WEBVTT - 25,000 Kids Books In One Epic! App

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<v Speaker 1>Twenty five thousand free books for teachers and students. I'm

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<v Speaker 1>Rich Dmiro. This is rich on Tech Daily. Recently, I've

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<v Speaker 1>been testing out a new app called Epic. This is

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<v Speaker 1>sort of like Netflix or Spotify, but for books more

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<v Speaker 1>than twenty five thousand of them, to be exact. And

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<v Speaker 1>here's the interesting part. You can subscribe for eight dollars

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<v Speaker 1>a month at home, but if you're a teacher with

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<v Speaker 1>a classroom and students, you can get access to all

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<v Speaker 1>of these books for free, the same exact experience, but

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<v Speaker 1>free when you're in the classroom. So we visited a

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<v Speaker 1>classroom at Aolian elementary school in Whittier, California, where Epic

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<v Speaker 1>is being used, and it works just like it does

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<v Speaker 1>at home, except all the kids get to access this

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<v Speaker 1>for free. So Epic is an app. It's in the

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<v Speaker 1>app Store. You can download it to a variety of devices.

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<v Speaker 1>We saw it running on iPads and chromebooks. My son

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<v Speaker 1>has also been using it at home on an iPad

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<v Speaker 1>with a test account. And basically, it's a bunch of

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<v Speaker 1>books kind of organized in very so you can organize

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<v Speaker 1>by topic, you can organize by reading level, you can

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<v Speaker 1>organize by age, whatever you want, and there's tons of

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<v Speaker 1>stuff to find in here, twenty five thousand books for

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<v Speaker 1>major publishers, including HarperCollins, McMillan, National Geographic Kids. A lot

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<v Speaker 1>of the big series are in there, but you do

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<v Speaker 1>have to pick and choose and find stuff. Not every

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<v Speaker 1>book imaginable is in here, but there's definitely enough to

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<v Speaker 1>make up for the fee of eight dollars a month

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<v Speaker 1>if you're paying at home, and it's certainly good enough

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<v Speaker 1>for free at school. And one of the features that

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<v Speaker 1>I really like are the quizzes. My son also really

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<v Speaker 1>likes these, So after you're done reading a book, there

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<v Speaker 1>are quizzes at the end, and these can test your

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<v Speaker 1>kids reading proficiency. Another feature parents and teachers will like

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<v Speaker 1>and kids is the read to you feature. So this

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<v Speaker 1>is where kind of like an audiobook, but the books

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<v Speaker 1>read to you, but they highlight some of the words

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<v Speaker 1>as they go along, so kids can become more confident readers.

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<v Speaker 1>Another feature parents will like. You can get weekly report cards,

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<v Speaker 1>so you can see in an email what your kids

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<v Speaker 1>are reading. The email will include the books that they've

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<v Speaker 1>looked through, how many pages they've turned, how long they

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<v Speaker 1>spent reading all that good stuff, and the co founder

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<v Speaker 1>Kevin Donahue of Epic and a Skype interview, told me

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<v Speaker 1>that this is all about seeing how the child is

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<v Speaker 1>improving with their reading and showing the parent some of

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<v Speaker 1>the interests their kids has around reading. I thought it

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<v Speaker 1>was really interesting some of the books that my kid

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<v Speaker 1>was reading it was based on stuff he was learning

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<v Speaker 1>in the classroom. He went home and then looked up

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<v Speaker 1>books on those same topics. I thought that was really interesting. So, again,

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<v Speaker 1>Epic is completely free for kids while they're in the classroom,

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<v Speaker 1>and the way they do this is the teachers basically

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<v Speaker 1>log in and then they share some sort of code

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<v Speaker 1>with the kids that only works while they're in the class.

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<v Speaker 1>But if you want to do this at home, you

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<v Speaker 1>can get a subscription for about eight dollars a month.

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<v Speaker 1>Seems like a pretty good deal considering Netflix a little

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<v Speaker 1>bit more than that. But I also found a bunch

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<v Speaker 1>of deals, like a special teacher offer at six dollars

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<v Speaker 1>a month, And I think, you know, six bucks a

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<v Speaker 1>month for all these books is not bad, especially if

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<v Speaker 1>you've purchased books for your kids. They can get pretty

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<v Speaker 1>expensive at the bookstore. So when it comes to privacy,

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<v Speaker 1>since this is geared for kids twelve and under. I

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<v Speaker 1>had to ask about the privacy aspects. There are no

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<v Speaker 1>ads on Epic and there is no social networking aspect.

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<v Speaker 1>Kevin Donahue again, the co founder, told me they don't

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<v Speaker 1>enable kids to connect or chat or message each other.

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<v Speaker 1>It's really just a content consumption platform. And so when

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<v Speaker 1>I talked to the teacher at aol in elementary, I

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<v Speaker 1>asked what is the downside to Epic, and the teacher,

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<v Speaker 1>Han Buie told me she said, if there is one downside,

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<v Speaker 1>it's that the kids just want to keep reading. And

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<v Speaker 1>I think that sounds like a pretty good problem for

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<v Speaker 1>teachers and parents. All right, If you want to get

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<v Speaker 1>a link to Epic and check it out, you can

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<v Speaker 1>go to my website. Just go to Rich on tech

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<v Speaker 1>dot tv. Again, the app is called Epic. It's got

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<v Speaker 1>a big exclamation point at the end. You can search

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<v Speaker 1>for it in the app store, check it out for yourself,

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<v Speaker 1>or tell your kids teacher about it so they can

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<v Speaker 1>get access for free at school. Thanks so much for listening.

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<v Speaker 1>The best thing you can do for me is to

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<v Speaker 1>rate and review the in the Apple Podcasts app. I

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<v Speaker 1>really do appreciate that that way Apple shows it to

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<v Speaker 1>more people. I'm Rich Damiro. Thanks for listening. I'll talk

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<v Speaker 1>to you soon.