Saturday, January 5, 2008

Using Technology to Do Good

I started something at school this year called "one-click mitzvah."
I work at a Jewish Day School. In Judaism a mitzvah is a commandment. It has also come to be defined as a good deed. 

We set the home page on all of the computers in the lab to The Hunger Site and taught the students to click to give.
So simple. I can not take credit for this beautiful idea. My friend, Eileen, suggested it to me. For the kids it became an immediate habit.
When I demonstrate something to the students in the lab, I have usually already been online that day and have already clicked on the Hunger Site. But if I open my browser and go to another site quickly without clicking to give, the kids yell "one click mitzvah!"
The older students work their way across the top of the page to go to each site in the GreaterGood Network of websites which include The Hunger Site, The Breast Cancer Site, The Literacy Site, The Rainforest Site, The Child Health Site and The Animal Rescue Site. 

There are many other sites for harnessing the immense power of the internet for the greater good, among them freerice.com and dosomething.org.

I see a lot of potential here.

The Hunger Site

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