Company website: www.ziptales.com.au

Phone: 1800 004 442

Fax: 03 5331 1219

Email: admin@ziptales.com.au

Service area: Worldwide

Products and Services

Reading in the digital age.......

Ziptales is an all Australian online literacy resource for K-7 which helps prepare children for their future by providing quality digital education, learning that actively engages, user friendly intuitive and 'fun' interfaces, multi platform delivery: IWBs, computers in the classroom or library, laptops or notebooks.

The founders came from backgrounds in English teaching and educational publishing. After the acquisition of their company Wizard Books by two large publishers in 2002 and 2003, the owners used a small AusIndustry grant (EPICS) to help fund a move to digital publishing and launched the "Main Library" centre of the Ziptales website.

There was considerable take up by "early adopter" schools even in 2003 when only dialup internet was available and the one delivery platform in schools was classroom computers.

The content base has evolved each year so that the "Main Library" of 136 stories with interactive comprehension tasks and 100s of BLM pages, is the centre piece but only one of 13 distinct teaching applications. The much greater flexibility that IWBs have brought to the classroom have encouraged the use of the Main Library for shared and guided reading as well as independent, and the creating of applications suited to small group and whole class lessons. A survey completed late last year among our subscribers revealed that platform usage was typically....laptops or notebooks 56.5%, classroom computers 88%, interactive whiteboards 82.6%, computer lab 46.7%, school library 39.1%, for whole class lessons on IWBs 69.6%, for small group lessons on IWBs 64.1%.

The "Main Library" contains stories in 12 genres, all with voiceovers. Stories are in three reading levels and have Lexiles as well as Flesch Kincaid scores. These range from newly independent readers through to advanced year 6.

As well there are for the younger students: "Learn the ABC", "Puppet Plays" and "Storytime" while "Story Machine", "Graphic Classics", "Make and Do", "Joke in a Box", "Children In History" and "Happy Schools"(anti bullying, new for 2011) suit the middle years.

For older students "Write Time" deals with the difficulties of writing in many different text types, "Rhyme Time" presents 12 famous poems and classroom activities, "Skill Builder" covers the important areas of grammar, punctuation, comprehension and spelling and SAM (our standardised assessment measure) prepares children to face the NAPLAN testing program.

"Puzzle Palace" contains 24 original interactive puzzles right across the yr 2-7 spectrum and "Interactive Readers" presents eight stories designed for Learning Support, ESL or Special needs.

Comments from some of the respondents to last year's survey wrote that:

• "Kids just love it... so it makes literacy learning fun" Brett, Tas
• "I am teaching Yr 6 and use Ziptales as a whole class activity using the interactive whiteboard and also individually during computer time. I really like using the Write Time section and the grammar section to introduce text types and grammar lessons." Lynette, Vic
• "I love Ziptales.It's great to use for a small group teaching session then they go to individual computers and reread then do follow up activities. I like that the activities are scored and standard format for every story. I have been successfully using Ziptales for Yr 3-4 since I first heard about the program some 7 or 8 years ago, maybe more. Fiona, Vic
• "Simple to use, colourful, loads quickly, great range of stories" Mark, NSW
• "We use Ziptales as part of our guided reading groups. It is an excellent resource for this as it motivates and engages the children" Matthew NSW
• "FABULOUS! We will be continuing our whole school subscription in 2011. Keep up the great work!" Robyn QLD

We offer a two week free trial to all schools and also free virtual PD at any time of your choosing. Phone, email or visit the website to sign up today. www.ziptales.com