Technology Integration for Teachers

Have you heard of Wordle? During the presidential campaign it became pretty popular with the press. Wordle creates a visual representation of text. The frequency of a word in the text shows itself in the size of the word. The bigger the word, the more frequently it is used in the source text. The online program allows the user to paste a bunch of text (any text) into a field and then when submitted, in a few seconds, a visual like this one appears.

I've been asked to talk a little at the elementary Language Arts teachers' meeting. It's really hard for me to say "just one thing", but I'll create this post to help me focus :). Our district has 5 Flip video cameras for check out. They are really easy to use and there are so many ways to use this kind of technology in the classroom. Just so you know, once you are sold on using the Flip - Terry Clarke from Carl Sandburg Junior High recommends you but a few Vado video cameras. Here's a link to where you can get those for around $40! Take a look at this presentation. It's a collaborative effort of several teachers to show at least 40 ways to use a little video camera in your class!