Wordle/Tagxedo
What?
Another tool I got to know was “Wordle”, which you can access under www.worlde.net. It is my absolute favorite tool as you can use it for so many different purposes, privately as well as for school. This tool creates a picture with words after you have typed in a certain text or different words concerning a special topic. The words which occur the most often are the biggest words in the picture; words which are less important according to their frequency occur smaller. That is why you immediately see the significance of certain words in a specific context. [Note: If you use Tagxedo you can even choose a specific design, e.g. if you want to make a picture out of a text that deals with summer holidays on the beach, you could choose a design with a beach and palms - to sum it up: Tagxedo goes one step further regarding the design!].
If you look on the top, you can see that I used Wordle in order to create a picture that supports my e-portfolio. It is obvious that the words New Media and E-Portfolio are the most important ones, because they appear very big whereas words like modern, tools or network are less important, but nevertheless included in the overall topic of the class and the e-portfolio.
With Wordle you can either create pretty pictures for private use (any topic) or for the use at school. You can introduce general topics like “globalization” or “Shakespeare” or whatever by creating a picture and talking about it.
How?
Creating a Wordle is as simple as 1, 2, 3. You just click on “Create Your Own”, type in a complete text or different words with different frequencies and click on “go”. That is all. Your Wordle appears immediately on the screen. Now you can easily change the layout, the colors and the font. If you just make a screenshot, you have the picture saved and can print it or use it online.
You can even get a step further, enter www.tagxedo.com and create pictures with a certain form that means if you create a picture with the topic Africa you can chose the form of Africa as being the frame of the picture. You can do it with many different frames.
Another tool I got to know was “Wordle”, which you can access under www.worlde.net. It is my absolute favorite tool as you can use it for so many different purposes, privately as well as for school. This tool creates a picture with words after you have typed in a certain text or different words concerning a special topic. The words which occur the most often are the biggest words in the picture; words which are less important according to their frequency occur smaller. That is why you immediately see the significance of certain words in a specific context. [Note: If you use Tagxedo you can even choose a specific design, e.g. if you want to make a picture out of a text that deals with summer holidays on the beach, you could choose a design with a beach and palms - to sum it up: Tagxedo goes one step further regarding the design!].
If you look on the top, you can see that I used Wordle in order to create a picture that supports my e-portfolio. It is obvious that the words New Media and E-Portfolio are the most important ones, because they appear very big whereas words like modern, tools or network are less important, but nevertheless included in the overall topic of the class and the e-portfolio.
With Wordle you can either create pretty pictures for private use (any topic) or for the use at school. You can introduce general topics like “globalization” or “Shakespeare” or whatever by creating a picture and talking about it.
How?
Creating a Wordle is as simple as 1, 2, 3. You just click on “Create Your Own”, type in a complete text or different words with different frequencies and click on “go”. That is all. Your Wordle appears immediately on the screen. Now you can easily change the layout, the colors and the font. If you just make a screenshot, you have the picture saved and can print it or use it online.
You can even get a step further, enter www.tagxedo.com and create pictures with a certain form that means if you create a picture with the topic Africa you can chose the form of Africa as being the frame of the picture. You can do it with many different frames.
Tagxedo Example: Obama's speech 'Yes, we can'
Personal Experience: Positive/ Negative?
+ As Wordle creates a very nice and pretty picture for anything you want, I call it my personal favorite tool.
+ It is very easy to handle
+ It is useful for many different purposes, even at school
+ I can’t say anything negative so far, at least when talking about my experience
- You may encounter the problem that Wordle does not work due to a programme which is not installed on your computer
All in all, I have to say that I played around with it several times and created different pictures, as for example the one for my e-portfolio. I had fun and really liked trying out different things, using complete texts or just typing in individual words. I am sure that this tool will get positive feedback from students, because it is not a typical tool which was created for school, but rather a tool that makes even difficult or frightening content (for example Shakespeare for many students!) look good and modern. A wonderful motivation! :-)
Wordle at School?
Wordle at school can be used for various purposes and fulfill different functions. To name a few: Reflection of a topic, reflection of a class, introduction to a new topic,…
Wordle raises the attention because unfamiliar content is presented in a nice way and students do not immediately connect the picture to school. The picture looks fresh and modern and therefore gets attention by the students, even if the topic is not their favorite.
Wordle can be used by the teacher to teach basic, general ideas of, for example, Shakespeare’s sonnets 1-17, globalization, polictics, …) as an introduction for example. On the other hand, students can use it as well and create their own Wordles for any topic. The only thing that has to be considered is that you need words with an unequal significance, so that the message you or your students want to give becomes clear.
Students combine knowledge with creativity and that is what makes Wordle so useful for school. Creativity can hide the content that would be boring or threatening if introduced by a normal text. The students can exchange ideas in a teacher-student or a student-student interaction.
By using Wordle you participate in the multimedia principle by working with pictures and, at the same time, with a text. Students can produce comprehensible output, because they get an incentive to communicate and get feedback on it.
Using Wordle relates in my opinion to the cognitive rather than the structural approach of learning. All in all, the main purpose of using this tool in class could be called motivation. It is a nice alternative that is applicable for various topics, language levels and stages in class (but especially good for an introduction or reflection)!
I will definetly integrate Wordle into my English and Geography classroom, as I am sure that most of the students will like and benefit from it! :-)
added: November 12, 2010
+ As Wordle creates a very nice and pretty picture for anything you want, I call it my personal favorite tool.
+ It is very easy to handle
+ It is useful for many different purposes, even at school
+ I can’t say anything negative so far, at least when talking about my experience
- You may encounter the problem that Wordle does not work due to a programme which is not installed on your computer
All in all, I have to say that I played around with it several times and created different pictures, as for example the one for my e-portfolio. I had fun and really liked trying out different things, using complete texts or just typing in individual words. I am sure that this tool will get positive feedback from students, because it is not a typical tool which was created for school, but rather a tool that makes even difficult or frightening content (for example Shakespeare for many students!) look good and modern. A wonderful motivation! :-)
Wordle at School?
Wordle at school can be used for various purposes and fulfill different functions. To name a few: Reflection of a topic, reflection of a class, introduction to a new topic,…
Wordle raises the attention because unfamiliar content is presented in a nice way and students do not immediately connect the picture to school. The picture looks fresh and modern and therefore gets attention by the students, even if the topic is not their favorite.
Wordle can be used by the teacher to teach basic, general ideas of, for example, Shakespeare’s sonnets 1-17, globalization, polictics, …) as an introduction for example. On the other hand, students can use it as well and create their own Wordles for any topic. The only thing that has to be considered is that you need words with an unequal significance, so that the message you or your students want to give becomes clear.
Students combine knowledge with creativity and that is what makes Wordle so useful for school. Creativity can hide the content that would be boring or threatening if introduced by a normal text. The students can exchange ideas in a teacher-student or a student-student interaction.
By using Wordle you participate in the multimedia principle by working with pictures and, at the same time, with a text. Students can produce comprehensible output, because they get an incentive to communicate and get feedback on it.
Using Wordle relates in my opinion to the cognitive rather than the structural approach of learning. All in all, the main purpose of using this tool in class could be called motivation. It is a nice alternative that is applicable for various topics, language levels and stages in class (but especially good for an introduction or reflection)!
I will definetly integrate Wordle into my English and Geography classroom, as I am sure that most of the students will like and benefit from it! :-)
added: November 12, 2010
