Making Learning Fun

Aside of Ozcoolies general motto “Because early education SHOULD be free!”, the primary purpose of Ozcoolies Apps is to Make Learning FUN!! The apps aim to engage children in a fun way so they desire to learn more of their own free will.

Case in point:

School Handwriting Fonts

Ozcoolies Apps will use the Handwriting Style applicable to the Australian State where your child will (or is) attending school, so be sure to set this option before your child begins playing. This ensures they are only exposed to the handwriting style they will be exposed to in the classroom.

There are some insignificant differences between the States in how letters are formed, for example slope and roundness, but there are also some significant differences: such as how “p” or “z” looks for example.

You can mess around with the fonts in their “DEMO” section on this website to get an understanding of these differences and how confusing this may be for a small child. The following video shows you where to find the “DEMO” boxes, as well as how to download the fonts for home or classroom use.

Accessibility

Although the apps rely on playing audio files (for authentic Australian accents), the games use written words and phonics which are animated in time with spoken or sung audio. The apps are also compatible with Readers.

Offline = Free + Ad Free!

To ensure the apps remain free for everyone, they will not be distributed in any of the app stores. These services generally costs hundreds of dollars per year, which Ozcoolies WILL NOT pass on to end users, nor will Ozcoolies ever trade for ads.

The apps are offline-first by design. This means you can completely disconnect the internet before handing the device over to your child – and the app will still function.

The added benefit to ‘offline-first’ is that trackers, often used by web browsers to serve up ads, cannot report back to their main servers without an internet connection. So yes, Ozcoolies Apps are genuinely ad-free and your child will never be offered a link to somewhere out there on the web.

Device Compatibility

The offline method used is called Trusted Progressive Web Apps hence, they are very much dependent on the web browser you have installed on your device.

Samsung, Android and iOS devices should function as expected on the default browser provided with the device. Other browsers the apps are tested with include Safari and Chrome browsers.

** Important to note: Opera and Opera Mini do not support many of the features utilized by Ozcoolies Apps. This ranges from ability to play audio files, to offline mode and more.

For the best experience, we recommend you download and install the Chrome browser, which fully supports PWAs. Optionally, you can change the default browser in your device settings, then set it back to whatever you want when your child is not using the app.

Online Updates

As more and more parents install and use the apps, device limitations, security and other issues may arise and these will be repaired on occasion. You will be notified within the app when you should go online to get an update.

If you’re already online when you start the app, it should update quietly in the background. If you went offline before the update completed, you will be notified within the app to go back online in order to complete the update.

Online Safety

At NO time should Ozcoolies or the apps email or SMS you! Sometimes hackers pretend to be from a website they’re not, so ALWAYS check ANY link before you click on it.

Ozcoolies Apps are served directly from our secure web server and the link will always have “ozcoolies.com” in it, preceeded by the app name.

For example, the Kindy App link will look like this: https://kindyapp.ozcoolies.com

Take careful note of where the fullstops are placed as hackers will often move them around to trick you. And always double-check the “https” part has the “s” in it (with no fullstops either side). The “s” stands for “secure”. By modern standards, your browser should warn you if the “s” is missing/broken and, in most cases, even prevent the link from opening.