Wordle Wordle is a free 'word art' tool that crunches any chunk of text in the production of a visual representation of the content. The resulting graphic emphasizes the most common words by amplifying their size based on frequency. Originally designed to give pleasure, Wordle is being used in interesting ways to provide compelling summaries of political speeches, blog posts, twitter feeds, news articles and more, but there are additional educational uses worth considering.
A few ideas:
1] Convert a sonnet or Shakespearean play; or children's book (Dr. Seuss anyone?);
2] Paste the contents of an online discussion to coalesce the main ideas;
3] Combine student 'Who Are You?' introductions, or 'Superhero
Traits' to develop a class composite;
4] Condense survey data by dumping content of questionnaire responses into the Wordle engine;
5] Combine news articles or RSS feeds on a given topic;
6] Turn an essay into a poster;
7] Combine blog posts over time into a simplified represetation or use it to compare the ideas of competing ideas;
8] Use font, colour and arrangement strategies to appropriately represent content;
9] Automate the creation of word poetry;
10] As an introduction to a unit or course, combine key words; themes; curriculum expectations to provide learners with a visual overview of content;
11] Convert nutritional content of one's weekly diet or of a group's menu preferences;
12] Condense a Wikipedia article into it's essence;
13] Paste the results of a Google search (Can you guess the keywords I used?);
14] Convert social bookmark tags;
15] Enter keywords from weekly weather reports to obtain a seasonal picture;
16] Distill song lyrics like "Stairway to Heaven";
17] Find out what you've been up to by summarizing To-Do lists;
18] Represent the results of a brainstorming session or the minutes of a meeting visually;
19] Show "Today in History" stories in a new way;
20] Convert past or current email messages into a composite of your correspondence;
Do you use Wordle? Have you considered using Wordle with students? If so, what other strategies would you recommend?
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