Reflection On Constructing a Wordle
Creating the Wordle was a study in frustration at the beginning, since I could not get Internet Explorer to allow me to complete the
process: it would delete my words and shut the program down. I downloaded FireFox and Java, and was finally able to create the
Wordle. In order to generate words, I did some free writing in a notebook (old fashioned I know--but there is something important about having a pen in my hand when I generate a first draft). I then went through the free write and highlighted important words--more by felt sense than any real logic. I have a lot of words, so I will talk about the largest first: learning and time are the largest, and in my free write, I was thinking about the many kinds of learning online classes open up for people--and how the limitations of particular and constricted class schedules are broken down by online offerings. Time becomes flexible, but also I was thinking about the kid in the back of the classroom who has something to say but has a hard time breaking into a class discussion or speaking up in class if even there are opportunities for it, and how online discussions offer a kind of distance and safety for people to responds and say what they are thinking without being interrupted, without worry about saying the wrong thing. My next words are community and collaboration. In a brick and mortar classroom, the first thing I want the students to do is to create a community: a place where they can take risks, share, be comfortable with one another; and I think this is something that still needs to happen in an online class--though I suppose it may look and feel differently than in a regular classroom. Along with community, is collaboration which really can't happen without some sort of shared community. We collaborate to make the class work, to create knowledge, to respond and hear each other--so I think this goes beyond group work. Words that could be grouped with community
and collaboration would be: conversation, listening, questioning, quiet, response, perspectives, considered, choice. All of these are ways of being in/participating in a community--and online classes offer new and curious ways of enacting these things--we can be quiet with our thoughts--or the thoughts of others without losing ourselves in the rush of in-class discussion; we may be able to listen more carefully to another's words if we do not have to react immediately to them. Let's see, what other words
are there: inquiry, project based learning, problems, investigation, marshaling ideas, questions, complex ideas, self-directed, guided collaboration. I think I was thinking about all the possible ways of structuring effective online learning--and how not having to be
classroom-based opened up many possibilities for students to direct their own learning (within bounds--with guidance from the instructor) and the rich opportunities for learning this could provide. The words write and written and read show up because the online classroom would not exist without them--they are the foundation without which the technology would be empty--and I am sorry, now that I look at my Wordle, that I did not repeat them many more times--for me they are part of the fabric of life, and so sometimes taken for granted, but I don't want to take them for granted, and I don't want my students to either. I think that covers just about all of the words except for virtual, real, flipped classrooms, openness and new. I suppose these are my way of feeling around the realities of online learning and its relationships to traditional classrooms. I have read a few articles about flipped classrooms, and I am intrigued by this merging and reimaging of technology and a traditional classroom--I want to be open to new ideas and I think the best of online learning helps students create and maintain this openness.The way I have seen these (Wordle) used in the recent past, is through our school district's community engagement process--planning for the future of the district in terms of curriculum and facilities. It was particularly powerful to see the 6 words of each of 20 or so tables, combined and highlighted in this way--there was clear consensus on many things that we may not have been able to get to if we had used a more
talk-intensive approach--it was a great way for 200+ people to see what was agreed upon and what less-so. I think this is good activity for building consensus or showing where ideas between different people coalesce or disperse. So, in a composition class, it might be useful for students to create a list of writing phobias, grammar fears, things they know about an essay, etc., and have them merged into one class Wordle as a discussion starter.
process: it would delete my words and shut the program down. I downloaded FireFox and Java, and was finally able to create the
Wordle. In order to generate words, I did some free writing in a notebook (old fashioned I know--but there is something important about having a pen in my hand when I generate a first draft). I then went through the free write and highlighted important words--more by felt sense than any real logic. I have a lot of words, so I will talk about the largest first: learning and time are the largest, and in my free write, I was thinking about the many kinds of learning online classes open up for people--and how the limitations of particular and constricted class schedules are broken down by online offerings. Time becomes flexible, but also I was thinking about the kid in the back of the classroom who has something to say but has a hard time breaking into a class discussion or speaking up in class if even there are opportunities for it, and how online discussions offer a kind of distance and safety for people to responds and say what they are thinking without being interrupted, without worry about saying the wrong thing. My next words are community and collaboration. In a brick and mortar classroom, the first thing I want the students to do is to create a community: a place where they can take risks, share, be comfortable with one another; and I think this is something that still needs to happen in an online class--though I suppose it may look and feel differently than in a regular classroom. Along with community, is collaboration which really can't happen without some sort of shared community. We collaborate to make the class work, to create knowledge, to respond and hear each other--so I think this goes beyond group work. Words that could be grouped with community
and collaboration would be: conversation, listening, questioning, quiet, response, perspectives, considered, choice. All of these are ways of being in/participating in a community--and online classes offer new and curious ways of enacting these things--we can be quiet with our thoughts--or the thoughts of others without losing ourselves in the rush of in-class discussion; we may be able to listen more carefully to another's words if we do not have to react immediately to them. Let's see, what other words
are there: inquiry, project based learning, problems, investigation, marshaling ideas, questions, complex ideas, self-directed, guided collaboration. I think I was thinking about all the possible ways of structuring effective online learning--and how not having to be
classroom-based opened up many possibilities for students to direct their own learning (within bounds--with guidance from the instructor) and the rich opportunities for learning this could provide. The words write and written and read show up because the online classroom would not exist without them--they are the foundation without which the technology would be empty--and I am sorry, now that I look at my Wordle, that I did not repeat them many more times--for me they are part of the fabric of life, and so sometimes taken for granted, but I don't want to take them for granted, and I don't want my students to either. I think that covers just about all of the words except for virtual, real, flipped classrooms, openness and new. I suppose these are my way of feeling around the realities of online learning and its relationships to traditional classrooms. I have read a few articles about flipped classrooms, and I am intrigued by this merging and reimaging of technology and a traditional classroom--I want to be open to new ideas and I think the best of online learning helps students create and maintain this openness.The way I have seen these (Wordle) used in the recent past, is through our school district's community engagement process--planning for the future of the district in terms of curriculum and facilities. It was particularly powerful to see the 6 words of each of 20 or so tables, combined and highlighted in this way--there was clear consensus on many things that we may not have been able to get to if we had used a more
talk-intensive approach--it was a great way for 200+ people to see what was agreed upon and what less-so. I think this is good activity for building consensus or showing where ideas between different people coalesce or disperse. So, in a composition class, it might be useful for students to create a list of writing phobias, grammar fears, things they know about an essay, etc., and have them merged into one class Wordle as a discussion starter.