Preschool teachers have a new tool to spark learning in their classrooms or to take on-the-go. Edtech startup magikbee has launched kiddZtube Academy, a platform for early years educators that enables them to create educational video-quizzes from YouTube content by augmenting pop-up questions to each video. The technology allows teachers to transform kids’ favourite video content into an educational tool to teach spelling, counting, colours and other core skills. As children watch cartoons and listen to songs they are asked questions aloud about what they are watching.
The free platform is aimed specifically at professionals in the early years education sector. kiddZtube Academy is a natural extension of the existing kiddZtube offer – an app available across iOS and Android with 1,000 video quizzes selected from YouTube and curated by magikbee’s group of teachers. Now the technology is open to educators worldwide for use at school and at home.
Teachers can select any video publicly available on YouTube to create a video-quiz. Questions are inserted by stopping on an image during the video that will accompany the pop-up question. kiddZtube Academy, which is accessed via a website, is intuitive and has a simple design – meaning teachers can create video quizzes in no time at all. Teachers simply select questions from a drop-down menu with several question categories.
Teachers can compile the quizzes, which are accessed via the kiddZtube app, that they create into “lessons” – or playlists – for use in the classroom via a projector or on individual tablets. They can be shared with children at home via an access code given to parents, who simply type the code into the app on their device to gain immediate access to the lessons containing video quizzes created by their child’s teacher.
From the preschooler’s perspective, the kiddZtube interface is a row of four coloured stars combined with emojis to answer questions. The educational experience is joyful, interactive and visually appealing to the youngest boys and girls.
We developed kiddZtube Academy because teachers started asking us how they could use the platform to create their own video-quizzes and playlists. – Hugo Filipe Ribiero, CEO, magikbee
“We developed kiddZtube Academy because teachers started asking us how they could use the platform to create their own video-quizzes and playlists,” explains Hugo Filipe Ribeiro, Co-Founder and CEO of magikbee. “Teachers said that they already use quite a lot video resources in the classroom but that the experience could be improved. They also liked the ability of kiddZtube Academy to give kids “homework” in a fun way.
“So we listened to teachers’ needs and decided to make the platform available for teachers to use for free. It’s our contribution to help teachers with tools that can make their lives easier and at the same time have a big impact on kids’ engagement and learning,” he said.
Best of all, a teacher has helpful analytics at their disposal. kiddZtube Academy features a function to track the progress of both classes and individual students, enabling them to plan future lessons and gauge strengths and weaknesses within the class.
Beyond the engaging playlists created by their teacher, kids can safely view thousands of preschool cartoons, songs and stories by upgrading within the app. Because kiddZtube is a closed platform, parents can control the all-important amount of time kids spend at the app.
For more information and to register for free, head to magikbee.com/educators. The kiddZtube app is also available from the App Store, Google Play, and Amazon.
