Reading Rainbow On The Web

Just take a look…its in a book…its Reading Rainbow!  Remember back in the day when you waited for that song to begin.  You knew it was time to go on an adventure!  Reading Rainbow first hit the television in 1983 and sadly finished in 2006!  LeVar Burton’s vision was to help children develop a passion for reading!  In fact, 63,000 people have backed Burton’s latest idea of Reading Rainbow on the web!  More than $1 million was raised on Kickstarter in just one day!  In fact, they have raised $2.7 million, surpassing the goal they had started with.

Burton couldn’t have expected such a response to his project.  In fact, he had given the project 35 days to raise the funds but was able to do it in 1 day.  Says Burton, “Kickstarters, I don’t know what to say.  We just crossed the million-dollar threshold, it is our first day. I am overwhelmed. Thank you so much. This is going to enable us to really, really, really do a lot of good.”

Nearly two years ago, the Reading Rainbow application was launched for the iPad.  But the goal of getting children excited about reading needed more.  Affecting change needs to happen on a wider level!  With that in mind, their funding that they raised will be used to make books and ‘video field trips’accessible on the net.  They will also make a version aimed specifically at classrooms.  Although Reading Rainbow has finished its television career, you can still get a subscription for a small fee to take a trip back in time.

What’s really interesting is Burton’s plan to bring Reading Rainbow to the disadvantaged.  The web version should be available free of charge to underprivileged schools.

Burton announced in a video regarding this project that “[w]e can genuinely change the world, one children’s book at a time.  ‘Reading Rainbow’ is back for every child, everywhere.”  That includes grown up children!

As always, if you would like to leave a sensible comment, then please do so in the comments section below.

[Images via Kickstarter]

SOURCE: http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/28/reading-rainbow-kickstarter/?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000595