My Favorite New Toy...

WORDLE! If you haven't heard of wordle, let me introduce you! A wordle is a tool for generating "word clouds". Here is an example of one I created to introduce myself at GADGET camp this week:

I am so excited about this tool. I can see may ways to use it in both my personal life and at school. I made Jim a wordle for his birthday using NC State colors and words that describe him. I plan to frame it for him to put in his office.

At school, I see awesome vocabulary potential. We could use this tool the same way we use circle maps or other braindrain tools. It would also be great for teaching synonyms and word choice in writing.

So, you are probably saying "OK already, how do you do it!"... I know, I know, you are excited! Visit www.wordle.net and just enter words. That's all! The more you enter the same word, the larger it appears in your cloud. Once you create your cloud, you can play with the font, position, colors, etc. In fact, you can click on "randomize" at the bottom and look at all the neat-o choices.

Go, have fun! Create your wordle...and share it with me. Let me know what you think. Tell me how you plan to use it.