by Terrance Gaines
Say what you want about some of Luda’s rap lyrics, but what you can’t say is that he isn’t involved in his daughter’s life, unlike some of these other influential black male celebrities always crying about child support (have I said too much already?). Case and point, Ludacris and daughter Karma have teamed up to develop “Karma’s World” – A fun and educational website where kids grades 1-6 can learn about different subjects from math, geography & science, read books and play games.
In a statement sent to AllHipHop.com Ludacris explains the website’s vision and how his daughter was involved in the development process.
“The site touches on subjects like, the rewards of hard work and importance of learning manners as well as the idea that doing good deeds for others will bring good into your life ““ which is the meaning of the word Karma. The music and lyrics, games and stories on the site are all original and were created by me, my daughter and my creative team.”
I’m a father of two little girls, ages 3 years and 18 months, and I already see that they will be heavy techies. So I took a look at Karma’s World to see if my kids will be able to benefit from visiting it in the near future. Right from the jump, you can tell Ludacris played more than just a “put my name on it” role. The intro song is a catchy rap, seemingly sang by his daughter Karma and dishes up a little geography about where she is from and how it relates to other places on the globe. The site is definitely geared towards the little ones. As an adult, I was really looking for a “music off” option after a couple of minutes on the site; but, I can see my kids getting hooked on the intro and signing it in the car over, and over, and over again (thanks Ludacris).
The home page resembles a theme park where kids have their choice of three areas that they can click to interact with the different activities based on their grade range (1-3 or 4-6). For the more advanced visitors, parents or teachers, they can use the site’s menu to navigate directly to the activities (that’s a relief). Speaking of which, Karma’s world is also a good resource for adults. According to the site, every time the site is refreshed, there will be new lesson plans that teachers can download and implement in their classrooms and tips for parents that reflect the three subjects taught on the site.
History has shown that Ludacris does give back to the community (I Googled it). I view Karma’s world as a way that Ludacris is using technology and New Media to give back to his daughter.
I’m a dad of two little girls, so of course I got a little mushy at the end.
Byline: Terrance Gaines is a husband, father and technology consultant/evangelist who writes about all kinds of tech subjects on his site, BrothaTech, in addition to several other sites on the interwebs and in print media. He also talks about “all things tech” among other things on Twitter @BrothaTech.