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Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
A Public Service Announcement About Comment Verification
I spent a lot of time today leaving comments on blogs, both classmates' blogs for this course and blogs that I personally follow. Blogging is something I personally love to do, and I make an effort to leave frequent comments for the blogs I follow, because I know that getting a notification that you've received a comment feels a little like finding $20 you completely forgot about in the pocket of your jeans.
Best! Feeling!
In contrast, this is how I felt, many many MANY times, immediately after typing out a thoughtful comment and hitting "submit":
Word (or comment) verification is one of the most frustrating things I deal with when blogging. I feel a little burst of joy every time I hit submit and see those glorious words "your comment has been submitted", instead of seeing that dreaded comment verification box.
This is an optional feature, and it is one that I choose not to use on my blogs, because I firmly believe that it costs bloggers comments. (Also because having to constantly "prove I'm not a robot" makes me feel stabby, and I prefer not to make my readers feel that way!) I personally look at it like this: I blog, in part, because I welcome interaction with my readers. I love getting comments, and I appreciate when people take the time to leave them. The last thing I would ever want to do is make my readers feel like they have to jump through hoops just for the privilege of leaving me a comment.
In a perfect world, this is what a comment verification box should look like:
Best! Feeling!
In contrast, this is how I felt, many many MANY times, immediately after typing out a thoughtful comment and hitting "submit":
Word (or comment) verification is one of the most frustrating things I deal with when blogging. I feel a little burst of joy every time I hit submit and see those glorious words "your comment has been submitted", instead of seeing that dreaded comment verification box.
This is an optional feature, and it is one that I choose not to use on my blogs, because I firmly believe that it costs bloggers comments. (Also because having to constantly "prove I'm not a robot" makes me feel stabby, and I prefer not to make my readers feel that way!) I personally look at it like this: I blog, in part, because I welcome interaction with my readers. I love getting comments, and I appreciate when people take the time to leave them. The last thing I would ever want to do is make my readers feel like they have to jump through hoops just for the privilege of leaving me a comment.
In a perfect world, this is what a comment verification box should look like:
When I see this kind of thing, I sigh quietly, but I jump dutifully through the required hoop and leave my comment. It's annoying, I'm slightly peeved, but I move on with my life.
However.
I cannot tell you how infrequently I encounter that comment verification box. That box is like a tall glass of ice cold lemonade at the end of a twenty mile hike through the desert compared to what I typically run afoul of.
Invariably, when I click "submit" on a blog that has comment verification enabled, what pops up looks a lot more like this:
This isn't outside the realm of possibility either:
And when I see comment verification boxes like these, this is how I feel:
I totally understand why people blogging for this course would leave comment verification enabled, and I hope everyone takes this in the tongue-in-cheek spirit that it was intended. I just wanted to throw it out there for anyone who has, through this course, discovered a love of blogging that they want to pursue beyond the course. If this is you...
...Save a blogger. Turn off comment verification. At least consider it. Your readers will weep with joy thank you.
/PSA.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Effective Use of Twitter in the Classroom
On the suggestion of my Integrating Technology professor, this week I visited high school English Starr Sackstein's blog, specifically the post 12 Tips for Using Twitter in the Classroom. I was immediately interested in the post because Ms. Sackstein works in a high school English classroom, and English is my area of interest. I also happen to be a pretty big fan of Twitter, so I was thrilled to see two of my passions combined in one post!
I really like the way that Ms. Sackstein describes Twitter as "micro-blogging" - what an apt description! What Ms. Sackstein has done is essentially embraced her students' natural enthusiasm for Twitter, and found a way to harness that enthusiasm and put it to use in her classroom. Each week, she directs students to an article online and then asks that they participate in a chat about the article on Twitter, posting their own comments and also replying to their classmates' comments.
In this way, this teacher has engaged her students and put them in charge of their own learning. She has identified something that her students have a natural passion for, and found a way to integrate that into her curriculum. She simultaneously teaches students the content area knowledge that she needs to cover and increases their literacy by teaching them about the basics of interacting via Twitter.
I love the idea of taking class discussions to Twitter, because I can really see how that would spark students' interest in participating in the discussion.
Have you ever used Twitter in your classroom? Would you consider using it in this way?
I really like the way that Ms. Sackstein describes Twitter as "micro-blogging" - what an apt description! What Ms. Sackstein has done is essentially embraced her students' natural enthusiasm for Twitter, and found a way to harness that enthusiasm and put it to use in her classroom. Each week, she directs students to an article online and then asks that they participate in a chat about the article on Twitter, posting their own comments and also replying to their classmates' comments.
In this way, this teacher has engaged her students and put them in charge of their own learning. She has identified something that her students have a natural passion for, and found a way to integrate that into her curriculum. She simultaneously teaches students the content area knowledge that she needs to cover and increases their literacy by teaching them about the basics of interacting via Twitter.
I love the idea of taking class discussions to Twitter, because I can really see how that would spark students' interest in participating in the discussion.
Have you ever used Twitter in your classroom? Would you consider using it in this way?
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