Today, I am doing something a little different for Webspiration Wednesday. As a staff, we still gathered for Webspiration Wednesday finishing the Guy Doud video from last week. Since I have already summed that up in this post, I thought I would write about a webspirational website instead. Sleedo is a great Webspiration Wednesday website.
What it is: Sleedo is a search engine that I learned about from @cspiezio today on Twitter. This is a search engine with a mission to better the world with each and every search. Every time you search using Sleedo, 10 grains of rice will be donated to help feed the poor. Sleedo is a Google powered search engine. Sleedo makes money through advertisements and donates that money to the World Food Programme, feeding those in need. So, for every search you do, you are helping improve the lives of people around the world. Pretty cool right?
How to integrate Sleedo into the classroom: Set up Sleedo as your homepage on classroom computers. When students perform searches, they can be doing double duty: searching and helping the hungry around the world. Sites like Sleedo are wonderful vehicles for teaching students about empathy, world issues, and compassion. Have your students dig in and learn more about how the World Food Programme operates or take a closer look at how website advertising works.
Tips: I have found that students are passionate about websites with a cause (Free Rice, Free Corn, Aid to Children, Free Kibble, Free Kibblekat). Often students feel helpless to do something important that makes an impact on this world. Sites like Sleedo help students enact real change that they can feel proud of.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Sleedo in your classroom.
Students learn better when they can make connections with their learning and the real world. This site does just that and makes them care as well. I bet they go home and tell everyone they just have to use this site now instead of Google!
I agree Judith, I think that this gives kids a sense of empowerment and they want to spread the word to others.