Thing 12

The widget I selected was too wide to fit in my regular blog posting "column," so I included it on the bottom of the page. I did have a lot of fun playing the game! It would be fun (and probably time consuming) to search and find more fun widgets to add. I can see where informal polls would be nice to add to a classroom blog. It would give students a chance to give some feedback on how they think things are going or what topics they really enjoyed.

I am getting comfortable embedding code. I learned a little bit about code when I had a Blackboard site a few years ago, so I wasn't totally frightened of it when I started...because it can look scary!

I do not really belong to any other online communities. I just really don't have time to invest in that right now. And I don't think that most relationships formed online are as meaningful as face-to-face relationships. I think that they often require less effort (even though it make take up a lot of time), less personal commitment, less "risk," and they tend to be more "disposable." It's much easier to just stop checking a blog or delete an e-mail than it is to avoid talking to or seeing someone in person. Unfortunately, I think that this is one of the reasons that MySpace and other social networking sites are so popular. They are "easier." I do think that they are great venues for people to share information and to "get to know" a lot of people (for good or bad), but I don't think that it is often used effectively to make and forge good, strong, and meaningful relationships.