Zane Education (Schoolhouse Review)

Zane Education is a source of over 1500 online educational videos, covering a wide variety of topics, from astronomy to classical music to history. These videos include downloadable lesson plans and interactive quizzes that ensure that your child is learning the material. A unique aspect to the videos is that they are all subtitled, providing students with both visual and auditory input of the narration. This aids in retention as well as being beneficial to beginning readers and ESL students.

   

A Gold membership to Zane Education includes a copy of the 424 page e-book, Christian Home Learning Guide. This guide begins by discussing the Christian world view of education, then  discusses each time period and video, advising parents of points they might wish to discuss with their children about each topic, since the Zane videos come from a secular point of view. A Learning Video Guide is also available that makes it easy to find videos catalogued by grade or topic.

 

I was very impressed by the variety of videos available on Zane. Since we’re have been studying Ancient Greece, we focused on those. We found several in the Art History division and enjoyed being able to see and hear about a variety of Greek architecture and sculpture. But….there was a LOT of nudity shown in the sculptures—something to be aware of.  Emily really enjoyed the retelling of the many classic Greek myths that we found in the literature division. She was also fascinated by the insect videos in the Biology division.

 

The videos (at least all the ones we’ve seen) are in a slide show format, with still pictures, music, narration, and subtitles.

 

I found the quizzes helpful as a means to review and to ensure that Emily was paying attention. I also liked the subtitles and Emily did note that they helped her remember the material better.

 

I really look forward to using this resource over the next year and am excited about the potential to have videos on nearly every imaginable topic available within seconds to supplement our other subjects.

 

Zane offers several membership levels:

• Basic Membership that provides demo videos and free math videos.
• Gold Membership—includes all videos, quizzes, lesson plans, and many bonus materials ($17.99/month or $197.89/year)
• Silver Membership—includes all videos for an age/grade level plus quizzes and lesson plans ($12.99/month or $142.89/year)
• Bronze Membership—includes all videos for a subject ($8.99/month or $98.89/year)
• Topic Taster Membership—includes videos for a single topic plus lesson plans and quizzes ($5.00/month)

SPECIAL! Through August, 2012, Zane Education is offering a 35% discount on any Gold, Silver, or Bronze 1-year membership with the coupon code, “ZE395HSM.”

If you would like to learn more,  please look at the Getting Started Guide or visit  Zane’s Facebook page.

Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Crew, I received a free Gold membership to Zane Education  in order to write this review. All opinions are my own.