Sadly, there are some instances in which I just cannot be pulled away from a computer. One of those instances is when I am playing on www.wordle.net. Wordle is a site where users can create a word cloud. In order to make communication of the words more effective, “[t]he clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text” (Feinberg, 2009)
Wordle is easy. There is no sign up, no emails, just production. You click “create” and you are on your way. Wordle works in this way: the user types words in a word box. This can be the user’s own words or text copied from an online resource (you can even type in a URL), book, or anywhere else one can think of. These words are then collected and made into a picture full of words. You can then save it by either printing it or taking a screen capture of it. Wordle also encourages sharing by making it an option to save your wordle to a public gallery.
There are a few ways to manipulate a wordle to make it more meaningful. For example, the more frequent the word is typed, the larger it will appear in the picture. Wordles can altered by color, layout, and font.
I have actually used Wordle before this class, but I’ve found that students are interested in it, so I thought it would be valuable to share. My students were floored when I took the expectations (rules) that they came up with on the first day of class and made a wordle out of it. I made a poster of the wordle picture and hung it on a wall. Students are more apt to look at it because of its colors and layout. It also adds excitement to our disgustingly bland walls! Other ideas for using Wordle in the classroom include:
- 1. Having students show the main ideas of a story by typing in common themes of the story
- 2. Describing a character’s traits OR discovering a character by typing in their expressions (“’Don’t do that!” Johnny said angrily.”)
- 3. Describing something, such as an era in history or a style of music
- 4. As a student self expository tool, like an introduction at beginning of the school year
- 5. Pique student interest of a topic by using it for priming (Based on this wordle, what do you expect happened in the lives of young people in the 1950s?)
Try it – it really adds fun into writing.
References
Feinberg, J. (2009). Retrieved October 11, 2009 from http://www.wordle.net/
It's so amazing to me that something that people studied for years, typography, can now be done almost instantly! I've never used worldle.net, but am very interested in checking it out. When I was in undergrad, one of the grad students pursuing their Master's in Fine Art created a piece that looked like the pieces that Wordle creates. I know that it took her FOREVER to do it. I wonder how she feels now that this application exists? Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteGreat tools. I want to look more closely at Voice Thread. You will use Wordle later in the program as well:) Great job, Liz.
ReplyDelete