thing 11

Widgets are fun to add to blogs but I guess I am always trying to find something meaningful for my students when I look at all these different widgets. I was thinking about using a miniclock until I realized that most of my students have difficulty reading anything but a digital clock. I want the things I do to be meaningful to their education and not a gimic.

The embedded code is much easier to use now than in the beginning. I also know what I am looking for so it doesn't take as much time to do it.

I spent some time on "twitter" this morning. I found most of the discussions superficial at best. To me, it wasn't as meaningful as having a discussion "face to face." I can't determine tone or intent when someone is writing to me unless I have already met the person so I don't really know how they are saying it.

Students must like this kind of interaction because they don't have to really interact with the other person in depth. For example, you could tell someone on an email or a twitter posting that a relative or friend died. The person on the other end of the posting could reply: "Sorry to hear that, that is too bad." But what was the intent of their reply?..By looking at facial expressions and tone, you could get a good idea about it. The person could have just posted that to get on to another subject, didn't want to hear the person whine about it, or seriously did care. You don't know unless you see the person face to face.