Wordle

The technology standards for teachers have definitely changed over the past decade. In today’s activity I had to find and collect the NETS.T standards for 2000 and 2008. Once I found them, I created an image for each year through the use of Wordle.net. Wordle is a tool that can be used for creating graphic images in order to identify key words for a passage of text or just something that could be included in a document as a visual.

After I created the two Wordle’s, I analyzed the words that were larger than others (which meant they were repeated more often throughout the text). What I found was that the NETS.T 2000 standards focused more on technology as teaching tool and the NETS.T 2008 standards focused on technology as a learning tool for both students and teachers. I think before the standards were about utilizing technology to help teachers make instruction more diverse. Now the standards focus on providing tools for the teachers to implement to help students learn and to improve professional growth for the teachers. Click here to view my images through Wordle for the 2000 and 2008 NETS.T standards.

2000

2008

 

If I were to use Wordle in a classroom, I think I would use it for writing purposes. My activity would include taking a document/paper and creating a Wordle out of the text. The next step would be for my students to identify words that are used continuously throughout the paper and change them to make the paper more detailed or specific with a variety of vocabulary. Some students tend to use the same words over and over again in their writing. Wordle would be a good way to identify commonly used words that are over used and could be replaced with better words. Once the students saw the most common words, they could then go back and focus on improving the paper by changing words to include a variety of vocabulary.

This activity complies with the ISTE.NETS.T standard one and three, Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity, and Model Digital-Age Work and Learning. Using Wordle with students allows for creativity and learning about text through colors, fonts and size. Wordle also helps the teacher to utilize digital tools in order to help students evaluate text and identify important terms in writing.