The Well’s Running Dry
Hey, I seem to have become more popular, I’ve added a hit counter which is invisible to all but me, and even a counter for how many people are on at what time. So far the maximum is 1 person on at the same time! Wow, that sounds really weird. Even though that may be some juicy information, other than that, I don’t really have any stories to tell. Though, I do have a lot going on in my mind.
It seems like most students don’t really do much with writing. Sure, you might write a report once and a while, but it never seems like students really have the motive to write what their opinions on different topics are. While, on the other side, teachers always seem to stress how much the writing section of all the standardized tests counts, while they don’t spend all of that time working on that. So, I was thinking that it would be so genius to come up with a program to get students blogging. Some might think that this might mean that there should be boundaries set, but I think that they would be more creative if they could do whatever they wanted. They would just say what’s on their mind.
I think this could also help those who have social boundaries or problems. They would be able to meet others like them. The students would be able to interact, and meet others without discrimination. Everyone would be the same, and learn.
Maybe you would think that this would mean another costly project for the schools, but it isn’t that hard. Either they could use www.wordpress.com, which would work great for their purposes, or they could try to use their own hosting, and use the free open-source software of Wordpress or say MovableType.
Now, wordpress.com would be great because it’s free, and there is no limit to the number of blogs you can have, great if even a whole classroom wants to get into it. It would almost be as good as having a school buy a server for the whole school to have privately owned domains and blogs. It wouln’t cost that much, and the students could have their own slice of the web.
Even though this all sounds great, even fantastic on paper, getting it out there and able to be up and running could be more challenging. So, I guess this would mean that I should try to take it into my own hands. I know most teachers or instructors would be iffy or concerned about this technology. A good way is if my idea was to become more popular, I could have guest “editors” post stories or articles. It would be a great way for new bloggers to become more well know. Comment about what you think about, tell me if you could help. Thanks!
- Gaudyspuds
March 1st, 2008 at 21:41
My dear Gaudyspud,
Don’t be disappointed if you don’t see more than two people reading at the same time. How do I know — I did a back-of-the-envelope calculation. Suppose that everyone is awake for 12 hours (I’m thinking of your dad here) and that the average reading time is 5 minutes. So there are 144 5-minute periods per day for a reader. The odds of two people choosing the same time are about 1/144!!! In fact, if you have six readers, the odds of two people reading at the same time are
1 - (144/144)*(143/144)*(142/144)*(141/144)*(140/144)*(139/144) = 0.10
For a similar situation see this article about the odds of any two people having the same birthday.
Auntie Ipswitch
PS I’d like to think I’m smart but then I remember I married your Uncle Chappaquiddick