Using Text as Artwork: Wordle and TYPEDRAWiNG

Recently, I read a blog post by Terry Freedman called "Five Reasons to use Wordle in the Classroom." It gave some good ideas for ways to use this application to represent text graphically. Wordle generates "word clouds" of a text passage. The frequency that words appear in the text is represented by the relative size of the words in the cloud. The application allows you to control font, colors, and general layout. It's an engaging and exciting way to represent text in an unconventional way. Freedman's suggestions include using Wordle as a way to summarize and analyze material, reflect on your own writing, as a discussion starter for presentations, or as a way to illustrate a piece of writing. 

Today I was browing the iPhone app store (a guilty pleasure) and came upon another application called TYPEDRAWiNG, which has been available as an online application since 2005, in which you can enter a short line of text and use it to create line art. You use your mouse to draw a line. In this case, though, it's like you're using a paintbrush and the words are your paint. In my brief dabbling with the tool, I did find that the amount of text you can enter at one time is limited, as is the total amount of drawing you can do. The overall images are pretty cool, though.

Both applications provide interesting ways that students or teachers could use words in a graphic way. In a recent science lesson introducing rocks and minerals, for example, I asked students to describe several rock samples. I copied their descriptions into Wordle to create this image that we used as a discussion starter the next day. It was a good way to have them begin identifying some of the properties of rocks.

I can also envision a classroom activity using TYPEDRAWiNG in which students choose a sentence, or portion of a poem to illustrate graphically. For instance, I made this quick (and amateur) sketch for the first line of Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem, Afternoon on a Hill. "I will be the gladdest thing under the sun." It could be fun to see what kids create to show a favorite line of text!

All in all, though, the thing that I like about both of these applications is the fact that they can create a "wow" response to words. Anything that helps create excitement and interest for text seems, to me, to be a useful tool to have available.