I can relate to visual learners. If I see something I am much more likely to remember it or at least snippets of information that having only heard it, I would have missed. There are some pretty interesting tools online to play with that can be used for fun as well as for instruction in the classroom. I liked wordle when I was exposed to it a few years ago. Now there is tagxedo. This is really cool. You can choose your own words to use, you can use a url, a search, tags, blogs, tweets; the sky is the limit! These word clouds emphasize the words that are used the most frequently in larger type. The larger the font the more times the word has been used. This is presented then in a variety of different shapes. I love this idea. I can see myself using this to introduce a topic. For example, if students were to get this tagxedo at the beginning of learning about digital citizenship, they would be able to get a good idea of some of the most important things involved. I would use this also in the hope that seeing words presented in this fun manner would excite students and spark their interest in topics that otherwise may have sounded dull and boring to them.
Vocabgrabber looks pretty cool. It takes a lot of the leg work out of finding vocabulary in an article or reading. You simply copy and paste your text into the vocabgrabber and it will find words that are a focus. It defines them in context as well. It also categorizes the words. This would be great for learning about a new people group in Social Studies.I could use this for myself as well as for the students. This way I would be able to be sure I know what the students are going to be encountering in their readings.
This is an example of bubbl. It uses mapping to make learning easier for students. This example shows how fractions can be used and different tools- books, visual or technical- that can be used to learn more about fractions. This is fun to use. I could make the bubbles whatever color I wanted. If information is connected to a previous bubble they can be connected. I think this is a great tool to use in my classroom. As is seen here, even math can use a mapping tool like this!
I'm excited about the visuals for students~ mostly because that means that I get to use visuals as well!! I love color and things that stick out to me- things that capture my attention. ROCK ON VISUALS!!
I'm excited about the visuals for students~ mostly because that means that I get to use visuals as well!! I love color and things that stick out to me- things that capture my attention. ROCK ON VISUALS!!