Wordle & Twitter

Wordle:  I'd like to sum up this Web 2.0 tool with one word:  AWESOMEST.  This online program is so much fun... I mean, look at what I created by copying and pasting a paragraph from my first, autobiographical blog (To the right).  Pretty cool, I know.  Obsessed with arts-n-krafts, I absolutely love things like this... but as for classroom use, there's no reason as to why I would present this to my high school math students.  I don't like saying that, because it makes me think about the fact that I just learned about this fantastic website at the age of 24 -- and I wish I could tell everyone about Wordle, but it would seem inappropriate to bring up something that has absolutely nothing to do with my math subject... So how do I "spread the word(le)?"  No need to linger on this question, so let's move on.



Twitter:  This is definitely a medium for communication that has taken over the world!  I have a facebook, but I've only logged onto it no more than 6 times in the past 2 years... I learned last Thursday that Twitter is different from myspace and facebook in that it is largely based on updated information of a person's interests (i.e. following famous people, the news, friends, businesses, etc.).  I can see myself being an obsessive tweeter, except I feel as though many people that have a twitter are more likely to have a fancy phone where a twitter application can be accessed through at all times of the day... and a fancy phone with internet access is something that Judy Tran has never had and cannot picture having.  When it comes to possibly using Twitter for my math classes, I can see it being useful for my students and I to be able to interact and ask/answer any questions pertaining to an assignment or project during out-of-school hours.  I find that I almost learn more when I do math in a group, because it's helpful to see different approaches to a math problem... so I can only imagine that creating a twitter page for my students would be just like having my entire class physically work together on problems and learn from one another.  However, there's still the situation with twitter-update-alerts in that I should not expect all of my students to possess what I consider a small, mobile computer (i.e. iphones and any other wireless devices that can fit in one's pocket).  What a world: we have little computers that can actually fit into our pockets.  I really hope I don't have to learn how to deal with a "Zoolander" phone (Exhibits A & B below) in my near future...

Exhibit A

Exhibit B