Reading Rainbow - "Take a Look!"

Many of us have fond memories of the PBS series "Reading Rainbow", with its wonderful opening theme song and the friendly LeVar Burton sharing storybooks and background information about the theme.  An add-on at the end featured kids talking about their favorite book recommendations.

Reading Rainbow aired from 1983 through 2006, but reruns until 2008 continued to encourage children of all backgrounds, demographics and cultures to read, Read, READ!

On June 20, 2012, the Reading Rainbow App was released for the iPad and became the #1 educational app within 36 hours. Built from the ground up by LeVar Burton and his company, RRKIDZ, the app allows children to read unlimited books, explore video field trips starring Burton, and earn rewards for reading.

Here are two fun renderings of the familiar opening theme song.  The first is the original, with its 70s style kid power lyrics and imagery.  The second is a 60s spoof, done by Jimmy Fallon in the style of The Doors...enjoy both!

Click here for -----> Reading Rainbow Original   

Click here for ----------> Reading Rainbow Spoof

 

With thanks to fellow LMS Jo Gargoly of Kingston for this link.

How Much Can Children Teach Themselves?

“ In nine months, a group of children left alone with a computer — in any language — would reach the same standard as an office secretary in the West."

- Sugata Mitra

In 1999, Sugata Mitra and his colleagues dug a hole in a wall bordering an urban slum in New Delhi, installed an Internet-connected PC and left it there. What they saw was kids playing around with the computer, and in the process learning how to use it, how to go online, and teaching each other. The "Hole in the Wall" project demonstrates that an environment that stimulates curiosity can cause learning through self-instruction and peer-shared knowledge. Mitra, who's now a professor of educational technology at Newcastle University, calls it "minimally invasive education."

At TED2013, Sugata Mitra was awarded the TED Prize, and he made a bold wish: to help build a place where children can explore and learn on their own — and teach one another — using resources from the worldwide cloud.

Listen to this ... I would love to have a conversation about it via your posted comments!

Click here to watch and listen to Mitra's TED Talk