1. Introduction to Wordle At the end of June 2008, Jonathan Feinberg, a senior software engineer at IBM, launched Wordle, a website that he describes as “a toy for generating ‘word clouds’ from the text your provide”. Wordle ( http://wordle.net ) is ingeniously simple to use.
2. Menu Slide Slide 1: Introduction to Wordle Slide2: Menu Slide Slide 3,4,&5: 1st Article, Technology Toolkit Slide 6,7,&8: 2nd Article, It’s a Mad, Mad Wordle: For a new take on text, try this fun word cloud generator Slide 9,10,&11: 3rd Article, Words in a Cloud Slide 12: Conclusion Slide
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7. It’s a Mad, Mad Wordle: For a new take on text, try this fun word cloud generator Carolyn Foote states: “Its simple, really. Just feed text of your choosing into the free online application Wordle, and with one keystroke you’ll have a graphic representation of your content, sized according to frequency of use”. These are some of the ways Foote suggests using Wordle: 2) Research Assignments Cont: “Wordle can also assist in gathering information. Students who’ve conducted interviews for a paper or other project, lets say, can enter the notes from their conversation into Wordle and see what ideas float to the top as significant. This word cloud based on their interviews with bloggers is a good example”. 3) Literary Analysis: “For comparative literary study, try pasting text from two young adult novels into the Wordle and have students examine the style and diction in each resulting word cloud”.
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9. Words in a Cloud Morra states “ Some web 2.0 tools do one thing but do it well. Wordle is one of them. This free web based tool creates word clouds from texts. These word clouds or visual representations of text give prominence to words that appear more frequently in the text. The larger words can help the viewer quickly and easily identify the main ideas in the text”. No matter what level your technology use you have, you can do Wordle Morra states “ It never ceases to amaze me how Wordle just clicks with so many teachers”.
10. Words in a Cloud Morra also goes into saying that “Wordle is much more than just a way to create pretty pictures with words. It is a great visualization tool that can become a catalyst for discussion and insight.” “ It is about understanding and discovery patterns in text and generating conversations among students and teachers”.
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12. Conclusion Slide After reading these articles on Wordle, I learned new ways to use this application tool. I saw a pattern through the 3 articles I read and that was how Wordle can be used as more of a resource tool, than just a fun way to make your words visual. As an upcoming educator for all the technologies in the classroom, I can use Wordle to add to my “bag of tricks”. Resources: Database: ERIC Title:Wordle Author: Hayes, Sandy Database:ERIC Title: It’s a Mad, Mad Wordle: For a New Take on Text, Try This Fun Word Cloud Generator Author: Foote, Carolyn Database: EBSCOhost Title: Words in A Cloud Author: Morra, Samantha
