One of the really cool online tools I love but never really knew how to use in the classroom is Wordle. I came across this link to a presentation of 52 Ways to Use Wordle and had to share! There are some great ideas here that I would have never thought of. Wordle is a site where you can either type in your own text or copy and paste in text from books, speeches, etc. It then takes the words and sizes them based on use - bigger ones are used more often and smaller not as much. The ideas here are terrific and really help you start thinking outside the box a little more. Some of the suggestions include book reports, spelling lists, word walls, analyze your own presentation to see if the words you are focusing on are where you want focus to be, analyze famous speeches to see main ideas, compare genres (the example here is comparing history to historical fiction), character traits, word walks, and so many more fantastic ideas to get the wheels turning in your head. One of the suggestions is even as a gift which I did before I ever read this.
Tagxedo is a source I have not played with yet, but could also be fun. You can even enter a search topic, url, twitter id, or other sources to create a word cloud.
What other ways can you think of to use these great resources?
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