I’ve been watching the Wordle clouds floating their way through the blogosphere for a few days now, and I’ve been curious to see how Wordle, paired up with del.icio.us tags, a blog, or any other big collection of words, gives people a chance to see what they’ve been writing and thinking about in (potentially) new ways. (Wordle, if you haven’t seen it, takes any collection of words, or your del.icio.us links, and produces a tag cloud, with the words used most often appearing in the largest text.)
So, on a whim, I popped in the text for all of our posts here on WUB:
No surprise that wikis, blogging, and podcasting came up big. I was quite happily surprised, however, to see the word “students” right there, front and center, as the largest word in the cloud. We like to think that we’re putting students first in our ruminations here, but I think only through Wordle would I have realized that, so far at least, we have been!
Next up, my del.icio.us links:
Wow. Looks like I’m a bit behind on my “readthis” reading list. Clearly I’m using del.icio.us as a place to store all the things I wish I had time to read, try, and write about. It is also interesting to see that here, Drupal has eclipsed blogs, wikis, and podcasting. Del.icio.us seems to provide a somewhat more technical “behind the scenes” view.
And then, out of curiosity , my CV:
Oh good, “learning” “teaching” and “technology” are all quite prominent. But interestingly, “Spring” appears much larger than “Fall” – am I more productive in the Spring? And too bad it split up “San” and “Francisco.” So too for “Long” and “Beach.”
What do you think, could a wordle make a good resume? Could these three images – of my collaboratively authored blog, my del.icio.us links, and my CV – provide a short-cut, of sorts, to seeing the things I’ve been doing and thinking about? What else might I include? Should I have mashed them all together into one mega-Wordle?
Seen any other interesting wordles out there?
Let WUB know in the comments!
These are fun to look at and get a sense of how balanced or unbalanced your particular blog, bookmarks or CV is, but it doesn’t really capture the quality of your writing. I know that many of your posts are written well with lots of thought put into them, but then there are our post-blurbs and link-blurbs that, while useful, are not all that provocative.
Also, these Wordles use language that are either specific to a small group of people (in some cases, just you) or are so general that you don’t know what they truly mean.
I do think you should print out the WUB Wordle in poster size and get it framed. Put it on that back wall in your office!
Very true (though I’d have to quibble with the “quality of the writing” bit!). There is certainly a “personal language” element to these Wordle pics.
I also think your comment on “balance” is insightful. These pics seem to provide some small insight into the relative balance between concepts or ideas.
But, ultimately, as you say, they are mostly just a fun curiosity.
And in that spirit, here’s one more:
The 2008 Horizon Report
I’m thinking wordle would make a fun exercise for reviewing for exams. The students could develop their own in their groups and then share with the class and explain what they know. Students could also use for short presentations rather than using powerpoint. Would solve the problem of slides with too much wording.
I’ve been really interested in this too! I’ve been putting reports I’ve written in there (e.g. grant reports) and seeing what comes up. It seems like an interesting alternative to the executive summary, which no one reads any more than the four people who read the reports. Not sure if it means much, but it’s nice to look at it all on one page.
I’m consulting with a faculty member who works with her students tell their family stories. From the student’s stories themes begin to develop. These themes are then related to the course readings and are discussed. It seems that if the students stories were input into Wordle it would be an interesting way to visually see the developing themes.