Wordle

I have a new favorite website. It is Wordle. From their website:
"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 Wordle of Rod Blagojevich's Criminal Complaint:


Have you seen Wordle? How are you using it in the classroom?

I have been tagged

I just noticed the other day that I have been tagged by Ann Oro over at NJ Tech Teacher Musings. She created a Meme.
Even though I don't have many posts, I created a Wordle of my blog:

My reaction:
This is a very interesting activity to do. I was interested in doing it for my delicious feed. Here is what I found:

This would also be a good idea to share with students and have them create a Wordle of their work and/or famous. When the election was taking place, I saw Wordle with Barack Obama's speeches and John McCain's speeches. What a great idea!

Meme's Rules
1. Create a Wordle from your blog's RSS feed.
2. Blog it and describe your reaction. Any surprises?
3. Tag others to do the same.
4. Be sure to link back here and to where you were first tagged.

Tag - You're It
I would like to tag the following people. There is no need to do this if you are not interested.

Steve Dembo
Scott Meech
Judy Epcke
Carol Broos
Ryan Bretag

Google Maps

Sorry it has been a while.
Yesterday, and then again today, I showed my Tech Safety and Responsibility classes Tracking Teresa put out by NetSmartz. Before the video we looking at Teresa's profile and circled what we thought was too much information.
After the video we talked about how easy it is to find someone using the Internet. I showed them Google Maps with both Satellite view and Street View. They were shocked how close you could get to your house. A couple of students even found sibling, cousins, and friends outside their house.
We also talked about how you could find information when you enter your phone number in Google. I mentioned as the video did how you could request your phone number not be listed. If they thought their number shouldn't be on Google they needed to tell their parents to request its removal though. We also talked about Reverse Lookup.
The students could not believe all they were able to find. For the last 15 minutes of class students used Google and Reverse Lookup to see what they could find about their address/phone number. I really feel this was a great lesson. I wish I could do this with all students. Students were able to see first hand why they shouldn't include any personal information of their profile(s).

Interactive White Board

I want one! I have seen presentations by Promethean and SmartBoard. I like them both. They are just both very pricey. I also wonder if it would be worth it is a computer lab. I definitely see the benefit in a regular education classroom, but what about the computer lab? Is there a way to get a grant to get these boards? What about Train the Trainer programs? How can I get involved with those? I believe, the school we are having the DEN Midwest Regional at has a SmartBoard in every room. How lucky!
Do you have experience with Interactive White Boards? How can I get involved?

Midwest DEN Regional

This weekend I have been attending the DEN Midwest Regional Conference. We were presented with a variety of information. As soon as I get home and decompress, I plan on writing on a variety of resourses to share with all of you!