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3rd
Nov 2012

Educating Children With Dyslexia

Are we over-complicating the teaching and education of Dyslexic Children?

We like to think of ourselves as a reasonably advanced and progressive society, but I can’t help thinking that when it comes to educating children with dyslexia maybe we are overcomplicating the problem, and making a rod for our own backs. And maybe even letting down many of those children we claim to care about.

With official reports indicating that as many as 1 in 8 children are suffering from some form of dyslexia, it’s time that we realized that there are some simple solutions available that would make the lives of teachers easier, and at the same time, help an awful lot of children.

I found myself at a dinner last night talking to a cousin – who after being in education for many years, is now responsible for purchasing many of the materials required for children and students attending a large number of schools in the area.

During the conversation I took the opportunity to ask what materials were being purchased for the students in those schools with Dyslexia. She looked at me with a mortified expression and replied “we don’t”.

When I asked why not, her first response was to explain that most teachers had not been trained to deal with dyslexia. She then proceeded to explain that it was a complex problem. It was at that stage I decided it was better not to pursue the subject for fear of causing an argument.

But this article presents the opportunity to consider a few simple home truths – and ask some difficult questions. (more…)


14th
Jul 2012

Boycott The Use of Educational Video With No Subtitles or Closed Captions

Educational Video Without Subtitles or Captions Fails To Provide Equal Access for all Children

We live in a time where now more than 94% of teachers use video as an important educational video resource in the classroom.

As a result a host of services now attempt to provide online educational video to satisfy that growing demand. However with the exception of only two companies, they all conveniently ignore the fact that providing educational video without the essential availability of subtitles or captions, fails to provide equal access for all children. And it’s all because of cost …it simply costs too much.

The power of Visual Learning is beyond doubt, but the use of captions and subtitles on Educational Video is regarded as essential for:

  • The Deaf and hearing impaired students.
  • Improving comprehension for struggling readers.
  • Improving literacy for children with learning disabilities and Special Needs.
  • Enabling all children to improve Reading and Literacy skills.
  • When combined with the audio visual nature of video they provides for the widest range of Learning styles.
  • Providing language benefits for students learning English as a Second Language

They are so important that the company Zane Education recognises the use of subtitles and captions on educational video as The Missing Piece.

Even the law now recognises and demands the use of subtitles and captions on video.
(more…)


6th
Apr 2012

Teaching With Subtitled Educational Video

Teaching and Providing Equal Access in the Classroom

With up to 94% of teachers now using educational videos in the classroom as a valued teaching resource, it is interesting to see that many teachers use online educational video that only benefits some of their students and not all.

Video produced and originally intended for television distribution, and video of conference presentations is not video that is going to be particularly effective for teaching K-12 curriculum subjects. Content used to effective deliver curriculum should be developed specifically for that purpose. But yet many teachers are attempting to use that type of video because that is all they believe is available.

But there is much more to it that this. If teaching with educational video is to be effective, it must provide access for all students in the classroom, and not just some.

The soundtrack must be specially prepared so as to be able to provide that content to the blind student or the child with visual impairments.

The video should now by Federal Law, include the use of subtitles, otherwise known as closed captions. This of course provides for the deaf student, or those children with hearing impairments.

Those subtitles should be provided using enlarged fonts that are easy to read, again for those students that have mild visual impairment.

And then there is the need to provide for different Learning styles. By providing video with both specially prepared sound tracks and subtitles positioned in a dedicated position at the bottom of the video, we provide each child with the choice of watching, listening to, or reading each presentation, and in doing so we are provide for the widest range of Learning Styles.
(more…)


21st
Jan 2012

Online Visual Learning: Unique & Affordable

K-12 Educational Video with Subtitles Provides Improved Online Learning

A new online Visual Learning service to develop four specific and easily recognisable Visual Learning brands has been launched online by Zane Education at www.ZaneEducation.com .

The four easily identifiable channels; Zane Classroom, Zane Home Education, Zane Special Needs and Zane ExtraCurriculum, provide the education market in America and a range of other countries with a set of effective Visual Learning tools that can be used in different ways to benefit school and home educated children, children with a wide range of Special Needs, and students studying English as a Second Language.

At the core of the service is Zane’s unique educational video library, which is one of the few providers of education video that has been developed specifically for teaching the K-12 curriculum. This collection of educational video is unique in that Zane is the first online learning company to realize the importance of, and provide subtitles and closed captions for all of their education video.

More than 30 years successful research on subtitles and closed captions on video has been completed by people such as the late Alice Killackey of the Availll Institute and Dr.Brij Kothari amongst others, establishing the link between the use of closed captions on video, and improved reading and literacy skills. However Zane Education has been the first elearning company with the necessary resources to provide that closed captioning on education video, so as to enable children and students to study a wide range of curriculum topics – and improve their reading and literacy skills simultaneously. (more…)


7th
Jul 2011

Free Lesson Plans

Lesson Plans Now Provided Free by Zane Education

Online K12 education video provider Zane Education is in the process of adding a range of new educational tools and resources to complement and enhance the value of using their online curriculum-based educational video library. The latest addition is the introduction of free Lesson Plan guides for each of the 260 topics that are taught using their online videos.

The company made a decision to provide these Lesson Plan Guides for downloading at no cost, firstly to help reduce the cost of homeschooling, but also to enable homeschool parents and teachers in the classroom to spend more time doing what they do best – teaching and homeschool parenting. By providing these Lesson Plans to subscribers of their ondemand Visual Learning service, the company wants to enable teachers and homeschool parents to use the Lesson Plans as the framework to teach and explore each particular topic, then use the online K12 video as the means to deliver the facts in the same way that a text book would, thereby leaving them with more time to explore the other activities provided for in the Lesson Plan, and to actually interact with those children that require more help. (more…)


27th
Sep 2010

Job Satisfaction – The Key to Motivating our Children?

One of the things that most of us come across as parents – or teachers – at some stage or another, is finding a way to motivate our children in one particular area or another.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been spending a lot of time meeting and speaking to homeschool families as we have been promoting the benefits of our online subtitled educational videos, as a fun, unique and very effective online education solution.

I have been finding that as I reach the end of each working day that I am feeling so exhilarated, that I have not wanted to stop work. In fact after finishing working 10 hours, I felt so energised that I wanted to keep going for another 10 hours. And all I can put it down to is purely and simply one thing – that wonderful feeling of job satisfaction.

If I am completely honest I have reached a stage in my life where I have a desire to combine running a business, with at the same time doing good for other people, especially helping children. There have been a number of situations during this last week on which I have been able to give away a number of our 12-month Gold Membership subscriptions completely free to some very deserving children and their families. And it has left me feeling rather like Father Christmas. The gratitude, thanks and appreciation that have been expressed by a number of those children and their parents, has been totally overwhelming. In other words I have been experiencing a very strong feeling of job satisfaction.

I have had a few quiet moments to reflect on the difference it has meant to me to experience that job satisfaction, and it has made me realise that in trying to motivate my own children, that if I can introduce them to that same powerful feeling of elation in their own lives, then the motivation might actually follow automatically. (more…)


20th
Sep 2010

Questioning standards. Don’t ask me why, ask me why not?

Occasionally I have a deep and meaningful thought (my wife often suggests that miracles do indeed happen … every so often) and it really did get me wondering about what and how we teach our children.

I love to play the guitar and on the anniversary of Jimi Hendrix death this question got me thinking.

Why is Jimi generally held in such high regard (not that I am qualified to ask that question)?

Imagine you teach guitar and a kid walks in that is playing a left-handed guitar upside down. Most guitar players have picked up bad habits that the teacher will want to get rid of and sort out before moving on to bigger and better things. But this was one of the things that Jimi was renown for, and that many will suggest gave him his unique sound. (more…)


13th
Sep 2010

Learning Using Online Video …or A Spoonful of Sugar..

A spoonful or sugar helps the medicine go down, the medicine go down…and so on. Who remembers that song?

If you do, you don’t need to own up to it …….. because of course it comes from the very popular Mary Poppins movie from years ago, and if you do remember, the chances are that you are nearly as much an antique as me.

Anyway the reason I’m asking is because I meet so many people that have not even considered for one minute using online educational video to help teach their children, and they virtually all have similar questions like “so what’s it like?” or “How effective is it?”.

And I generally start my reply by using that line “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down” …… and here’s why! (more…)


10th
Sep 2010

Maintaining Childrens Attention and Improving Their Reading

I‘ve been reading a lot of questions on several Blogs and Facebook pages recently about maintaining children’s interest and attention while they are doing their schoolwork, whether it be at home, or in the classroom.

At the same time I have been seeing comments about problems parents and teachers are having with children’s lack of interest in reading. So as a parent of 2 children, I’d like to share something with you that has really helped us with our 2 children, in both areas – and at the same time.

We’ve found that using online video attracts the attention of the child and maintains their interest for longer periods of time, – in fact more than any textbooks we’ve ever used. It makes learning fun and they are more motivated to learn. (more…)


31st
Aug 2010

Only One Front Page ……and 12 different education stories.

I have to apologize for a quiet time on the blog for the last 10 days but we have a dilemma to overcome.

Since we launched this website, an increasing number of people have contacted us and explained just how many different types of students can benefit through using our online educational videos.

Zane Education (Zane Publishing Inc. in it’s former life) has had a well-established name in the school and home education markets since the mid 1990’s. And when we decided to convert our 250 educational CD-ROM’s into online video we always expected that it was the teachers, students and homeschooling families that would be our main customers.

However now that we are using the online video format – and most importantly that all of our videos are subtitled – we are seeing that many other types of students are benefiting from what we have produced. Those children include special needs students, gifted students, the disabled, children with dyslexia and reading difficulties, students with visual impairments, ESL students and especially children whose parents and teachers want to help develop their reading skills.
(more…)