I have a variety of RSS feeds coming into my Google Reader- from dictionary "words of the day" to the New York Times, but the posts I found the most fascinating this week came from Read, Write, Think. From one of the posts sent to me through the feed I learned of a new blogging apparatus called Wordfaire. Essentially, Wordfaire allows a blogger to update his/her blog instantly by clicking on "update." This is much quicker than the time it might take on other blogging sites and is accessible through your Twitter, Facebook, or Google account. Wordfaire also acts as a simple blogging site as well.
The interesting element about using Wordfaire would be for times in a classroom when you want all students to have a voice simultaneously and when they would need to react to something quickly. The blog post suggested students use this to respond to State of the Union speeches. I could expand this to any time I have my class view a film or film clip or if we were reading a story aloud. It would be valuable to have a way for students to react immediately without interrupting the flow of the lesson, film, or presentation and I think it would allow for more genuine questioning than having to wait until the presentation was over. Students could respond or post their questions immediately without interrupting at the moment but still provide a way for their questions and insights to be heard and asked.
