Ethan+Web+2.0

= =

= Integrating Web 2.0 Tools for Gold Rush Lesson =

[|Wordle]
Wordle is a web 2.0 tool used to make "world clouds" - pictures that increase the size of words depending on their frequency in a certain passage.

This helps students to see themes more easily. This is a great tool for pre-reading phases to help students prepare for a reading - they will see the important words in the abstract, think about what those mean, then they get to see the words used in the passage. Lets looks at Robert Frost's "Peck of Gold" word cloud:

The poem is short, so the cloud is not terribly large. The obvious words are prevalent: "gold, dust, one" but students may be struck by the word "children" being so large. You could pose the question to the students how that might figure into the poem, especially when paired with the word "told."

To create a Wordle, you simply click on create on the task bar. On the creation page, simply paste in the passage you want to use or paste in a URL to a webpage. Hit the Go button and your world cloud should appear. Students can then edit the orientation, color, font of the word cloud. Students can even remove words from their Wordle to shape it how they want.

Lets look at a lengthier document:

One way to use this would be to present a familiar document and have the students guess what it is (or simply respond to it), like this word cloud of The Declaration of Independence. Students can respond to the prevalence of certain words, as well as the relative absence of certain terms like "tax" or "representation."

Another interesting way to use Wordle, is in revising papers. Students can use the word cloud to show words that they may use over and over again (that they might not need to). This will help them to shape their paper, and make them aware of certain habits that they might want to break free of.

Back to Ethan's Page