General+Tools

=General Tools=

First, let's reflect on what the skills are that you would like to see students obtain within your social studies curriculum or bible/religious studies curriculum.

Tool 1: Will You Type With Me
@http://willyou.typewith.me/

@http://willyou.typewith.me/p/wesleyan3

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Tool 2: Wordle
//Wordle// (http://www.wordle.net/) is a tool for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide (copy and paste). In effect, a word cloud is a visual representation of the word content of a website or another type of text. Wordle allows you to type in or paste any source text you would like.

In //Wordle//, the clouds that are created give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can also adjust your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with //Wordle// are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the //Wordle// gallery to share with friends, colleagues, and/or students.

Learning Goals

 * Observe and reflect upon a few examples //Wordles//.
 * Practice basic skills using the Wordle tool.
 * Create a Wordle that is associate with an instructional activity in a unit that you are currently teaching.

Part 1

 * Go to Wordle.net (http://www.wordle.net), read over the site, and review some of the //Wordles// created in the gallery on the site.
 * Practice using //Wordle//with a variety of texts.
 * Copy the text, and then click on the "**Create**" link and paste it into the text box provided. Once you have all of the words in the text box, click on **"Go**" and viola you have your first //Wordle//!
 * Note that at the top of your //Wordle//, you have links to tweak the font, layout, and color schemes if you decide to experiment. Once you have the design you like most, click on **"Save to Public Gallery"**, and you will have the opportunity to name your //Wordle//, create a user name, and provide a brief description of your creation.
 * More importantly, this also takes you to the screen where your //Wordle// has its own unique URL. From this page, you can open your //Wordle// in its own window, print it, and use the embed code provided at the bottom of the page to embed your //Wordle// on your own website, blog, wiki, etc. //**Save this URL** somewhere where you have access to it as the search function in Wordle is not extremely accurate or powerful.//
 * **//Wordle// is searchable; therefore, make your copy and paste your URL to a Word document ASAP.**

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 * Now that you have your first //practice Wordle//, create an instructional activity where your students can make some observations about the visual representation of text and conduct some analysis using //Wordle//. Try to create something that could be used in a current unit of study in your classroom. Provide the URL and your instructional activity through the discussion tab below.

Other tools from the immersion?
http://www.wallwisher.com/ http://todaysmeet.com/ Google Images? A specific wiki technique?