In one of our most recent ALES 204
classes we learned about tag clouds. This, for me, was one of the
most helpful classes because I actually ended up using Wordle a lot
over reading break when looking for summer jobs. I went through many
job sites like the Monster and Kijiji and when I found a title of a
job that looked interesting I copied the entire job description and
pasted it into Wordle. When the cloud tag popped up I was able to
make a quick decision if it was a job that would work for me. The
following is one of the job descriptions that I pasted into Wordle.
When I saw the cloud tag, I immediately
knew that this would not be a suitable job for me because some of the
key words were “software” and “business.” Being
technologically challenged, this type of job definitely did not
interest me.
It's too bad that Wordle is a topic in
class that not many people consider to be very useful in the future
and just tend to forget about it. I can use it for so many things
on the web and it is such a time saver. Rather than reading a whole
description of something, I can quickly paste it into Wordle and
easily get an idea of what the main points are by just a few key
words. It makes your web search quick and efficient and that's what I
like most about it. You can use it for anything from job searches to
book descriptions; almost anything that is at least a paragraph in
length.
Wordle will probably be very helpful
in my future academic career as well when searching for specific
articles or readings. Being in Nutrition, I know that I have to do a
project in my fourth year and using Wordle to find research papers
about a specific topic could really benefit me, especially when time
is of little. Brenda also used her ALES 204 skills outside of class
to help her promote the Campus Food Bank via Twitter. She used her
poster making skills to help her create the Food Bank's first
newsletter. Check out Brenda's blog: http://brenda-le.blogspot.ca/
It was very interesting to read your post about Wordle! To be honest, I never gave much thought to how I could use it in my life and was like the many people you mentioned who just forgot about it. However, reading your post made me curious about what things Wordle could help me with. I am working on a paper for another class and plan to use it to help look through scientific articles. Thanks for the tip!
ReplyDeleteStace, it intrigues me that you use Wordle as a resource to sort through job postings and articles. Personally, I am similar to the people you mentioned who just forget about Wordle. I doubt that I will begin using Wordle, as I actually do enjoy reading the entire posting. What I do is, I skim through the most important section, which is "qualifications". After that, I would know for sure if I am qualified for the position at all. With that being said, thank you so much for bringing back Wordle to my mind, as I will remember this resource and use it when I think it will be beneficial for me.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting! I am one of those people that forgets about Wordle because I feel as if I will missing something by not reading the entire article or job posting. It's definitely something I will keep in mind as I progress through my academic career, especially as the amount of time I have to actually read everything is likely to shrink.
ReplyDeleteNice blog post Stacie!
ReplyDeleteI loved the ALES 204 lecture based on Wordle! Prior to the lecture I have never heard of the website Wordle and had no idea what it was. After reading your blog post, I must agree that Wordle is something that I will probably forget about. But, I must disagree with your statement about the usage of Wordle (" Rather than reading a whole description of something, I can quickly paste it into Wordle and easily get an idea of what the main points are by just a few key words.") Even with now knowing the possibilities with Wordle I feel that I still have to read the entire article in order to understand what it is talking about. By copying and pasting an article into Wordle, it presents to you words that were commonly used and that may be of importance, but I feel I could never get a full understanding of an article just by reading the words in Wordle.