Wiffiti It
A friend has been raving to me about Wiffiti. Honestly, until he explained it to me, I just didn't get it. Today I decided to take the plunge and use it. Last night I whipped up a poetry WebQuest to get my kiddos thinking about poetry and blast any misconceptions they may have. During the quest they were going to read a few poems and then tweet their observations using the hashtag #poetryrule. I was thinking that Wiffiti would be a visually appealing way to display their tweets.
Overall, I really liked Wiffiti. To begin with, it was sooooo easy to set up. With just a few clicks it was ready to go live. I also liked that you could feed a hashtag into it. Perfect, not only for focusing our conversation today, but also for any future conferences or workshops I conduct. Third, I love the option that you can text into the Wiffiti. Not so much a concern or option for me in the classroom, but fabulous for any workshops or older kiddos where texting is an option. Lastly, I loves how it rotates the posts front and center. What a great way to keep learners/participants/audience members engaged.
I did experience a few technical difficulties while using Wiffiti today. The problems I had with it during the quest were most likely due to the wireless connection; a notorious issue but great for authentically teaching patience! For whatever reason I was having difficulties with Twitter today. Some tweets weren't being sent. But that is such a rarity. As you can see only six tweets made it onto the board. During the chat there were at least fifty tweets about poetry, with the hashtag.
If you are engaging students with mobile learning I suggest Wiffiti as a way to engage them in a big picture of the conversation. The same is true for a larger adult audience. I can see it as a way to share tweets at an edcamp or other conferences. Once we were done, we created a Wordle to show our conclusions of poetry, which demonstrate that poetry can not neatly fit into a box.
Overall, I really liked Wiffiti. To begin with, it was sooooo easy to set up. With just a few clicks it was ready to go live. I also liked that you could feed a hashtag into it. Perfect, not only for focusing our conversation today, but also for any future conferences or workshops I conduct. Third, I love the option that you can text into the Wiffiti. Not so much a concern or option for me in the classroom, but fabulous for any workshops or older kiddos where texting is an option. Lastly, I loves how it rotates the posts front and center. What a great way to keep learners/participants/audience members engaged.
I did experience a few technical difficulties while using Wiffiti today. The problems I had with it during the quest were most likely due to the wireless connection; a notorious issue but great for authentically teaching patience! For whatever reason I was having difficulties with Twitter today. Some tweets weren't being sent. But that is such a rarity. As you can see only six tweets made it onto the board. During the chat there were at least fifty tweets about poetry, with the hashtag.
If you are engaging students with mobile learning I suggest Wiffiti as a way to engage them in a big picture of the conversation. The same is true for a larger adult audience. I can see it as a way to share tweets at an edcamp or other conferences. Once we were done, we created a Wordle to show our conclusions of poetry, which demonstrate that poetry can not neatly fit into a box.
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