Plinky (and my efforts at asking 'why not' instead of 'why')

Cryptic title perhaps, but I do find myself often staring at web sites in amazement, wondering why such a site exists. I usually follow up by asking something like "...how in the world would anyone attempt to use this site educationally?" With this thought in mind, here's a brief word about Plinky.

Plinky. Even the name sounds a bit... well, strange. First, what is this site? I read where one site referred to it as a cure for "blogger's block". Each day, Plinky prompts visitors with a question or challenge and registered users can respond. On the day of this post, the question is "what celebrity do you look like" and "who do you wish you looked like." My first reaction, as is too often the case, was "who cares?!?!" At first glance, a skeptic like me might consider this to be nothing more than a time-wasting attempt to get self-centered people to share information that others care nothing about. I'm not 100% sure that this is not partially true, but I'll try to open my mind a bit.

My readers may not care that someone once told me I looked like John Stockton. However, if I were a student and needed a writing prompt, my teacher might well use today's question to get me to write. Many kids claim that they hate to write when, in fact, they may hate to write about a topic that doesn't interest them. Celebrity look-alikes may interest them. If you look at some of the recent daily prompts, you'll see prompts for students to describe their favorite teacher, asking if you think alien life will be discovered in your lifetime, and "what would you ask your great-great grandparents if you could chat with them today?"

If framed properly as part of a lesson or simply as part of a creative writing class, these could be used as excellent writing prompts. I'm sure you could come up with other great uses as well. I thought the site was worth a mention. Check it out and respond with the nicest place you've stayed, what you want to do on your next birthday, what you would have your personal chef cook you tonight, etc, etc, etc...