Tagxedo

Wordle is a commonly used word cloud (it was one of the first around) but I wonder how many use Tagxedo. I know I have written about this one before but I think that many still don't know about this one.

With this cloud you can have the words shaped (for example I have used an angel) and also you can save it as a jpg file onto your hard drive which is not possible with other word clouds. All of this is free.  You can customise the colour, the theme and the shape to suit what you are doing.  I know that children will love using this one.

Hardy Leung has done a presentation to show you how to use Tagxedo in 101 ways! Each way gives you an illustration to show an example.  Very useful for classroom teachers for ideas to use in their classrooms.

ZooBurst

A great Web 2 tool for teachers to use with their students is ZooBurst. This tool allows the students to create their own 3D pop-up books. When students start building their own books they can choose any angle and also rotate the book. They can make objects on the page clickable so that readers are able to read more about them. They can place speech bubbles on the characters that pop up when it is clicked and make them talk with each other. Children can retell a story or write their own stories.

A basic account is free. A free account entitles the individual user to make 10 books, upload your own characters (PNG or JPG files), use characters from the clip art gallery, arrange characters in 3D space, use character speech bubbles, customise backgrounds and have privacy options (e.g. private, public or password protected books).

Ways to use Tagexdo

I recently blogged about Tagexdo. In Google Docs is a great presentation 101 ways to use Tagexdo. The graphic on the left shows one of the ideas used in the presentation. There are some great ideas in this presentation which I am sure can be adapted for different classrooms. There are ideas for different ages but as I looked I at some of the ideas for older age groups I could also see how these could also be used with the younger children too. Teachers are good at thinking laterally and adapting to suit the needs of their students.

Tagxedo

For those of you who use Wordle in their classrooms (or personally) to make word clouds you will love this site to use in the classroom. Tagxedo is similar to Wordle but has more features for the user. With Tagxedo you can make a shaped cloud - you will see some examples in the graphic on the left. You can look at this presentation to show 101 ways to use Tagxedo. Some ideas for using a word cloud with your class include:

• Children create their own word clouds to show their own interests or to describe their feelings about something


• Collaborate as a class to discuss trends and themes.


• Write goals for the year and display them visually.


• Create art from a student’s poem.


• Compare speeches by Members of Parliament (Prime minister) to show trends in national sentiment.


• Create chapter summaries. Decorate your classroom with a story created by the class.

YouPublisher

Another great Web 2 tool (free) that I like is Youblisher. You upload your pdf files and it makes the document 'flippable' so the pages turn - it makes it more like reading a 'real' book.

I have embedded a small pdf (2 pages) so you can see how it works. This is great for schools - children could make their own pdf files to add to classroom blogs or wikis.

PicLits

I have been playing around with PicLits. What a great idea to use this site to inspire writing in the classroom.

I can certainly see possibilies for children to work together to create these. What a shame that you appear to be unable to use your own graphics but at the moment using these ones enables children to understand the concept and then they could go on to make their own.

"PicLits.com is a creative writing site that matches beautiful images with
carefully selected keywords in order to inspire you. The object is to put the
right words in the right place and the right order to capture the essence,
story, and meaning of the picture."

Spell with Flickr

Another Web 2 tool to use in the classroom Spell with Flickr.

This is a simple to use tool where you enter a word - this word is then displayed using a set of images which spell out the word. These can be copied or saved to use in the classroom.

Graphical online dictionary

Visuwords is a great online tool for educators, writers, students etc.

You put the word you want to use in an area at the top of the page and press the "go" arrow or "enter".

"A network of nodes or 'synsets' will spring out from the word that you entered. A synset is essentially a single concept that is represented by a number of terms or synonyms. Synonyms are words with different spellings that convey the same idea. For example when you lookup "seem", you see that the word is connected to four synsets each represented by a green circle. Green denotes verbs so all of these synsets represent verbs. Two of these synsets have the lone word "seem"; one has two terms: "appear" and "seem"; and the third has three terms: "look", "appear" and "seem". Each of the four synsets has its own definition. Hovering over a node with the mouse will reveal all of the synonyms for a given synset as well as its definition. Some synsets will also show a few examples of usage. These synsets link to each other and to other synsets according to entries in the WordNet database.
You can zoom the model in and out by rolling the wheel on your mouse. You can click the gray background within the applet and drag the mouse in order to shift the whole model around so you can explore. You can grab any node and pull it away from the others to clarify connections."

By hovering over any word a dictionary meaning will be displayed.

Wonderful tool for the classroom.

Lookybooks

Love these and I am sure that children will too. They are from Lookybooks

Click on the pages to turn them. What a great activity for children both in the classroom and at home. Only problem is that you can't take it to bed! (unless you are using a laptop etc)

Bio-cube and other Web 2 tools

Bio-Cube (Web 2) is a great tool to use in the classroom. This can be used in different curriculum areas when students are exploring about the lives of famous people or to create a cube about themselves (a great idea at the beginning of the year).

After placing their name on the opening screen (to begin) students fill in 6 areas to create the cube which is then printed out. These can be put together to make a cube and displayed in the room as a mobile. A very effective tool.

Bio-Cube is only one of the interactive tools to support literacy that you can find a ReadWriteThink. You will also find lesson/unit plans to use each of the tools. There is a comic strip creator, acrostic poetry, Venn diagram creator to name a few.

One that those who do not have Inspiration or something similar is the Webbing Tool where students can make a mind map to print out.

"The Webbing Tool provides a free-form graphic organizer for activities that ask students to pursue hypertextual thinking and writing. The tool provides a quick way for students to trace out options and rearrange connections. Students can use the Webbing Tool to analyze readings as well as a prewriting activity and flowcharting tool. Students can drag the circle or box shapes representing their ideas to arrange any layout and relationship that they want. Each layer on the chart will have a different color border for the shapes that you choose."