Coinciding with the interview what did he do Macarena with Inés de Leoteca in which he explained to us, among many more things, that "every teacher who wants to transmit a taste for reading must also feel that passion", we have passed through the Impact Hub Madrid to attend the presentation of the project. On Thursday, April 24, Cristina and Inés, in addition to the programmer David, made the presentation of the Leoteca.es project, a website that is much more than a space for the promotion of reading among children.
I like the project a lot, at home we have already registered, and it is that in addition to being a place where you can find the most interesting reading books for kids between 6 and 12 years old, also children can share your hobby and his experiences with other kids in the community leaving his comments. Although that is not the functionality that I think is going to differentiate them, I think their main asset is that it is built from the needs that Inés and Raúl have identified during their time as primary school teachers in which they had to motivate their students to read.
Inés told me that Raúl is still active as a teacher and that she has left her position as a teacher although seeing the project seems to me that what keeps her very alive is her vocation to teach and especially as driving the desire to read among the little ones.
Leoteca.es stands out for the usability, the clarity and the large amount of content with information from more than 35,000 books from more than 300 publishers. The page is very simple and easy to use and neither the parents, nor the teachers, nor of course the children will have no problem to access this page for the impulse and motivation of reading. Sections of the page include site for publishers, the recommended book, discover a prominent author and organize the books in a virtual bookshelf. As we have commented, there are three profiles: children, parents Y teachers and what I loved is how can interact, because teachers can register their students and also ask their parents for their commitment to promote the reading community among the three profiles. That is the added value that I think Ines has managed to transfer from her knowledge and experience as a teacher to the Internet.
In the real world, participants have to commit to reading and it is the Leoteca website that supports and catalyzes to maintain momentum among the community of readers, teachers and parents. It is a strategy in which everyone wins and that is the true value of Leoteca.
As Ines explained in the interview, her starting point was the classroom experience in which she developed a reading community among students, parents and other teachers. For example, Raúl, of which we have already commented, and that allowed the reading children in the classroom to meet, exchange their opinions and book reviews and even lend them to each other. All that gamification game has it developed too Library in a space called Reader Planet
Between the challenges that Leoteca has are to grow and expand in Spain and Latin America, encourage reading also among the older, because in Spain from the 16 years few young people They seem to keep reading hobby. And of course the editorials to those who offer a shop window visible by a community of readers, with the participation of parents, to show their works. And there will also be options to buy in the future.
Another important challenge is that of authorsFor example, in the presentation an author explained her need to leverage in places like Library to reach their readers and help spread their work. And is that publishers seem to have little muscle and can not promote or have budget deficits to launch the authors and make them better known among the kids.
We congratulate Inés and Carmen for their Leoteca.es project and wish them that the growth rate does not stop. During the first days they are registering teachers and parents actively and of the 300 publishers of the catalog, more than 60 are already actively participating. I think their project is differential and that soon they can reach a sufficient critical mass so that they are recognized, gain notoriety and become a reference. We wish them good luck and hope that very soon we can talk about a success story.
