This first Wiki I would like to share with you all is call Wordle. I absolutely love this Wiki and would like to Wordle everything and anything. In my multiage classroom I can use Wordle for pretty much anything literacy related. You can have the kids' type in their spelling words and create a Wordle that way. This program is extremely easy to use with students of all ages. The tab bar at the top is easy to read and just by clicking on the create tab allows you to begin creating your Wordle. There is a gallery to also look at other Wordle's that were created by other people using the application. The effectiveness of this application will allow the students to incorporate crating into their learning. You can create a whole essay and Wordle it, change the font and colors. Anything you can imagine creating with this tool you can, and I am sure you will love using this with your students as much as I do. I even used it for open house and put all the students' names and my name and the grade level on it. It really does make for a creative way of incorporating literacy into the classroom without the students realizing they are learning. The purpose of using this application tool is to encourage the students and maybe other teachers to not just use pen and paper to write spelling words, or essay papers and weekly sentences. This tool can be used to merely anything. Learning is endless crate a Wordle. Plus no one Wordle will ever look alike.
Here is a video I found on how to crate a Wordle from YouTube.
Resources for Wordle
Kicode2, April 5, 2009. Wordle tutorial. Retrieved on August 29, 2013 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhL5D9nz5aI
Johnathan Feinberg 2013, Wordle. Retrieved August 29, 2013
^^ Picture taken from Wordle page
_________________________________________________________________
The next Wiki Tool I found was Little Bird Tales. This is an incredible application to use with all ages. This tool can be used in the classroom to involve the students in the reading and writing process. They are the creators and they are the editors. You can have the kids work in large groups or as an individual assignment. The students are able to record their own voice to retell their stories they create. This tool is very easy for younger students to use and is age appropriate and does not have adds to where the kids can click on to be taken to another web page. LBT helps reinforce reading and writing skills and in the younger students it helps improve or even begin to help in the process of developing their skills. With this all being said I truly believe LBT is one of the best kid and teacher approved site I have come across for little kids to use and be able to use alone with minimal help from a teacher. For younger students it is difficult to find a program where they are able to go freely and work, and with LBT they can. This application can be used in all areas of school, the students can create any kind of book they want. Other classmates are able to go in and help edit, add more information to the story and the best of all the teacher is able to upload to the assignment to the sites for the kids to check what needs to be done. The site is for ages three to fourteen, which covers a plethora of grade levels.
Please take the time to review Little Bird Tales to see if this application would be something you can use in your classroom. Remember the teacher account allows you to do more creating then the free account.
Below you will find a short YouTube video on how it all works.
Resources for LBT
2mccombs, February 15, 2012. Little Bird Tales Tutorial Video. Retrieved on August 29, 2013 from www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEnhabCzrvo.
Don't Blink Designes 2013, Little Bird Tales. Retrieved August 29, 2013
_______________________________________________________________________________
Compare and Contrast...
The tools i discussed above are very different because they are supposed to be used in different ways. Wordle is to create funky words and works of art by typing in your text to the word box and then it crates a colleague of words with the words you chose. This can be done as a whole class with each student typing in their own section. Little Bird Takes is a tool where you can come up with your own stories as a class or individually. Overall it is difficult to compare the two and contrast them because they are so very different and used for different learning strategies.
No comments:
Post a Comment