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What's in a Wordle?

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What's in a Wordle?  In Shakespearean language- That we which we call a list of words in any other form would look as good!! I don't think so.  The Wordle tool, freely avalable at http://wordle.net/ allows users to create a visual represenation of any list of words.  The more times a particular word appears in the text or list, the larger it will be in your Wordle. 

Wordle is described as a  toy for generating word clouds from text.  However, I think it can be much more than a toy.  The Wordle which appears above is an example.  In an early years educational context each student could be asked to type their favourite pet animal into the Wordle text box.  Accuracy of spelling would be essential to the creation  of the final product.  Thus students are learning and/or practising the spelling of a word which may be new to them.  Once the whole group of students have typed their reponse a Wordle can be created as a visual represenation on their "favourite pet" choices.  Lots of interesting discussion could surround the image created.  Which was the most favourite pet animal?  How can you tell?  Did many people choose "mouse" as their favourite?  How does the Wordle show this?

A Wordle activity has been included in the OzProjects "Languages Matter" online project at
 http://www.ozprojects.edu.au/mod/glossary/view.php?id=549

Please share you Wordle ideas with me via this blog.

Tags: showme web 2.0 tools languages education wordle literacy language
Posted at 08:48AM Jun 28, 2008 by Cecily Wright  |  Comments[0]