Learning to read is “an indispensable basis for learning and development processes as well as for participation in cultural, professional and social life” (UNESCO 2005). Having sufficient reading skills is therefore crucial for children and young people in order to access education and to be able to participate in society. eKidz.eu was developed to remedy illiteracy and reading assessment problems
Reading competence is a multi-layered construct that includes different levels and facets (Lenhard 2019, Schilcher & Wild 2018). At the beginning of the acquisition process, increasing the level of reading accuracy and increasing the speed of reading are among the most powerful skills to master. eKidz.eu allows students to access reading material from level one - focusing on phonics and the grapheme-phoneme relationships. This is reinforced by auditory stimulus in the form of narration, allowing students to marry the sounds to the letters they see in front of them. As their decoding accuracy improves, they progress to more complex texts on 12 levels. eKidz.eu records reading comprehension scores at the end of each book. Prosodic reading is also an indicator of basic reading skills, (Reiss 2019; Nagler, Lindberg & Hasselhorn 2018). The eKidz recording function is a valuable tool to assess students’ reading aloud and speech progress (which teachers can access, remedy and reward remotely)
eKidz.eu is a scalable EdTech solution built in cooperation with university researchers and language practitioners. Our comprehensive back-end offers researchers a unique opportunity to obtain new experimental evidence on the effectiveness of technology-based approaches in literacy and language education.
eKidz.eu serves both school and library markets. Our sales approach is based on the introduction of the eKidz.eu App in larger scale pilots in collaboration with school districts and regional governments. Our solution has been implemented in a number of German federal states to schools and libraries. The first pilots in Spain have been successful. eKidz.eu is one of the first content providers to work on a concept for the New Educational Platform in Germany.
We offer a cohesive levelled reading and language program employing 21st century technology with all of its capacities (AI, audio support, visual animation, etc.) in English, Spanish and German. Trial eKidz.eu with unlimited access to English, Spanish, & German programs via iOS & Android apps. Teachers can monitor the progress via our web app. info@ekidz.eu or https://ekidz.eu/en/en/schooltrial
