ZooMoo

When the ZooMoo app is running it listens to the broadcast from asia.zoomoo.tv and unlocks access to more free content. The ZooMoo app is very pleasing to both the eye and ear. You can chose from 8 different habitats where the user can explore the world of animals. Each of the 150 animals has a data card that plays the name of animal, plays a short professionally made film and also let the user know how rare each animal is. Each time a tab is used the user gets a reward. This reward turns in to a present that unlocks more cards that contain food and other items that the animals may need and also more animals. There are over 100 animals to collect. Parents or teachers can see how popular certain animals are via a tab in the parents section. This section also allows which animals have been bookmarked as a favourite and how often each animal has been played with.

The ZooMoo app is a absolutely fantastic resource just on its own, but when used in conjunction with the broadcasts allows both parents and children to explorer our wonderful world of animals. This is a huge app that any child or parent will find fascinating, rewarding, addictive, informative and awe inspiring. It would take a long, long time before any child would become bored with this. In fact, they would be coming back time and time again to keep engaging with this wonderfully charming app.

Well this is one the most professionally, thoughtful, intelligent apps out there. There are eight habitats to explore. When an animal is selected a data card pops up and is activated. The name of the animal is played back audibly. There are 3 tabs on the data card. One to play the animal’s name, one to see the animal in its natural environment via a professionally made film and a tab to state whether the animal is rare, endangered or abundant. Each tab can be selected as many times as required and after each time a reward is given. These are saved until a present is seen. When the present is opened three other cards appear containing items such as food and scene changes and one more animal. Every now and again a bubble appears above an animal in each habitat. When selected the app says whether the food is suitable for the animal or not so the user is learning about the correct food types. In each habitat male and female animals are seen and it is possible for the user to see whether each animal is “compatible” or not.

On the parents part of the app there are three tabs. One for the welcome page, one for the animals and one for the credits. The welcome page briefly explains what ZooMoo is all about. The animal page shows either an animal if it has been viewed or a lock symbol. This is where a parent gets an overview of their child’s play and learning experience with the ZooMoo app. There are a couple of ways of collecting more animals. A user can view the broadcasts with the app running. At a certain point the app will hear an audible cue and will give the user more cards in a similar way to the user browsing around the habitats and looking at the data cards on each of the animals. The user has a book icon on every page. The book stores all of the cards collected and other cards such as food and scene changes. The user can use the food cards to feed the animals and change a scene, say from day to night. This is where the user learns about nocturnal animals and how each habitat changes at this time. The user needs to learn how to look after each animal in its habitat by feeding it the correct food and not allowing it to be predated by the other animals around it. The user learns which animals get on with each other as every now and again a speech bubble appears above each animal with a picture of an another animal in the scene. When pressed the ZooMoo app either gives a reward or it makes an unpleasant noise indicating that the animals do not like each other.

The ZooMoo app is deeply engaging. It allows the user self-select the learning that they want. Parents can join in a “knee-to-knee” way that allows both themselves and their children alike to engage, learn and explore the habitats in which the animals live. The ZooMoo app is very gently gamified and allows the child to build on their acquired knowledge over time that not justs build encyclopaedic knowledge, but it also becomes deep learning as the child is fully in control of what they are wanting to learn about in a way that seems to be just play. This is edutainment in its finest form. There is no time pressure on the user in any of the habitats so each user learns at their own pace. ZooMoo is a fine example of what informative learning and play should be about. Functionally, it is as near to perfect as you can get. The sounds are not jarring, the visuals are representative of the animals being studied and the real life content is of outstanding quality shot in the field by professionals. The developer’s website has all the information needed to support the app and to demonstrate the augmented audible input from the television programme broadcasts. The ZooMoo app cannot be recommended highly enough and will not be deleted from this reviewer’s iPad.

You can download ZooMoo on your iOS or Android devices from the app stores. Download the ZooMoo app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.