Jens Peter de Pedro, director of Lingokids, explains why children learn best with live-action video:

According to recent research from Insight Kids, 92% of US children like watching non-fiction content, and 62% say they enjoy doing so online. The researcher, Sarah Chumsky, adds that children are naturally drawn to non-fiction content because it helps them do the work of growing up. From exploring real-life videos, kids gain inspiration, competence and confidence, she argues.

Children prefer to acquire knowledge from people to which they have real relationships. This is because education isn’t just a transfer of information, as developmental psychologist Peter Gray says, but also a transfer of culture, and we only really pick up culture from people who are significant to us. This applies to dancing as it does programming, microbiology, accounting, or learning a new language.

For example, Lingokids launched in February as​ a comprehensive English-language app-based course for children ages two to six designed with content from Oxford University Press. Aside from an adaptive learning algorithm that adjusts to kids’ varied improvement levels​, it features live-action shows like MyTeacher (pictured).  And as an educational technologist behind Lingokids, I know I may never have the cultural influence that an older brother or sister can have, but that must be what I shoot for. To create a relationship with customers, we have to credibly convey emotion, and no medium does that like live-action video.

Kidscreen reecntly reported on a global appetite for live-action drama among young consumers of TV and VOD. If children are craving authentic emotional connection for their entertainment, why would they not want this in their learning, too?

via Kidscreen » Archive » Why the future of edtech is video.