The Word is 'Wordle'

I have been doing some volunteer work at a Primary school and the teacher has been doing some interactive whiteboard activities with an on-line program called 'Wordle'.  It is referred to as a 'word cloud'.  The fonts, colours and layout of the words can be changed offering students a variety of designs.


Ideas for the classroom:

• Creating wordles that describe a person, place or thing and students guess what it is.  An activity like this would enhance learning by creating a 'hook' to engage students. 
• Student create individual wordles to describe themselves ie. Interest Inventory
• Dissecting a piece of text into its various characters/chapters/events ie Shakespeare
• Creating spelling lists, students could create lists of weekly spelling words, or even word groups (example: listing proper nouns etc)

It is a great tool for literacy, I've used  the group technologies we've covered to create an ICTs wordle, and a Snow White wordle. 

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3440515/ICTs

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3440551/Snowwhite

SWOT Analysis

Strengths - Interactive, fun and easy to use; enhanced learning by stimulating students creativity; great brainstorming tool, idea generation, higher order thinking to 'pull out' hidden meanings

Weaknesses - May seem to have limited use as it is only words

Opportunities - Through the constructivist and connectivist nature of this application, students make a more meaningful connection with their subject matter resulting in deeper understanding.

Threats - Can get carried away with the design elements.