literacy in developing countries
Literacy for children was once purely the territory of books in print. How do you feel that the internet has widened the arena and what do you think the benefits of using eBooks are?
Digital books or ebooks are not meant to replace books in print. They are a completely different medium that children find engaging. Because our books are digital the story is narrated whilst the child follows along as the words highlight. We have developed the technology so emerging readers can read the story to themselves and click on any word they are unfamiliar with to hear that word spoken without having to pause and seek adult intervention.
Therefore children can progress at their own speed. The digital books have been carefully designed to look like its paper counterpart with realistic page turning however we really bring the books to life as our illustrations are animated. Our eBooks do not require any additional reading device, just a computer with internet connection. Books can be downloaded and viewed offline at any time.
eBooks for children are a really useful for busy parents who want to use screen time productively. They can help reluctant readers as the medium is different to the one they hold a negative associations with. They are invaluable for parents whose mother tongue is not English to support their children learning English. They can be used by teachers to not only enhance literacy but also to support children using computers. The internet is a valuable resource for parents and teachers to bring fun activities to children’s education. When children are having fun they may not notice they are learning!
Ebooks have already proved particularly successful with low-ability and reluctant readers. A larger proportion of boys fall into this category than girls. Not only do they reflect the young learner's world more appropriately than paper books but children still find technology 'cool'. Therefore, reading on personal electronic devices or laptops individually or together on a whiteboard makes those who are reluctant more interested.
A key element in successfully remediating struggling readers is helping them learn to enjoy reading. Even capable readers can enjoy quality content via eBooks and because they are a different medium to paper they can be actively encouraged to read more. And digital books are also more environmentally friendly that producing print books.
How do you see eBooks and computer use benefitting young children in their school and adult life?
We are preparing children today for jobs that do not exist yet. Undoubtedly, technology use will grow at an exponential rate in their lifetimes. Ofcom, (Media Literacy Audit, 2008) showed that children’s use of key media including the TV, games consoles and the internet are well established by the age of five.
We need to ensure the children today are adept at using that technology by learning in a safe environment. Rather than resisting technology to teach children we should be harnessing its power. When you combine innovation, the teaching potential of the internet and other technologies available to support learning with the passion and commitment of teachers - children will win. We need to be creating technology solutions that engage kids in the learning process.
How have you designed your website to be child friendly?
With children of my own I know how easy it is for a child to click through to inappropriate sites when there is uncontrolled advertising on a site. We did not want this for our site so there is no advertising at all. The books have very simple intuitive buttons to turn the pages or you can drag the ‘virtual page’ to turn it just like a paper book. We have other fun activities for children such as puzzles and games. We also have a joke section where children can read jokes submitted by others [that is still reading!] or submit their own jokes. All content on the site is verified before it is published. Internet safety is paramount for us.
You can read more about Jeanette's work and children's book inspirations in the second half of this interview.
To download two free eBooks or shop at Wizz-e visit their website
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