KidsLipi and Duolingo are learning platforms that offer an online curriculum to support practicing a new language. But these platforms differ in a few ways.
#1 – Curriculum Alignment
KidsLipi allows language educators to create and deliver content that aligns with the curriculum students are learning in the classroom. All activities, quizzes, and games are customizable to match the book content and lessons that students are learning, giving teachers complete control over what they are practicing at home.
While it’s possible to find matching content in Duolingo, it requires searching through multiple units. Educators can manually search lessons and also see sample lessons. However, this is time-consuming, and there is a high likelihood that lessons won’t match the in-class curriculum.
#2 – Relevant Progress Tracking
Both platforms have reporting functions that track student progress, including completed activities. However, the similarities end there. Because Duolingo’s lessons do not match a teacher’s in-class curriculum, any progress tracked beyond assignments completed and time spent has little value. Because KidsLipi content is created by the educator, it aligns with the content that students are currently learning, making progress data highly relevant. Teachers can then provide the proper support to any student who needs it.
#3 – Designed for K-5 kids
Duolingo is mainly designed for high school students and adults, whereas KidsLipi is designed with K-5 kids in mind. It allows kids to click and explore words and sentences, listen, and read words, and receive golden stars when an activity is completed. The more they learn, the more golden stars they receive. They can also practice words and reinforce learning in the app, collecting points as they play more games. Finally, quizzes allow kids to evaluate their competency in the language they are learning. Overall, the app helps speed up the language learning process.
Bonus Point – More Offerings for Indian Languages
This last point is a bonus one, but we think it’s an important one. Currently, the only Indian language offered in Duolingo is Hindi. KidsLipi on the other hand gives educators the ability to use their content, whether that is Hindi, Gujarati or Tamil. Because educators can use their own curriculum to develop activities and quizzes, it’s possible to use KidsLipi language learning platform to deliver assignments with any foreign language. KidsLipi founder SamirPatel created the platform with this adaptability in mind. While teaching his son Gujarati, Samir noticed a lack of at-home language learning platforms that modeled what is taught in the classroom. He decided to design a platform that reinforces student learning at home while allowing teachers to be more efficient by using their own lessons.
When researching the best app for language learning, it’s easy to fall for the ones that might seem the most popular. What’s more important is looking at specific needs and how these apps apply to those needs, including how the lessons line up to your curriculum, what progress you hope to measure (and how you’d like to measure it). If you are a general user, Duolingo might work for you. But for a lesson-aligned supplemental platform that maximizes efficiency and concentrates on a specific curriculum, KidsLipi is a perfect fit.