A Word Cloud from Wordle

We have dealt with a lot of tools that are directly used for teaching and learning language. In this blog post, we will look into Wordle, the tool to generate word cloud and see how this can be exploited for teaching and learning. Wordle is a tool that enables the most frequently used word appear in big font. We can also have some tweakings to change the colour and layout. It is easy to use.

How to create

At first, browse www.wordle.net, you will see the Wordle’s homepage. And beneath the introduction, you will find ‘create your own’. Click on it that will lead you to the open box. You will copy your source text, the text of which you are planning for the word cloud to appear, and paste it in the open box. Then click on a ‘go’ option. Now you will see the java processing on your screeen and after a while your word cloud! You may not like the first shot of the word cloud. The layout may not be that much attractive. In that case, click on ‘randomize’ and check for the various options unless you come up with the exquisite and elegant one.

Next, you can try out with the language, font, layout and colour options available on the Wordle and change the word cloud accordingly. Next, interesting feature is, you can right click on the individual word and delete it if you think that the word is no longer useful. Also if we double click on the word cloud, we can get the words outline which can be filled with different colours. Finally, once you feel like you are done with editing, you can save as a PNG or print it.

For a brief tutorial, please watch this video.

This is the word cloud that I created using Wordle.

How can we use it for language teaching and learning?

A word cloud can be a good material for teaching vocabulary. We can make a word cloud big enough to be seen by the whole class and make the learners guess about lesson or content that is going to be discussed. Or we may ask them to create a story out of the words used in a word cloud.

Next, the word cloud can be used for teaching grammar. For instance, we can divide students into different groups and ask which word class does the word belong to and how they could put the word in context.

I see the potential of word cloud for creating some project work’s illustration too. For the illustration, the word cloud can narrate what the project work is about with the help of number of key words in a visually appealing format.

As we have discussed its extended function to classroom teaching and learning, now I would like to analyse its strengths and limitations below.

Strengths

•      It is free of cost, easy to handle and has least navigations.
•      The word cloud can mostly be used for teaching vocabulary and grammar.
•    The word cloud can be used to have the worded illustration for any kind of project.

     Limitations

• Sometimes, in some devices, it may not work as it runs in Java.
• It doesn't have many extended use as other tools have in language teaching and learning.

You may compare the features of Wordle with Wordsift which has more or less similar features. For this please visit www.wordsift.org.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Thank you.

Nearpod: Using Mobile Technology for Language Teaching and Learning

If you are thinking of using Mobile technology in the classroom, Nearpod can be one of the best options. It is easy to handle and has an attractive interface. You can develop your interactive lessons in a short while if you have already got your content and general outline. Its layout and transition look like a set of PowerPoint slides but you can make them interactive enough having developed some exercises for the learners to work on. You can add activities such as open-ended questions, quiz, polls, fill in the blanks activities, collaborative activities, etc.

For students, they can download Nearpod app in their either one of the devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops and get the lessons in a form of a live lesson which is teacher-paced or student-paced. In a student-paced lesson, students can control the pace of the lessons and move forward getting involved in the lessons. Since they have been built as mobile devices friendly, students can also go out of the class to carry out research on something, add required pictures and videos and submit finally. On the other hand, in a live lesson, the teacher can control the pace of the lessons and all the students can see the pages/slides on the screen of their devices. They cannot move to the next slides unless the teacher moves for everyone. So since everyone gets their lessons at their screen, they don't require multimedia projector in the classroom while Nearpod is getting operated. Nearpod also adds the gaming feature to the lessons involving students in a kind of competitive task.

                                         

Next interesting feature of Nearpod is, once the students submit their answers, you can show them their progress report immediately or download it and save it for your future purpose.

How to Create?

At first, create an account in www.nearpod.com and log into it. Now click on ‘create’ button on the right colourful section. There appears ‘untitled session’ and ‘setting’. Click on ‘setting’ next to ‘untitled session’ and add your lesson’s name, description, grade and subject and submit it. Now you are ready to add slides. Click on ‘add slides’ which will lead you to ‘add content’, ‘add web content’ or ‘add activities’ sections. Click one of them as per your lesson outline which further lead you to specify the content or activities as other details are seen beneath this section. Select one of them and develop activities.

Once you have developed a slide, you can preview it, and further, you can add as many slides as you need. For more information, you can visit this tutorial video.

No doubt, Nearpod can be one of the best tools for mobile teaching and learning as it has its greater affordance to have interactive activities and content; however, it has some limitations too. We will discuss its advantages and limitations in the following points.

Advantages:

1.    It is mobile-devices-friendly so the activities of the lesson can be done even outside the class in a form of group work during the same class hour.

2.    No multimedia projector is required. Therefore, a teacher can use students’ smart phones as the resources for teaching and learning while delivering lesson through Nearpod.

3.    While having debates about the effective use of cell phones for language learning in the class, the affordance of Nearpod has come as a support for mobile devices for language teaching and learning.

4.    Nearpod provides a lot of features for interactive and collaborative tasks.

5.    The post-activity evaluation report is useful for teacher to see how far the lesson delivery could achieve the expected outcome on the basis of which he/she could modify/adjust his future activities.

Limitations:

1.    It has a limited free version after which a teacher/ an institution needs to pay quite a lot of sum in a yearly basis if it is decided to be used further.

2.    While developing content, it doesn’t let you format the content and other illustrations and videos (as regards the choice of placement) in the slides.

3.    However, mobile-devices-friendly it is, doing task in the small screen of smart phones is always not so easy, and at times, the quality of smart phones also affects the pace of task completion.  

I hope that this very brief posting helped you get little about Nearpod. You may try to create a lesson for your classroom and try out.

Padlet Lets you Collaborate…

In our last post, we talked about the tool for visual illustration and today in this post we will look into a tool which is phenomenally significant for collaboration. This tool is as easy as Canva, a tool for design and illustration in terms of usability. It doesn’t have drag and drop feature whereas a few clicks during setting will help you make it. We will describe it in the process section below.

If any tasks demands learners’ collaboration, for instance, they need to comment and re-comment to consolidate ideas for the issue they are discussing then the Padlet can be of a big help. Similarly, if you plan to make them see the process of writing, Padlet can be the good option to let them observe. It also makes them learn to value others’ opinion and come to consensus. So they will also be subtly gaining the negotiating strategy through the task in Padlet.

How to Create?

Learners’ don’t require to sign in; however, if they do, their names are seen and it’s for you to track down their involvement. So it’s always a good idea to ask them to write their names beneath every posting. For you to post the task, you need to sign up as usual. You may use your Google or Facebook account as well for a quick signup and now you are directed to a main page. In the main page, click on ‘Create a Padlet’, and give a task name and description on the right hand side Padlet’s dashboard (or it’s kind of dialogue box). You can also select wallpaper and layout. Now the Padlet is ready. Give the link to your students which will direct them to your Padlet. The students need to simply hover a cursor around the ‘plus’ sign at the bottom which will turn out to be a pencil icon. Once they double click it, they will get their writing pane ready in which they can write.

For the details, you may visit this tutorial video.

If you want to see the Padlet I have created, you may click here.

Now let’s examine its advantages and disadvantages. I have listed them into points.

Advantages:

1.             It is a good tool for developing any collaborative task.

2.             It is free and easy to use.

3.             Students can develop their negotiation skill and collaborative strategy through the task given in Padlet.

4.             They can also develop a loop of their writing on the same issue.

5.             It also has an option to attach videos, photos and other documents.

Limitations:

1.             At times, students may happen to delete the entire writings or other attachments if they click on delete button unknowingly while editing.

2.             Some students lacking collaborative skill may bring some kind of provocative remarks.

  

I hope you have got a brief overview of this tool. Enjoy designing your collaborative task for your learners.