Zoodles Computer App Reviewers Guide Welcome to Zoodles! Zoodles is a set of free apps that puts computers, smart phones, ipods, and tablets into Kid Mode. The safe, fun, and educational Zoodles Kid Mode intelligently adapts the experience for each child based on their age, their skills, the device they are using and any parental controls set. The Zoodles Computer App is our flagship app, designed for families with PC’s, Macs, and even Linux machines that need a Kid Mode that can simultaneously protect their computer and engage their child in a safe environment that’s filled with fun and learning. Our free app makes it easy for kids 8 and under to play and learn independently online. In addition to fun, educational gameplay, Zoodles also offers a set of Family Connect features that help keep distant family members in touch. With Zoodles Storybooks, relatives can record themselves reading classic stories and their young ones can watch those recordings from anywhere in the world. Our Video Mail feature allows family members to exchange video messages, so kids never fall out of touch with distant grandparents or aunts and uncles. With our Premium Membership, Zoodles give parents smart tools to guide their child’s online experience. Parents can customize Zoodles by shaping the content and subject matter, setting play time limits, blocking unwanted games and more, all through an easy Parent Dashboard. We keep parents uptodate on their child’s activities through frequent email progress reports. Developed by a father of two and a talented team of software and educational experts, Mountain View, California based Zoodles softlaunched in April 2009. By gathering the best educational content in one kidfriendly place, Zoodles finally gives parents an alternative to television that is safe, engaging, interactive and educational. The company recently received the coveted Gold Award from the National Parenting Publications (NAAPA), a seal given to the best children’s products and parent resources as well as a 2010 Parents' Choice Award from the Parents’ Choice Foundation. Below is a reviewer’s guide that will walk you through the Zoodles experience and showcase our core differentiators. If at any time during the review process you have questions (or suggestions!) please feel free to reach out to our PR team at [email protected]. We’ll respond as quickly as possible. We hope you enjoy your time with Zoodles, and we look forward to hearing your feedback. Have fun playing! The Zoodles Team
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Zoodles Computer App Reviewers Guide
Welcome to Zoodles! Zoodles is a set of free apps that puts computers, smart phones, ipods, and tablets into Kid Mode. The safe, fun, and educational Zoodles Kid Mode intelligently adapts the experience for each child based on their age, their skills, the device they are using and any parental controls set. The Zoodles Computer App is our flagship app, designed for families with PC’s, Macs, and even Linux machines that need a Kid Mode that can simultaneously protect their computer and engage their child in a safe environment that’s filled with fun and learning. Our free app makes it easy for kids 8 and under to play and learn independently online. In addition to fun, educational gameplay, Zoodles also offers a set of Family Connect features that help keep distant family members in touch. With Zoodles Storybooks, relatives can record themselves reading classic stories and their young ones can watch those recordings from anywhere in the world. Our Video Mail feature allows family members to exchange video messages, so kids never fall out of touch with distant grandparents or aunts and uncles. With our Premium Membership, Zoodles give parents smart tools to guide their child’s online experience. Parents can customize Zoodles by shaping the content and subject matter, setting play time limits, blocking unwanted games and more, all through an easy Parent Dashboard. We keep parents up-‐to-‐date on their child’s activities through frequent email progress reports. Developed by a father of two and a talented team of software and educational experts, Mountain View, California-‐based Zoodles soft-‐launched in April 2009. By gathering the best educational content in one kid-‐friendly place, Zoodles finally gives parents an alternative to television that is safe, engaging, interactive and educational. The company recently received the coveted Gold Award from the National Parenting Publications (NAAPA), a seal given to the best children’s products and parent resources as well as a 2010 Parents' Choice Award from the Parents’ Choice Foundation. Below is a reviewer’s guide that will walk you through the Zoodles experience and showcase our core differentiators. If at any time during the review process you have questions (or suggestions!) please feel free to reach out to our PR team at [email protected]. We’ll respond as quickly as possible. We hope you enjoy your time with Zoodles, and we look forward to hearing your feedback. Have fun playing! The Zoodles Team
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Table of Contents Creating a Zoodles Account Exploring the Zoodles Computer App Designed for Kids Designed for Independent Play Safe for your Computer Safe for your Child Restricted to Safe Whitelist Protected from Ads Smart for the Entire Family Adaptive Content Adaptive Interface Family Connect Features Setting Up Your Camera Zoodles Storybooks Video Mail Art Studio A New Friend Understanding the Parent Dashboard Weekly Activity Emails Promoting Subjects Setting Time Limits Adding Sites and Games Blocking Unwanted Characters Filtering violent content Your Account Pricing
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Creating a Zoodles Account
1) To use Zoodles you will need to sign in with a Zoodles account and password. 2) When you use Zoodles for the first time, you’ll be guided through a setup process for creating your account.
This process takes 2 -‐ 3 minutes, and is important in ensuring that your child’s Zoodles experience is properly calibrated to their age and skill level.
3) During this process, feel free to create actual profiles for each of your children. For reviewing purposes, we suggest that reviewers create two example profiles -‐ one for a 3-‐year-‐old child, and one for a 6-‐year old child – in order to compare and contrast the difference in interfaces.
4) Once your account is created, you’ll be asked to download the Zoodles app, compatible with both Mac and PC machines. The app download is bundled together with a download of Adobe AIR, which is required for Zoodles to run.
Exploring the Zoodles Computer App Once the Zoodles computer app has been downloaded, it will automatically open to full-‐screen mode, and you will have the chance to explore your child’s new playground. Designed for Kids After just a few minutes of exploring, you’ll quickly see that the Zoodles experience is one that was designed entirely with kids in mind.
The log-in screen (left) is where every child’s play day begins. Even non-‐readers can identify which account is theirs, just by looking at their picture! The log-‐in screen is also the juncture where parents can choose to play along with their children using Parent Play-Along Mode. Parent Play-‐Along mode is our way of letting parents play side by side with their children and have greater flexibility guiding the experience. In Parent Play-‐Along Mode, you are able to see the text titles of games and enjoy unrestricted access to Zoodles-‐approved games and websites.
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Designed for Independent Play Once you log in for a particular child, you’ll be brought to their virtual playground. On the next page you’ll see what this looks like for our example 3-‐year-‐old, Samantha.
Immediately you can see that the environment is so simple that any child could play independently within this environment. There is no typing or reading required to navigate, and there is no URL address bar to distract or endanger your child. To play games, all your child needs to do is click on the interactive thumbnail images, and they are taken straight to the action!
Safe for your Computer By operating in full-‐screen mode, Zoodles prevents your children from accidentally exiting out of the app and deleting files on your computer or navigating elsewhere. To exit full-‐screen mode, children must pass an additional safety precaution and know how to type the word “QUIT.”
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Safe for your Child The web is a scary place, and our job is to bring the best of the web to your child, while keeping them 110% safe. Screened by Experts All of the content in Zoodles has been rigorously screened and evaluated by our team of educational experts. This team includes teachers, children’s media developers, anti-‐bullying advocates, child psychologists, and learning technology designers. Every Zoodles game has been played through in its entirety and assessed for its educational value, its alignment with national and state standards, its entertainment value, and its age-‐ and skill-‐level appropriateness. Restricted to Safe Whitelist Any time your child attempts to navigate somewhere outside of a Zoodles-‐approved link, they are blocked from going there and taken back to the page they were last on. Protected from Ads Additionally, Zoodles has developed a powerful Premium feature that allows parents to block ads from displaying on third-‐party sites that their children visit. These ads often target children with inappropriate offers for car insurance, Hugh Heffner video games, or home loans.
Smart for the Entire Family With our single product, Zoodles can meet all of your family’s needs – it not only adapts to serve the needs of each child in your family, but it can even keep up with each child as they grow. The best way to understand the smarts behind our app is by comparing the experiences for two different children. Adaptive Content The games we surface up to your child are really where the power of Zoodles lies. Because we know so much about what every game teaches, we are able to promote games to your child that teach subjects specifically targeted to their age level. For our 3-‐year-‐old, for instance, Zoodles is filled with letter recognition videos, matching activities, and counting and estimation games. For our 6-‐year-‐old, Zoodles is filled with addition and subtraction games, Schoolhouse Rock videos, and logic puzzles. We also take into account the skills that every child has, meaning that we select your child’s games based on whether they are able to read, type, or print independently. Children with special needs – such as those who are hearing or colorblind – are also empowered by our smart selection algorithms. Adaptive Interface The most noticeable thing that changes between experiences is the interface itself. As we saw for the 3-‐year-‐old child, there were really only two navigational elements on the screen: the arrows guiding them to more games, and the high level tabs.
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Zoodles has really made an effort to reduce the number of navigational elements on the screen and let younger children focus on what matters most: playing and learning! Now let’s compare this to the experience for our 6-‐year-‐old.
As you can see, the 6-‐year-‐old experience is significantly different. Not only do the games have text titles, but there are additional navigational elements as well. The Subjects and Characters sub-‐tabs were introduced to give older children more ways to browse through their Zoodles content. While younger children might be confused by the more advanced navigation, we quickly found that the categorization structure helped older kids find and discover content much faster.
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Now, if your child enjoys puzzle games or math games, there’s a quick and easy way to find them.
If they’re in the mood for Star Wars or Bolt games, there’s a fast way to find those too.
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Using Our Family Connect Features Setting Up Your Camera Both of our Family Connect features require you to have access to a microphone. Storybooks are greatly enhanced if you also use a webcam, but it is not required. Video Mail, on the other hand, requires you to have a microphone and a webcam. If you have a webcam, you only need to set it up once, and both you and your child will be able to use it freely after that. You will be prompted to set up your camera when you first try to record a storybook or send a video message. You can also manually set up your camera by visiting http://www.zoodles.com/camera. The most important step in setting up your camera is this one:
Make sure to click “Allow, to click “Remember,” and then to click “Close.” Clicking “Remember” ensures that you and your child will not have to go through the camera set up process again. Zoodles Storybooks
The Zoodles Storybooks feature allows distant family members to record themselves reading classic stories from the Zoodles library, and send those recordings to their young ones. You don’t need to bring anything but yourself – Zoodles provides the stories, complete with full-‐page, full-‐color illustrations and read-‐along text on the side. Current books include Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Princess and the Pea, and The Emperor’s New Clothes.
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You record storybooks from inside the Parent Dashboard, at http://www.zoodles.com/parent/books (shown below). From there, all you need to do is plug in your equipment (you need at least a microphone), choose the story you’d like to read, and click “Record a Reading”! Once you’re finished reading, Zoodles will take care of the rest, instantly sending your recording to your little one’s Playground, where they usually find their Zoodles games and activities.
Video Mail Our Video Mail feature allows family members to keep in touch by exchanging short video messages. Unlike Skype, the communication is completely asynchronous, so your little one does not need to be online at the same time as their relative!
Parents and relatives can record video messages by logging into their Parent Dashboard at http://www.zoodles.com/parent. Once a message is recorded, all you need to do is hit Send, and the message will show up in your child’s Mail tab in Zoodles! Kids are able to create and respond to video messages from inside their Playground. There’s no reading or typing required – even a 2 year old can do it!
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Zoodles Art Studio
The Zoodles Art Studio is an exciting new feature that lets kids create their own works of art! With a simple, colorful interface, kids are able to draw and paint as much as they want, without the mess or hassle. Their drawings are then saved to a digital scrapbook, where it’s easy for parents to see their child’s progress and share pictures with friends and family!
A New Friend You might also have noticed that the younger child’s interface is graced by a friendly puppy companion! To add delight to their experience, every child under the age of 6 is introduced to a pet dog in Zoodles who they can name and reward with treats. This little puppy always resides in the bottom corner of the playground, where your child can play with the dog to their heart’s content!
To return to the Zoodles app, you can either double-‐click on the blue “Z” icon on your desktop, or click the “Play Games” button in your Parent Dashboard at http://www.zoodles.com/parent.
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Understanding the Parent Dashboard The Parent Dashboard is the place for parents to go when they want to adjust any of the controls on their child’s experience, or learn about what their children have been learning and playing inside of Zoodles. To explore this area yourself, visit http://www.zoodles.com/parent.
In the Parent Dashboard, you can see vibrant reports on everything your child has been playing, broken down by subject, playing time, or content type. Weekly Activity Emails These vibrant reports come straight to you in the form of a weekly activity email. These emails include even more detailed information about what your child has been playing and learning. You can see new characters that your child met for the first time that week, or their top ten favorite school topics, or even whether they’ve been watching too many videos!
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Promoting Subjects The Parent Dashboard is also where you can control what your child plays and learns. One of our most unique features is the ability for parents to promote subjects to their children.
Using our simple sliders, parents can adjust the proportion of games in every subject that are surfaced up to their child. Setting Time Limits Every parent can attest to the difficulty of reining in a child who’s having fun. The Zoodles Play Timer lets you control how long your child plays without having to be the bad guy.
From Education and Parental Controls, click Time Limits. Now you can set time limits anywhere from half an hour to 8 hours a day, and change it depending on whether it’s the weekend or weekday, or which child is playing. As time winds down, children are given friendly purple reminders with how much time they have left. Once time runs out, a big blue clock appears and they are taken safely back to the starting log-‐in screen.
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Adding Sites and Games Even with a dedicated team and thousands of games in our system, nobody knows your child better than you. That’s why we let parents add their own specific content directly into the Zoodles app. To do this, simply click Education and Parental Controls and then Add Sites. Whenever you add a site, you have to choose whether your child can navigate anywhere on that site, or only to a particular page of that site. You can indicate your preference with the checkbox that reads:
After entering the requisite information and deciding which of your children the new content should be available to, you can start playing on your child’s account inside Zoodles, click Favorites, and see the new content you added there. Blocking Unwanted Characters For parents who dislike certain branded characters, it’s easy to remove them from Zoodles. Simply click Education and Parental Controls and then Block Shows. Then just type or check off the characters who you’d like to block. The same goes for sites and even for specific games. Filtering Violent Content
We also give parents the ability to control the level of violence involved in their children’s games, according to our comprehensive violence rating system. Go to Education and Parental Controls and then Violence Limits to choose a rating level that you’re comfortable with.
Your Account Finally, the Parent Dashboard is the place where you can go to adjust account information. You can upload a new profile picture for your child, change their birthday, or update their skills (e.g. give them permission to print).
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Pricing The Zoodles computer app is 100% free for families to download and play. All the parental features and controls are part of our Premium Membership, which costs $7.95 per month, $39.95 for six months, and $59.95 for a year. All new users will be given a 14-‐day free trial of Premium Membership. You can learn more about the distinction between free and Premium Members below.
