Week 3

This week's topic in Language Skills Through ICT surrounded potential word and text tools to use in the classroom.

Most of these tools were previously unfamiliar to me, and so I found them all the more fascinating. One interesting tool is a Word Cloud Generator developed by Jason Davies, a programmer from the UK. The generator invites users to enter text, and the program uses an algorithm to visualize the words in ways that the user can control. The user can adjust speed, orientation, and word count, among other things.

Upon second glance, this activity strikes me as more useful for someone interested in programming, who has a better knowledge and understanding of JavaScript, even though the word cloud is aesthetically pleasing. Further, I don't think that word clouds are the best way to represent information in a text – they stress words by frequency rather than by salience, and they provide no narrative about the text. I thought that the Text Profiler did a much nicer job of quantifying word usage in a passage.

I thought that the Corpus of Contemporary American English was absolutely fascinating. I can see myself using this to develop new vocabulary exercises, rhyming projects, or experimenting with new words in my own speaking!

Something else that I found useful was Simple Wikipedia – I had no idea that this existed. Simple Wikipedia takes any article in its database and simplifies it using basic tenses and limited vocabulary. This will be excellent to use with my fifth and sixth graders who are studying about the weather and natural disasters. I also imagine using this for myself to take in more difficult reading.

I look forward to collecting more of these teaching tools as we move forward!