Schoolhouse Review: Zane Education

For the past several weeks, I have had the opportunity to review several products that will really help curb my curriculum costs this school year.  The first one I will tell you about is Zane Education.

Zane Education is a vast online library with educational videos on a wealth of subjects.  History, Literature, Art, Science, Math, and Health Studies are all covered.  If you choose to use it as a supplement to any curriculum, you are sure to find videos on whatever you need, and Zane is still adding videos to the library.  Paired with the other study tools offered, you could also put together your own curriculum or unit studies for several subjects.  Each video is accompanied by a lesson plan (which is all on one page - I like this because I don't have to use too much paper and ink printing).  Sidebar links will also take you to a glossary, a dictionary, and a thesaurus with information pertaining to that specific video.  There are interactive quizzes for each video.  Another great resource is the online World Factbook, which contains information about "the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities."  It includes maps, Flags of the World, physical details, and political information.  

In addition, one unique feature of Zane's videos is that they are subtitled.  Children (and adults!) will retain much more information when they can hear the audio and read the subtitles at the same time.  The videos are largely slideshows.  I really like the wealth of information and photos they provide.  If you have been studying ancient Greek art and would like pictures of the famous works without buying an expensive textbook, you can find all those basics here, as well as information you haven't seen elsewhere.  The videos are done in a very standard, educational way that reminds me of the educational videos I saw in school.  In today's world, my children would love for every educational video to be ramped up to the entertainment stylings of Disney, but for the sake of learning, everything cannot always be as flashy as they would like!  You can view sample videos at Zane Education and make sure these videos are something that would hold your students' attention.  When watching the videos, use the Video Study Tools buttons to the right of the video to navigate to the study helps, not the buttons shown in the slide show itself.  The buttons in the slide show evidently went with the individual slides before they were made into videos.

Could you use some free Math videos?  Register with Zane Education.  The Math videos 

are free to use for all Registered users. They are the only videos that are not owned by us, and are not subtitled or closed captioned. We provide them for your convenience only as we proceed to develop our own.

You can download a free catalogue to see just what all is offered from this page.

It seems that in addition to the main content of a product, there is often something very simple that just makes my day.  One of those things here is that my membership page includes a list of all videos offered, with a gold star next to the ones we have watched.  I am glad I have a full year membership, because there are so many that we still need to see!

It should be noted that Zane Education is a resource library for the teacher, not necessarily a playground in which you should let your children roam freely.  There are videos on the theory of evolution, as well as sex education, that you may or may not want your children to see.  Preview items yourself and decide what you would like for your children to watch.

Zane Education is a valuable resource for any homeschool parent to have.  I think it is well worth the price and is greatly enriching our program.

The Nitty-Gritty:
The Product - Zane Education online subscription library

Age Range - Various subjects, kindergarten through adult

Price - Sign up for the Basic Free Membership and see what else is available for as little as $8.99/month.  See pricing for all memberships here.

Want some more good news?  Zane has provided a promo code to our readers for 35% off any annual gold, silver, or bronze membership purchased by August 31, 2012. Use code ZE295HSM at checkout to receive discount!!!

You can contact Zane Education, by email when you follow the link on their website, call ~ 1.850.488-8204, or write:

Zane Education

2060-D Avenida De Los Arboles, #675

Thousand Oaks, CA 91362

Also, watch for their latest developments and new products – read their News Blog and follow Zane Education on facebook.

To see what my fellow Crewmates thought of Zane Education, click the banner below.

Disclaimer:  I received a free subscription to Zane Education for the purpose of a fair review.  No other compensation was given, and all opinions are my own.