Sunday, February 27, 2011

A Great Web 2.0 Application - Wordle

Please feel free to click on the word below to connect with this site:
Wordle

Some of you may have encountered this site before, but for those of you who haven't you may be asking the questoin "so what does 'wordle' do?"  This is where I would use positive commentary and utter "good question you lad/lass" basically it is a website that generates word clouds from whatever text you input.  Within these clouds there is greater size and repitition given to those words that appear more frequently in the source text.  You can change your wordle clouds with font and colour however you want.  The only issue this site has is that you cannot save them as a .jpeg, .gif or any other format.  The only options you have are to print them or save them to the wordle gallery.  It isn't a major inconvenience, but does mean that you do not have your own soft copy.

One great strategy in using this application is in teaching your students inference.  You can find the text of a book, or chapter, or article and then show them a word cloud and have them try to guess what that text was about.  From the words you can try and have them gather clues and try to infer what a story may be about.  It would help them in honing in on key words and using their creativity in figuring out what the contents of the text is going to be.  From there you can read the story and see how close the students were and whether they agree with the word cloud that was generated.  It also promotes critical thinking skills in evaluating what is important.  Give it a try, it is an interesting and useful tool.

5 comments:

  1. That is an interesting idea on how to use Wordle. I think I might have to try something like that out. Awesome post! I love getting new ideas for some of the many programs out there.

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  2. Wordle! I forgot about this one, thanks for bringing it back for everyone! It is an excellent thing to use, and it's fast and easy!

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  3. Personally, I am not a fan of Wordle and I can't see using it in any class. I get the idea of teaching inference, but Wordle seems - to me - like a convoluted way of getting to a relatively simple idea for students. I guess my problem is with the usefulness of word clouds and not a with the Wordle resource. So maybe I shouldn't say anything. I just thought I'd throw a little dissent on here for favour.

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  4. Maybe you just aren't creative and resourceful enough (IT) World Accoring to Aaron. It'll come, be patient.

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  5. Thanks, the promise you see in me is a daily inspiration to me!

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