(cross-posted at TechLearning)
I’ve been writing and talking a lot about Wordle lately and thought I would continue blathering about it at TechLearning as well. It is a really simple tool that does one thing: takes some text and creates a “word cloud” by analyzing usage and frequency of words. The site calls it “a toy” but educators (myself included) have started to see it as a great little tool to spark reflection, discussion, analysis, and even a great way to make t-shirts!
I took a Wordle shot of the top 300 words I’ve used in my blog entries at TechLearning (click image to see it larger):
I can analyze this image until my heart’s content. I can take personal pride in realizing that I’m mostly writing about “students” and reproach myself on writing too much about “Twitter.” I could use this cloud to decide what to write on next, what to delve into more deeply, what to give a rest. I could use the words to construct questions for further research or statements of my pedagogical beliefs. I could present it to others in a Rorschach-type game and ask what patterns they see. And finally… I guess I could make a t-shirt out of it.
Wordle is such a bare-bones simple tool, that part of me wonders why we’re writing about it at all. It’s on the level of praising the benefits of duct tape or Kleenex. It’s just not that remarkable. What I think we’re really writing about is not the tool at all, but the ability to analyze our writing and ideas in this new, focused —even artistic— way that invites abstract interpretation. I’ve never looked at my writing in this way before and I must admit, I find it rather fasinating; taking the writing process in reverse, reducing my words to a refined assemblage of my main ideas, my central thoughts, my main passions.
This is me in concentrated-formula form. Just add water.
Hello Bob from Texas,
I enjoyed your post about Wordle. I used it as a project in grad school class this summer to summarize my Creativity class. It was the final slide in my presentation. It gave the class and I, including the professor a visual representation of what we have learned, read and taught each other. I think it is a very powerful tool.
I had never thought about using it as a piece to trigger more reflections though. I forwarded you post to my professor about your thoughts and ideas.
It is amazing how such a simple tool brings such great pleasure to educators. I love the central focus of your Wordle.
It is very clear what is important to you.
Thanks for the inspirational post.
Norman
Thanks for the Wordle reference and recommendation! I will definitely use it with students and staff to illuminate emphasis in writing, and your insight here will spark other creative uses for me, too.
By the way, I enjoyed every minute of your BLC2008 presentation and appreciate the possibilities you opened for my elementary tech teaching.
Holly
Great stuff, as always, Bob!
I had just found out about Wordle this week, as well, and instantly thought of it to use in writing as an emphasis upon words.
Interesting, isn’t it?
Hi Bob,
I love your blog. You were the reason I first looked up Wordle a couple days ago and I, too, am imagining the possibilities.
I am a foreign language teacher by trade and thought it will also have fantastic application in the FL classroom as we read news articles so kids can find the key words ahead of time, and, if they don’t know them, look them up… because it’s probably a pretty good guess that they will need to understand that word before really delving into the text. So Wordle as anticipatory set as well as deep analysis! What fantastic options. We are only limited by our imagination.