Tuesday, 8 November 2011

Wordle - A new way of looking at text

Wordle is a web tool made for the most reticent of web users.  Simply cut and paste selected text from any  document (or direct Wordle to text on the internet), and click "GO".  A word cloud reflecting the words in your text, giving prominence to words used most frequently,  is generated.  As the creator, you can play with font, colour, and layout.  It is incredibly simple, and surprisingly powerful to see your words graphically displayed in this way.  Access is free and you can print or publish your creations online.  Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any function which allows you to save the picture file, but it was easy to capture the screen image and paste it into a word document for future reference and use.


Tuesday, 1 November 2011

New Technologies Assisting Education - Where to go?

ASO (AustralianScreen Online http://aso.gov.au/education/)
The ASO website is a multi-award winning site that provides free access to 100 years' of Australian videos in all forms, including films, television, newsreels and animations.  The eduction page of ASO has been created by Education Services Australia through the Learning Federation.  It contains over 2500 clips divided into eleven categories such as Environment, Arts, and Identity and Culture.  Each of these categories is further sub-divided in logical categories which makes searching for the right clip quite easy.  Each of the clips on the ASO Education page include both curator comments and teacher's notes


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TES
This site is the repository of approximately 3,500 videos archived by the UK Dept. of Eduction.  For a recent Science Unit of Work assessment on light, I found a fantastic clip to use as a lesson starter as well as several classroom demonstrations and sample lessons that provided both inspiration and an idea of what creative learning looks like.


http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storyCode=6081830&s_cid=RESads_TTVvideos
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PollDaddy (http://polldaddy.com)





PollDaddy is an online tool that can be used in conducting on line polls, surveys and quizzes.  Membership is free if usage is limited to 200 responses/month.