An Exclusive Interview with Jeanette McLeod, Founder Wizz-e a company which is redefining how the children of the current generation learn!
Wizz-e leverages what your children love doing, that is using the computer, by creating innovative eBooks for children which are highly interactive in nature and makes learning fun and easy!
I was introduced to the concept of eBooks and Wizz-e by a good friend, Shama Hyder who runs a successful company (ClickToClient.com) in the US. Though I was initially not sure of the outreach of the concept, but Wizz-e I feel is redefining the space entirely.
Jeanette, who is a mother to four is an amazign Mompreneur and I caught up with her for a small interview. This interview is an exclusive on this blog and I thank Jeanette for her time!
Paritosh: Wizz-e.com is a brilliant Idea, what made you think about eBooks as a medium for teaching the next generation?
Jeanette: Most people with kids will probably recognize that kids love computers. They are such a ‘tech savvy’ generation. My passion is to get kids reading more so why not use the medium they love to teach them to read? The technology gives us the ability to make the books interactive so kids can have the story read to them whilst the words highlight.
In this mode kids learn to model fluency, read left to right, pause at punctuation marks and associate sounds to letter groupings, just like having an adult read to them whilst using their finger to underline the words. For emerging readers they can read to themselves and if they get stuck on a word they can click to hear that word spoken. For our early readers that means that they can read without having to rely on an adult to be there all the time. The illustrations are animated which really bring the books to life.
After all if it is fun, they may not even know they are learning!
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Paritosh: You are a Mompreneur, a mother to four, how do your kids relate to the concept? What kind of research has gone into the project?
Jeanette: My kids are great at giving honest feedback!!
I knew I had hit the spot when the 2 youngest children sat transfixed to the computer having a story read to them. They are really behind their mum doing this. One of my kids has also done the voiceover for a book we are producing for charity [to be released later this year]. That made me really proud. A lot of research was done before the start-up about how children learn to read. We are not trying to compete with the plethora of phonics books or early readers, we want to be complimentary to them. We produce high quality, engaging stories for young children in a format they love. When kids read more their vocabulary and literacy skills improve.
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Paritosh: Looking at the quality of eBooks that you have, I am sure kids must be engaged into the content. What all goes into creation of such wonderful eBooks for the young ones?
Jeanette: Well it starts when an author submits a story to us. We have slush pile readers who will assess whether the story will make a great picture book. If we accept a submission then it goes to the editorial team who go through it with a fine tooth comb to make sure there are no grammatical or spelling errors. Then we assign an illustrator, who we work very closely with, to produce beautiful illustrations to enhance the story. We then have the story read by a professional voice over artist. Then off it goes to the technical team who transform the text, audio and illustrations into page turning, animated audio books.
As kids can click on every word to hear it spoken it is a time consuming process but we firmly believe that all this hard work brings a much higher quality to the world of eBooks for children.
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Paritosh: Have any children contributed to the eBooks as Child-Guest authors?
Jeanette: No not yet, although that may be something we consider in the future. A great story is a great story no matter what the age of the author.
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Paritosh: I appreciate your effort in reducing paper usage. What would you like to tell the readers of this blog about eBooks and how they save the environment by reducing tree felling?!
Jeanette: Paper books consume far more of the world’s resources in their production than eBooks. It is not just the impact of felling trees to make the paper. There is a lot of energy consumption in the book making process. During paper production obviously are trees required making the paper, however, further energy is used to transport the trees to the factories, turn the wood into paper during the pulping process and at the paper mills, and to produce chemicals in making dyes for the inks. Then further energy is used in the transportation of the paper to the print factories, during printing, storage and then shipping and distribution. All this uses energy as well as producing CO2 emissions.
There is also the sad fact that books that do not sell are simply destroyed (more than 1 billion books in 2006) some are repulped (using energy) others end up in land fills. Our eBook business is completely electronic. Apart from the energy we consume using computers in their development we do not have a detrimental impact on the world’s resources.
Some key facts:
- The carbon footprint of a book (2006 figures): 8.85 lbs, in carbon dioxide terms
- The total carbon footprint of the book publishing industry (2006 figures): 12.4 million metric tons
- The biggest contributor to the industry’s footprint: using virgin paper – forest and forest harvest are responsible to 62.7% of the industry’s total carbon emissions.
The book world (in the U.S.) uses up more than 1.5 million metric tons of paper each year.
Full report here http://www.ecolibris.net/book_industry_footprint.asp
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Paritosh: I love your blog, NextInLearning (www.nextinlearning.com) ! Can we see kids contributing to the blog?
Jeanette: What a great idea. We would love to hear what kids think about eBooks, reading and how they see the future of learning and we will publish them on the blog. Any views or thoughts should be sent to info [at] ebooks4kidz [dot] com. Let’s hear from our next generation of learners!!
Paritosh: Wizz-e.com is also present on facebook and I see you twitter as well! Its great to see a Mompreneur in action all across the internet, reaching out to as many kids and touching lives! How do you manage to do all this? Please share with us your twitter Id.
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Jeanette: When you love what you do, when you have a mission to get kids reading and help improve literacy levels across the world then you find the time! The internet and social media is a fabulous way to connect to people across the world. Let’s get kids reading! My twitter URL is http://twitter.com/JeanetteMcLeod. I’d love to connect with people who are interested in getting kids reading more.
I would like to thank Jeanette, for her time and the value that she is providing to the generations in a way that they like it, there is so much knowledge which our children can access, how we can contribute to it is by giving them the access to all of it, the way they like it. The way it is easier for them to grasp things and really learn.
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