Written by:
5/2/2010 4:38 AM 

I have always enjoyed word games – scrabble, upwords, boggle, wordscrapper, bananagrams, and more.   I have always enjoyed hidden pictures (big thanks to Highlights magazine for this one.)   And I have always enjoyed Rebuses (or Wuzzles) – you know the ones like this:

(http://www.ciaccess.com/~toveza/rebuses/rebusanswers.html)

So, when I was introduced to Wordle (http://www.wordle.net) – it combined all those enjoyments into one educational opportunity.

Now, I know that many in the Ed-Tech world think that wordless are fluff….but to me; they are so much more than that.

They are conversation starters, classroom reflections, visuals of students’ hopes and dreams, summaries, preparations, vocabulary builders, and spelling checkers.  They are past, present and future, they are ways to review for a test, and ways for a teacher to check on pre-knowledge.  They encourage thought, discernment, understanding, clarification, discussion, clarity, and challenges.   They are much more than words just typed into a box and then click on GO.

And yes, they can be made into gifts, posters, calendars, t-shirts, and more.

I would like to invite you to wander back to wordle, if you have dismissed it as fluff, and give it deeper look to see how it could be used in your classroom.

Be sure to read what other people think of wordle at:

• http://web20classroom.blogspot.com/2009/10/why-wordle.html
  
• http://www.research.ibm.com/visual/papers/wordle_final2.pdf
  
• http://www.profhacker.com/2009/10/21/wordles-or-the-gateway-drug-to-textual-analysis/
  
• http://blog.ecollege.com/WordPress/?p=115
  
• http://www.techedknow.com/?p=56
  
• http://www.techlearning.com/blogs/20322
  
• http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/58905.aspx
  

Plus, there are many resources available to help you with wordle ideas as well.

• Tom Barrett has put together a Ways to Use Wordle at http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_157dpbsg9c5
  

• Samantha Lunn has written a blog post here: http://languagesresources.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/23-ways-to-use-wordle-in-the-mfl-classroom/
  

• You might also want to check out my More Than Wordles help at http://jlwagner.pbworks.com/MoreThanWordles
  

Also, as always, there are many ways to accomplish the same idea…..so visit these other online opportunities besides Wordle:

• http://tagul.com/
  
• http://worditout.com/
  
• http://www.tagcrowd.com/
  
• http://wordsift.com/
  
• http://www.tagxedo.com/app.html
  
• http://www.abcya.com/word_clouds.htm
  
• http://www.imagechef.com/ic/word_mosaic/
  
• http://www.visualthesaurus.com/vocabgrabber/
  

And if you have time, (self-plug here), drop by my Daily Wordle site at http://www.jenuinetech.com/GTW

Jennifer

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