Wordle

If you haven't discovered wordle yet, this introduction will get you hooked. There are many possibilities (educationally) for this application, but also it is just plain fun to play with words in an art form like this.

Rather than recreate Sue Waters great work, I posted it below...giving full credit to her on the step by step tips on how to create a wordle.



**Embedding Wordles Into Blog Posts! **
====July 29th, 2008 · [|23 Comments] [|Cool Web 2.0 & Desktop Tools]==== Have you become addicted to __[|Wordle]__ like me? The Wordle addiction is definitely spreading but embedding Wordles you create to your blog post can be tricky.

**WHAT IS WORDLE?**
__[|Wordle]__ is a free web site for easily creating beautiful word clouds from text, URLs, RSS feeds or del.icio.us account. They are a great way of visualizing the importance of particular word in text since the more frequently a word is used the larger it appears in the Wordle. You don’t need to sign up for an account — just go to the __[|Wordle create]__ page to get started! I used a __[|Wordle recently in a conference presentation]__ to emphasize the key reasons why educators use Personal Learning Networks by creating a Wordle using reader’s comments on “__[|Why is your personal learning network important to you?]__”. Below is a __[|Howcast on creating Wordles]__.

**EMBEDDING WORDLES IN BLOG POSTS**
Once you have created your Wordle you can save it to their Gallery and Wordle provides you the HTML code for embedding it into your blog post. Unfortunately this embeds a thumbnail image (170 pixels by 132 pixels) which is too small to clearly see the words. Dragging this thumbnail to increase size results in an image with blurred text. The best option is to take a screenshot of your Wordle using __[|Jing]__, __[|SnagIT]__,__[|MWSnap]__ or __[|Skitch]__ (read __[|this post]__ to learn about screencapture tools). Alternatively, instead of using screencapture tools, you can: Now all you need to do is upload your screenshot and insert the “Full Size” (NOT “medium”) image into your blog post! The “Full Size” image provides the best quality image for viewing the text.
 * 1) **Windows** - Click on the __[|Print Screen button on your keyboard]__ to capture desktop screen, paste (CTRL+V) the image into Paint, crop and then save image.
 * 2) **Mac** - Captures images and saves to desktop
 * **Command+Shift+3** - screencapture of your entire screen.
 * **Command+Shift+4** - Drag the cursor out over the area you want to capture.

**FINAL THOUGHTS**
There has differing opinions on the educational benefits of Wordles. What are your thoughts on Wordle? What are some of the creative ways you have used Wordles? How have you used them with students?