What is MarcoPolo?
MarcoPolo equips educators with a robust system designed to improve classroom standards, engage students deeply, and build stronger ties with families. By employing a three-tiered approach, educators gain access to essential training and resources that enhance the classroom environment and captivate children in their learning experiences. With MarcoPolo’s dynamic content, alongside tailored teacher tools, activities, and thought-provoking questions, educators are empowered to take learning to new heights, extending its impact far beyond the classroom setting.
Kindertales has collaborated with MarcoPolo to seamlessly incorporate MarcoPolo's educational content into your regular Kindertales routines. This article will cover how to set up and configure MarcoPolo in your admin settings.
What's in this article
Enabling the MarcoPolo Add-On
Before you can begin educating students with MarcoPolo content, you'll first need to enable the add-on.
- Navigate to Settings > Admin > Add-Ons
- Click the green Enable button to start your 30-day free trial of MarcoPolo
Configuring the MarcoPolo Add-On
Now that you have the MarcoPolo Add-On enabled, you're ready to start tailoring the experience for your locations!
General Settings
The General Settings tab allows you to toggle two major MarcoPolo settings.
- The General Learning setting allows staff to browse and view the MarcoPolo library of video content. Every time a staff member shows a video, administrators can choose if the staff member can notify parents that the video was used to educate their child by checking the Parent access and alerts checkbox.
- The MarcoPolo Enhanced Milestones setting shows MarcoPolo videos and educational resources to staff when recording a Milestone. It also allows notifying parents about Milestone attempts or achievements, with an option to share the MarcoPolo content used.
Location Management
The next step in configuring MarcoPolo is deciding which of your locations and rooms have MarcoPolo enabled. The Location Management page serves both as a page for you to monitor your monthly usage as well a page for you to enable and disable MarcoPolo content for Rooms and Locations.
To enable MarcoPolo content for a Room:
- Click the checkbox beside the room for which you'd like to enable content
- If you'd like to enable content for an entire location, filter by that location and click the select all checkbox at the top of the list
- Click the green Enable button
- You can confirm you've enabled MarcoPolo content by checking the MarcoPolo Status column on the table
Content Management
Now that you've enabled MarcoPolo, the final step is customizing your video content. You can customize MarcoPolo content in two ways: your site's MarcoPolo Navigation Options and your site's MarcoPolo Available Videos.
Customizing MarcoPolo Navigation Options:
- Navigate to Settings > Admin > Add-Ons > Configure MarcoPolo > Content Management
- Confirm that Customize dropdown is set to Navigation Options
- You can choose any Subject Area, Curriculum and Framework, and Theme to enable or disable by checking its respective checkbox
- These settings save automatically; you can confirm their changes in the Kindertales Classroom app
Customizing MarcoPolo Available Videos:
- Navigate to Settings > Admin > Add-Ons > Configure MarcoPolo > Content Management
- Confirm that Customize dropdown is set to Available Videos
- You can find a video to enable / disable either by using the search bar or using the Subject Area, Curriculum and Framework, or Theme filters on the left
- Click the checkbox(es) by the video(s) you'd like to enable / disable
- Click Enable / Disable
- Disabled video thumbnails change to greyscale to indicate their disabled status