DLC+-+2

Congratulations, you have made it to the second Digital Literacy Challenge! Complete this assignment by 11/26 to be entered in the prize drawing. We will draw one winner from the completed entries in each school. Have fun!


 * DLC #2**
 * In this challenge we will think about writing: **
 * Please read Part 1 of the Write page on this wiki **
 * (//note: there are two parts on this page. This challenge only deals with Part 1)// **


 * 1) ** Check out Wordsmyth and Lexipdeia. **
 * 2) ** Richard Byrne is an amazingly prolific educational blogger (and one of our guest presenters at the March curriculum day!) Take a look at his blog post on visual dictionaries. Explore any that look interesting. **
 * 3) ** Try out Pic-lit. **
 * 4) ** Create a Word Cloud using one of the word cloud generators listed. We recommend Wordle for beginners. **
 * 5) Create your word cloud. Copy and paste a poem, a paragraph, your weekly spelling list, your educational mission statement--whatever you would like into the text box. Adjust the colors and fonts to suit your fancy and then take a screen shot of your creation. Here are the steps: 
 * 6) Hold down the COMMAND [Apple/Clover Leaf] and SHIFT keys
 * 7) Press 3 for a screen shot of the entire screen
 * 8) Press 4 to get a "Crosshairs" so you can select just a section of the screen you want a screenshot for!
 * 9) Press the space bar after you press 4 if you want it to automatically size the screenshot so that it perfectly matches the window it's over. After you press the space bar, a camera icon should come up.
 * 10) **Know that the resulting file will be placed on your desktop, named Picture X.pdf for versions of 10.3 or earlier and Picture X.png for 10.4 and later (could also end in .jpg).**
 * 11) Press ** Esc ** to cancel.


 * Insert your word cloud into your blog. Directions are attached below for each of the blog sites: **


 * For Blogger, click here
 * For Wordpress, click here (Hint: Go to: From Your Computer and start with Step 2.)
 * For LiveWire, click here


 * In your blog, post a reflection on the tools you explored and any ideas you may have for using them in your teaching. If you are interested in other ways to incorporate Wordle in your teaching, check out these sites: **
 * http://www.web2teachingtools.com/wordle.html **
 * http://azk12.org/blog/2010/11/critical-thinking-with-word-clouds/ **


 * Complete the blog posting of your word cloud and reflection by 11/26.**


 * As always, if you have questions or need any assistance we are happy to help.**

School Facilitators: Erving: urban@erving.com Leverett: gravina@leverettschool.org Shutesbury: bernardm@shutesburyschool.org Swift River: morin@swiftriverschool.org