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This is Part 3 of our coverage of the September 2000 Digital Kids conference, the largest annual gathering of people in commercial Web publishing, marketing, gaming, e-tail, and other businesses targeting kids (here are Part 1 with the overview on teens' surfing habits, Part 2 on "guerrilla marketing," and Part 4 highlighting new sites for kids)....
Connecting home & schoolLast year the big trend in the field of child-oriented tech was Web sites for teachers (here's our report on these last year). This year the focus has shifted a bit to what bridges home and school: extracurricular learning for kids - on the Web. Here's our report on newcomers and key players in this space:
If you could choose one of these for yourself, children were asked, which would it be?:
- Smart
- Wealthy
- Athletic
- Beautiful/handsome
In a study done by Knowledge Universe, 50% of the kids picked "smart," 22% "wealthy," 20% "athletic," and 8% "beautiful" or "handsome." KU concluded that, to kids, smart is now cool (we hope they're right!). The company also concluded that 1) schools are no longer delivering "smart" and 2) parents know this and are looking beyond school for help in fostering their children's learning.
So KU - a nearly $2 billion company that operates Web sites (everything from multilingual online auctions to distance learning to news media), daycare centers, private schools, and consulting businesses - just moved into "the supplemental education market" in a big way with the launch of KidsEdge.com.
The "site" is actually six Web sites, three for kids (preK-K, grades 1-2, and grades 3-4), and one each for parents, teachers, and grandparents. Parents and grandparents share many of the same content topics - from childhood development to "tech talk" and family life (TeachersEdge has yet to debut). The premium stuff in the service - at least, what we found so - is for kids. The graphics are lively and gorgeous, and we think kids will find the environments and animated characters as inviting as we did (there's also a reward system designed to keep them coming back - tell us if it works for your kid). It's clear, though, that these are spaces designed for learning, not entertainment (as with PBS Kids's Teletubbies and Clifford the Big Red Dog features). Kids need their parents with them, because somebody has to be able to read the text that guides kids through the activities. The delightful images on the main pages for each age group are links, not characters with which a child can play, and the pages are basically image-rich link lists, not e-playgrounds.
The niftiest thing about this service - for parents - is that it assesses and tells how a child is doing, on a daily basis. In a year or so, an independent study probably needs to be done on how services like this aid kids' learning and benefit parents (no one knows at this point - so much research needs to be done in the kids/digital media area!). In any case, it might be worth parents' while to work through some of this material with a child and see if they like this groundbreaking service. If you do, tell us what you think!
Another large company - actually a giant, multinational media conglomerate - has moved into the home-school space in a different way, by buying a US Web publisher that is very well-established in the business: Family Education Network. The new parent company (and Web site address), Learning Network, is part of Pearson plc, owner of Penguin books, the UK-based Financial Times, TV stations in Europe, etc. Clearly, Pearson saw, as did KU, that home/school is an important market. What we saw is that Family Education Network was, and is, a leader in the category. FEN covers so many bases, with such great educational services as Infoplease.com (online reference), TeacherVision.com (lesson plans, Web-site building, and other teacher aids), FunBrain.com (educational games), FamilyEducation.com (for parents), and MySchoolOnline.com (just what it sounds like). If any of you are already using one or more of these, do tell us what you like about it/them.
Other key players in home/school for families with older kids include:
Kaptest.com was launched by Kaplan - famous for aptitude test prep - about a year ago. Thinking maybe future GRE, GMAT, LSAT, etc., takers wouldn't want to pay for expensive books, they put a lot of their materials online. What they found, interestingly enough, was that teens want books as well as online services. Research showed that kids are willing to pay more for courses that come with books and software. Kaplan told the Digital Kids audience that it "routinely has 16-year-olds buying $700 courses with their own credit cards (as well as Mom and Dad's)." Another interesting factoid: the large and growing overseas demand for US education. Ten percent of Kaptest.com's business is overseas, and it's growing, as well as coming from younger and younger people all the time.
HighWired.com is for wired high schools, counting 12,474 under its umbrella. Unique to this service is its emphasis on high school sports news (in the US, by region) and on finding a college. (See Larry Magid's recent column on various college-search services on the Web and a New York Times piece on "virtual college fairs.")
Bigchalk.com is home-school connecting for the middle and high school crowd. Calling itself an "educational network" of 43,000 schools, the site works at being all things to all people involved with school. It has sections for teachers, students, school librarians/media specialists, and parents. Its best-known service is HomeworkCentral, a comprehensive free reference resource with links all over the Web. It includes special sections for parents, etc., with a whole category just for homeschoolers.
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