Sunday, October 18, 2009
BP14_2009103_Web2.0Tools_MyComment
Sunday, October 18, 2009
BP11_2009103_Web 2.0 Wordle
Wordle (wordle.net) is a fun and unique Web 2.0 site that has recently become very popular in my school district. Wordle is different from most of the other Web 2.0 tools that we’ve been looking at over the past few months, as it isn’t really a network or a forum or a platform designed primarily for publishing content.
According to the homepage, “Wordle is a toy for generating ‘word clouds’ from text that you provide.” (Feinberg, 2009, para. 1). The concept is incredibly simple. Users type or copy text into a box on the site, and Wordle analyzes the text and creates a graphic word cloud from the text. Words that are used more frequently in the text appear larger in the word cloud. Once the word cloud is generated, the user can change different parameters of the appearance, including the color scheme, the font, the way the words are laid out on the page, and other settings based on the language of the source text.
There is a minor issue that affects printing in Mac OSX, which is easily remedied by installing a Java applet from the FAQ page of the Wordle site.
Wordle provides several interesting educational uses. It provides an interesting way to analyze text, especially the relative frequency of use of words in a given source text. An example on the Wordle site shows a comparative analysis of inaugural addresses by every president. My Studio Tech students are currently working on a project called the “Poetry Remix Project” in which they record themselves reciting a poem, then edit and remix the lyrics into a new poem. They’re using Wordle to provide inspiration for how to remix their poem lyrics, and they’re also using the word cloud images created from their poems as background images for their project page in their digital portfolios.
The Wordle image below was created from the poem “Charlie Parker played be bop” which I use as an example in my introduction of the poetry remix project.
References:
Feinberg, J. (2009). Wordle - beautiful word clouds. Retrieved October 18, 2009 from http://www.wordle.net/
Raschka, C. (1997). Charlie Parker played be bop. New York: Orchard Books.
Posted by Eric Anderson at 4:22 PM
1 comments:
Ali Baxendale said...
Eric,
This website could be very helpful in my classroom. We do different readings in Spanish. For Spanish 1 and 2 students, this can be very overwhelming. I can use Wordle as a prereading activity for them. they can look at the finished Wordle document before they read the text to see if there are any words they need to look up. This will also give them more confidence in the reading since the largest words will be the ones they already know. This is also a great activity to have the students do on their own after they read an article. Thanks for sharing!
October 18, 2009 6:39 PM
BP11_2009103_Web 2.0 Wordle
Wordle (wordle.net) is a fun and unique Web 2.0 site that has recently become very popular in my school district. Wordle is different from most of the other Web 2.0 tools that we’ve been looking at over the past few months, as it isn’t really a network or a forum or a platform designed primarily for publishing content.
According to the homepage, “Wordle is a toy for generating ‘word clouds’ from text that you provide.” (Feinberg, 2009, para. 1). The concept is incredibly simple. Users type or copy text into a box on the site, and Wordle analyzes the text and creates a graphic word cloud from the text. Words that are used more frequently in the text appear larger in the word cloud. Once the word cloud is generated, the user can change different parameters of the appearance, including the color scheme, the font, the way the words are laid out on the page, and other settings based on the language of the source text.
There is a minor issue that affects printing in Mac OSX, which is easily remedied by installing a Java applet from the FAQ page of the Wordle site.
Wordle provides several interesting educational uses. It provides an interesting way to analyze text, especially the relative frequency of use of words in a given source text. An example on the Wordle site shows a comparative analysis of inaugural addresses by every president. My Studio Tech students are currently working on a project called the “Poetry Remix Project” in which they record themselves reciting a poem, then edit and remix the lyrics into a new poem. They’re using Wordle to provide inspiration for how to remix their poem lyrics, and they’re also using the word cloud images created from their poems as background images for their project page in their digital portfolios.
The Wordle image below was created from the poem “Charlie Parker played be bop” which I use as an example in my introduction of the poetry remix project.
References:
Feinberg, J. (2009). Wordle - beautiful word clouds. Retrieved October 18, 2009 from http://www.wordle.net/
Raschka, C. (1997). Charlie Parker played be bop. New York: Orchard Books.
Posted by Eric Anderson at 4:22 PM
1 comments:
Ali Baxendale said...
Eric,
This website could be very helpful in my classroom. We do different readings in Spanish. For Spanish 1 and 2 students, this can be very overwhelming. I can use Wordle as a prereading activity for them. they can look at the finished Wordle document before they read the text to see if there are any words they need to look up. This will also give them more confidence in the reading since the largest words will be the ones they already know. This is also a great activity to have the students do on their own after they read an article. Thanks for sharing!
October 18, 2009 6:39 PM
BP13_2009103_Web2.0Tools_Quizlet
Quizlet can be found on www.quizlet.com. Quizlet is a website where people can use digital flashcards. On this site users can create their own flashcards. They can study these flashcards and share these flashcards with others as well. There are a variety of flashcards that are already on the website. Users can access and use many of these flashcards. To create a set of flashcards, a user simply has to type in the list of words and their meanings. Once the flashcards are created, it is very simple to practice with them. There are several ways to practice the words. There is an area to practice with the flashcard in the traditional fashion. There is an area where the words are learned. There is also an area where the words are tested. One of the most interesting sections of the website is the games section. There are two games that can be played with the words that created the flashcards. In one of these games the definition and the word must be matched in the quickest amount of time. In the other game, the definition scrolls across the screen. The user must type in the correct word before the word falls off of the screen. Users advance to other levels as the game continues.
I have used Quizlet with my students this year. They all really enjoyed the different areas of the website that they could use to study their vocabulary. For this first time that I used Quizlet, I created the flashcards for my students. In the future, I am hoping that my students will create their own flashcards so they can practice on their own.
BP12_2009103_Web2.0Tools_Pixorial
Pixorial is a Web 2.0 tool that can be found at http://www.pixorial.com/. Pixorial is a website where people can upload video and then edit that video. They can then share the video with others. When video is shared with someone via Pixorial, they can then go into Pixorial and edit the video that was shared with them. If a school play was taped and then uploaded by a parent, it could be shared with other parents. These other parents could log onto Pixorial, and edit the video they were sent. They could create a highlights reel of their own child in the play. This allows Pixorial to be a collaborative space also.
Pixorial has many applications for education. In my Spanish class, there are many times when I would like to have students create videos. Videos allow students to demonstrate their understanding and application of Spanish. While most of my students have access to a video camera, many do not have software to edit the video. Pixorial allows students to upload their raw video and then edit it into a finished video. Students can then send me their finished version of the video. I could also create a Facebook page for the class, and they could add their Pixorial videos to that page as well.
BP11_2009_103_Web2.0Tools_Writeboard
Writeboard is a new web 2.0 tool that I have just discovered. It allows users to set up web based text documents for free. These documents can be created by anyone, such as a teacher or students. After setting up a writeboard, users can then invite others to the board. After they have been invited, others can begin working on the writeboard making it a collaborative space. There are several features on this site that are extremely helpful. One of these features is that anyone who has access to the document can leave comments in a separate area. This allows the document to remain untouched when people only want to add comments. Another great feature of this site is that it saves all previous versions of the document. It is possible to go back and look at any of the previous versions. These versions can also be compared in one document, so that it is easy to see what has been taken out and what has been added. The feature that is the most exciting to me, is the RSS feed. Any user can subscribe to their writeboard’s RSS feed. This feature will alert any user that is subscribed to the feed every time that a change is made to the writeboard. All users are then able to monitor all changes that occur.
Writeboard has many educational uses. Groups of students can work together to collaborate on projects. The teacher can also be a member in order to see who is contributing to the group and to make sure that the content is accurate. Teachers can also use Writeboard for class discussions or class review. The teacher can monitor the discussion or review. Anytime students or teachers need to collaborate to create documents, Writeboard is a great way to accomplish this.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
BP10_2009_103_Flickr
I am new to Flickr, and I am very excited about the possibilities that it holds. I did a search for lesson plans that included Flickr and Spanish, however, I did not come up with anything worthwhile. I did think of a great project to use Flickr in my classroom. Many of my students travel during school breaks and the summer. I think it would be a wonderful project for students to post their pictures from places where they have traveled where Spanish is spoken. This compilation of pictures would create a very unique story of our travels. Students who have not had the opportunity to travel, would be able to see images from around the world. I can then use these images for a variety of activities in class, such as writing activities or speaking activities.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
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