'Word Clouds' on steroids

Learning lots and lots of new vocabulary can be overwhelming for language learners. Vocabulary is an important part of language learning, however, memorising long lists of new words is not always the best way to go. Most learners have better recall of information they have used, explored and made connections with. When students are excited and involved with their learning they are able take on and retain more new information.

Word clouds have been around for a while and can be quite engaging for students. Many language teachers successfully use ‘word clouds’ to introduce, reinforce and review vocabulary. Some of the most popular tools are Wordle, Tagxedo, Wordsift and Tagul. My personal favourite is Tagul and I will explain why later in this post.

The embedded slideshare presentation by David Dodgson contains succinct information about using word clouds in the language learning classroom

What is a word Cloud?

 

wordle in the language classroom from David Dodgson     

I am a believer in the addage a picture's worth a thousand words. Hence, rather than describing the tools for you, I have created and embedded some word clouds so that you can be the judge!

ABCYa

Word mosaic

Wordle

WordSift

 

 And last but not least

Tagul

Tagul is an amazing word cloud creator which allows you to customise the shape of your tag clouds and insert active hyperlinks. When you create a word cloud with Tagul all the words are automatically linked to a Google search however you are able to add your own link to any word and link to any pages or content on the web. Tagul will create word clouds from entered text or any url you specify.

I created the tagul above using the names of animals in Spanish. I played with customising the hyperlinks. Most of the words are linked to a wikimedia search but it is also possible to enter specific links for individual words. In the embedded example the links to some words are customised to lead to specific websites. Check out el leon, el antelope, el oso, el gato and la mariposa, to see how the links work. Shell Terrel has written a great post in her blog Teacher Reboot Camp about using tag clouds to reinforce vocabulary. Her post gives detailed instructions on how to customise the hyperklinks of tags in Tagul.

When you have finished designing your word cloud Tagul provides you with an embed code to put your cloud on your blog.
To get started you may like to use the step by step instructions by Modern Educator in the video below

 

 

Classroom Uses for Tagul

Edmodo

This year's "Get Connected!" schools are trialling Edmodo as the platform for sharing and collaborating. Edmodo is a secure social learning network for teachers and students. It's free to register and easy to navigate. We'd love to hear your feedback if you're already using it!

blogED - the Department's blogging tool

Are you new to blogging and feeling a little overwhelmed? The NSW Department of Education and Communities had its own blogging tool, which is very user-friendly for beginners. BlogED enables teachers to create blogs for their students easily and safely, through the DEC portal. Students can create posts on the topics they are learning, or collaborate on shared tasks. For a short introduction, take a quick video tour (4:52 mins) or visit the website.
Note: blogED does not accept Asian scripts.

Stage 4 classes connect with each other

In May 2011, my colleague Leanne Smith and I ran a full-day workshop for teachers wishing to link their 100 hours students with another class, using connected classroom technologies. Providing students with a real audience for their learning is a huge motivator and a vital component in Quality Teaching. Blogs, video conferencing, Bridgit, email, even old-fashioned letter exchanges - linking is now easier than ever before! Teachers of Japanese from four high schools (Armidale HS, Braidwood CS, Camden Haven HS and Glen Innes HS) are linking their students in this way, with students enjoying creating online avatars and speaking in Japanese to each other via video conferences. Why not try it...?
photo credit: Florian SEROUSSI via photopin cc