1. Wordle
1.1. Purpose/Uses
1.1.1. Creates word clouds from text
1.2. Features
1.2.1. Places more emphasis on words that appear more often in the text
1.2.1.1. For example, use the word "Dog" 3 times, it will be bigger in the final visual than "Cat" which was used only once
1.2.2. Several options for colors, fonts, and layouts
1.2.3. Possible to change the shape of your Wordle, as well as the orientation of the text (horizontal, vertical, etc.)
1.2.4. Has forum where you can ask questions of other Wordle users
1.3. Curricular Integration
1.3.1. Great for creating posters!
1.3.1.1. Could create "Self Poster" at the beginning of the year to introduce themselves; things students find important about themselves will be bigger
1.3.1.2. Can create a poster for just about any topic
1.3.1.3. Excellent visual for keywords and terms
1.4. Problems
1.4.1. You can't edit text once you've put it in the box; recommended to type it in a Word document, copy and paste it into box in Wordle
1.4.2. Wordle Gallery doesn't have any sort of filter, not recommended for use with students (inappropriate Wordles might be present)
1.4.3. Can't save your Wordle as an image (.jpg, .gif, etc.)
1.4.3.1. Tutorial showed that Mac users can save as a pdf when opening print menu
1.5. Other
1.5.1. Tutorial at http://vimeo.com/13685081 (about 11 minutes)
2. PiratePad
2.1. Purpose/Uses
2.1.1. Online collaboration on documents in real time
2.2. Features
2.2.1. Color-coded text according to author
2.2.2. Chat window for people who are online at the same time
2.2.3. Timeline lets you keep track of all the revisions to the document
2.2.4. Possible to export your documents
2.3. Curricular Integration
2.3.1. Would be great for group projects that there's not enough class time for
2.3.2. Could be used to link with a class from another school/state/country
2.4. Problems
2.4.1. I had some difficulty because it's a tool that's meant to be used by a group of people, and I'm only one experimenter
2.5. Other
2.5.1. Tutorial at http://screenr.com/eXO (about 3.5 minutes)
3. Dipity
3.1. Purpose/Uses
3.1.1. Tool for creating timelines
3.2. Features
3.2.1. Add as many events to timeline with as much info about each event as you want
3.2.2. Can automatically pull from other sources (such as your Twitter account) for your own personal timeline
3.3. Curricular Integration
3.3.1. Could create timelines as a historical project, biographical project
3.3.2. Students can create own personal timeline of their life
3.3.3. Can create timelines such as "What I Did This Summer," "My Trip to Boston," etc.
3.4. Problems
3.4.1. Other than being limited to solely creating timelines, I didn't have any problems with this site.
3.5. Other
3.5.1. Tutorial at http://vimeo.com/5396012 (about 7 minutes)