I was just reading Lisa Parisi’s blog post about Wordle, and decided to spend a few of my very few and precious minutes at home, playing around with it. I produced at word cloud from the URL of my blog, and, guess what. I’m guilty. I talk more about technology than anything else.
I come from a century that was defined by its machines. It began without airplanes, and the automobile was a true rarity. Personal computers and the Internet happened after I started my career as a teacher. Tech is cool. It’s a huge part of my world. It continues to astound me that I can project my ideas in writing out to a global audience and with half-way decent spelling — and that people actually read it.
But still, where it counts, it’s really about the information. Where are students meet their world, it’s about the information. They tech is only the lens.
Wordle is an interesting application that can extend what we think and view about various things. A couple of recent ideas.
I sat down and typed in all of the teachers that I had over my lifetime and could remember their names. From this cloud of teachers, many names jumped forward and I realized that these were people that I had taken multiple courses from. I started to reflect on why I chose them more than once. Sometimes, it was scheduling at school and other times it was because I took the course knowing that they would be teaching it. Interesting reflection followed.
Secondly, one of the ladies from our ELTIP program show how she was using Wordle with a SMART Board. In the demo that she gave, she talked about “ight” words for a Grade 2 class. From a Wordle created with “ight” and other words, the students used the highlight tool to collectively identify the words from a Wordle cloud. She sends a strong message about “We learn from each other” when she implements it in class.
So, to your original post and Lisa’s, I would offer these two examples. To the drive by lookers, it may just be a cool collection of words. To those who take it to its extreme, it’s a terrific opportunity for reflection and insight.
Thanks for the post, David.
This is an interesting way to get a snapshot of your blog or webpage. I think I’m proud of the fact that “can” was the biggest word in the cloud from my blog.
I love Wordle. Thanks for your insight on this topic.