Zoeybot is a free search engine and educational services recommended for kids ages 7-13. The program is SafeSurf rated which makes it an A+ option for teachers and parents alike. It provides the user with a variety of tools such as research articles, videos, and tutorials. Students can even take notes on the material they are reading by simply clicking on the “Launch Editor.” To top off its appeal to kids there is even the incentive of submitting your own work to be entered onto the site for possible pay.
While all those pluses certainly make the site appealing it also has a down side to things. For example it’s kid friendly appearance is appealing to the younger audience, but somehow I can’t imagine my 13 year old being enthusiastic about it.
The music player which offers a small selection of genre is little more than loops, again appealing to the younger audience maybe, but definitely not to the MP3 generation. On the reverse side of things as I started to explore the search engine itself I found some serious concerns. The readability of material is way above most students younger than 10 years of age and a search for “tropical fish” resulted in articles on “tropical storms.” On a final note of concern some of the tutorial videos, the coins through the hand mini magic show and others failed to play.
Overall a great concept, but truly poorly carried out in my opinion. The site design appeals to the younger end of its target audience while the resources are most definitely geared to the older end of the spectrum.
I am interested in checking this out as a research resource for the 12-13 year-olds that I teach. If the content is valid and on their lexile, it may be very helpful in our upcoming research project. I do see your point about some sites not aligning the content, layout, and target audience. Our textbook has online study activities that appear too juvenile for our students and seem they may further the divide between academia and social relevance. In the case of Zoeybot, I will check it out, and if the content is right, I will make fun of the aesthetics with my students as we use it to research.
ReplyDeleteThanks...
Joanne,
ReplyDeleteWith my last couple of peer reviews being about collaboration tools, your search engine tool is a great break from the mainstream. Everybody can benefit from something as simple as a search engine that suggests material for education of school age children. You did touch on some great ups and downs of the site and I would love to see a more expanded music player from it, but as a big grown up kid, I can handle the styling of the site and what age group it is attempting to reach out to. Thank you for the great information!