Todd's Tuesday Tech Tips #10: You Are Your Words

Hello Colleagues,

Happy Tuesday!

This week's tech tip is sort of a piece of 'word cloudesque' art. 

By the way, if you haven't checked out the cool word cloud in the front hall, I used Tagxedo to make it.  I started with a rectangle (the shape that I wanted the final picture to be) and then fiddled with all of the adjustments to get it to be what I wanted it to be.  I think Tagxedo works better for this type of application. 

The American Heritage Dictionary has a site called:  You Are Your Words. 

On this site, you create beautiful word portraits.  I've seen this effect created in Photoshop, but it takes a long time and lots and lots of patience to master.  So, when I saw one of these word cloudesque creations, I wanted to know how it was done.

It's really simple: 

1.  Choose a photograph or use your web cam to take one.



2.  Do you recognize subject?  You will need to use the scale and move tools to get the eyes and mouth in the cross hairs. I tried one without having the eyes and mouth in the recommended areas and it still worked out, but it took some additional tweaking in step three.



3.  Add your words.  You can, if you have them, connect to your Facebook or Twitter account.  Or, like me, you can just write some new text.

Here is the text I put into the generator:  Dr. Ryan became the Principal of Hubbard Woods School in July 2012.  It was not his first time at Hubbard Woods however.  He had been a teacher at Hubbard Woods School over twenty years ago.  It is with open arms that the community has welcomed him. His first year was a tremendous success and the community looks forward to many fantastic years to come.  Dr. Ryan's path back to Hubbard Woods took him to three different schools.  He was a Principal in Hinsdale for a while.  He was also the Principal of The Baker Demonstration School in Evanston, IL.  Lastly, he created and nurtured his own school, The Children's School in Oak Park, IL.  We are grateful to have his outstanding leadership in our district.

4.  Tweaking:  You can adjust the font, color and contrast to your liking.  Here is where I decided to stop tweaking.




Here is my final result:



There you have it!

Here is a video of how to use this tool also.

Now, how might you use this in your classroom?  One thought that comes to mind right away would be the bio-poem.  Kids could create text about themselves and then plug it in to this web application.  I can imagine that this would be a really cool way to personalize cubbies and portfolio journals and binders.  If you were doing a famous person's biography you could copy and past your whole report into the You Are Your Words site and create a very interesting infographic on the person.  Similarly you could do a Google search on the person and copy and paste the search into the text field. 

How do you think you might use this tool?  As always, please be sure to leave your suggestions on the T4 Blog  so that we can all benefit from your suggestions!

Thanks,
Todd

Todd's Tuesday Tech Tip #9: Animoto

Hello Colleagues,

Happy Tuesday!

This week's tip is about making fun, fast slideshow.  The company Animoto has been around for a few years, but now they offer free accounts for teachers.  

You do have to sign up; see that little blue apply now icon?  Click on that and sign up for a free account.  

Once you do, making your first slideshow with Animoto couldn't be easier.  

Here is a 60 second video that explains how Animoto works.

The secret of Animoto is that it creates your slideshow based on the music you choose.  Good news, they have a wide range of royalty free music that you can use in your slideshow.  What I think makes the slideshows even better are the themes.  You choose a theme and Animoto builds your slideshow quickly and easily.  Then you can share it by posting it on your website, sending a link via e-mail and much more.  

Here is a step by step set of instructions I found from Emily Dittmar of Marshall Public Schools.

Here is her example video created by using these instructions.

If you stop over to our library blog you will see several Animoto slideshows.  Most recently I made one of Jon Klassen's visit.  Here is another one I made for WGST.

So, what do you think?  How might you use Animoto in your classroom?  

As always, please post your thoughts on our T4 Website so that all can benefit from the conversation!

Thanks,
Todd

Todd's Tuesday Tech Tip #8: Tagxedo

Hello Colleagues,

Happy Tuesday!

This week's T4 piggybacks on last week's tip: word clouds.

I found Tagxedo quite by accident.  Tagxedo is very similar to Wordle in that you can create word clouds using the free, online program.  However, the most powerful difference between Tagxedo and Wordle is that Tagxedo allows you to create magnificent shapes with your world cloud.  

I don't just mean circles and squares, I mean graphic images.  For example, open this image:  "I'll Have Another"  

Here is the 'static' image.  You can see that this word cloud is created from an original image of the horse and jockey.



Of course, this is a bit of an advanced word cloud.  You can also do something a bit more simple, such as the image I created for the cover of our WGST videos last year.  I asked ll the fourth graders to share 10-15 words you think of when you think of WGST.  



Here is where Tagxedo rocks.  I was able to not just make a word cloud, but I was able to put it into a shape I wanted.  I simply added the text/shape I wanted and then pasted in the text.  Rather than just have the words fill the letters WGST, I had it do the inverse so that the negative space is actually the letters WGST.  

The power of Tagxedo is that you can make word clouds out of anything from blogs, tweets, websites, and on and on.




Here is a video of how to make a Tagxedo.

If you, like me, find this awkwardly exciting, you can learn much more at this link. Where the creator of Tagxedo explains 101 ways to use this magnificent tool!

Thanks!

Todd's Tuesday Tech Tip #7: Wordle Word Clouds

Hello Colleagues,

Happy Tuesday!

This week's T4 is all about word clouds.

What is a word cloud you might be asking? I found this definition, along with a brief description of the most popular word cloud generator, Wordle.

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak 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 your friends.

 

Here is a video of how to make your own Wordle.

As I said, Wordle is the most well known word cloud generator.  So, what can you do with these word clouds? 

Michael Gorman, of 21st Century Educational Technology and Learning has come up with a list of 108 ways you can use word clouds in the classroom. 

Here are a few of my favorites:

1.  Create a group word cloud of the entire class or sub groups in the class. This could be in reaction to a discussion, an idea, a reading, or video. Students work in groups to come up with 20-30 descriptive words and then make a word cloud. Using advanced tools they could rank them or color code them.

2.  Have a students analyze their frequency of word usage in a writing piece.

3.  Have students write a book review and put it into a word cloud. Find write ups of books and create word clouds to promote a book.

4.  Put words in a word cloud that will be part of spelling tests and vocabulary investigations.

5.  Students create a word cloud to illustrate their favorite artist or musician and do not include the name. They then present word cloud to class and students try to guess. Finish by including their word cloud as part of a poster with a picture of artist/musician, name of artist/musician, and paragraph about him/her.

Here is one last example.  It is actually made using another word cloud program called Tagxedo.  To me, Tagxedo is like Wordle on steroids and it is awesome!  I will go over how to make a word cloud with this program in a future T4.  Here's one I made with fourth graders by soliciting from each of them ten words that describe WGST.  The wordle was then created using the inverse of the letters WGST.  

How could you use Wordle?

Thanks!

Todd

Todd's Tuesday Tech Tip #6: Base Ten Fun

Base Ten Fun is a set of three educational games that elementary school students can use to practice counting and adding in units of ten. The three games are Read & Make, Listen & Make, and Count & Write.

In Read & Make students see a number on a blank canvas. Students then drag blocks of ten and individual blocks onto that blank canvas to create the number they were shown. New block designs are unlocked when students correctly complete ten problems in a row.


Listen & Make uses the same format as Read & Make but instead of reading the numbers that they need to make students hear the numbers that they need to make.

Count & Write asks students to add up the blocks appearing on the screen and enter the correct total.

There is also a Base Ten Bingo game.  Here is a link to a demo on how to play it.



Thank you to Richard Byrne's Free Technology for Teachers for this post.

I would love to have your comments about how you are using these tips, or if you have a suggestion for a tip you would like me to explore.