Sharing Tips and Tricks on Cloud Computing

[Carrie Albin]

In your courses you have been asked to share your tips and tricks of cloud computing. Post any ideas, activities, resources, or other tips you may have regarding cloud computing in this discussion forum. 

[Julie Sheridan]

I learned today about an online graphic dictionary www.visuwords.com and when you type in a word it creates a web linking that word to the definition, similar words, its derivations, other words that it is "kind of" like. The connection between your original word (e.g. imagination) and the other bubbles in the web tell you what connection the bubble has to the original word. The web is movable, you can drag parts of it around, move things to the middle, etc. This is a great program for students that are visual learners, its helps them see the words that they want defined and how those words are related to other words. It is a hard resource to describe, but I think that the kids will love it, you really have to check it out!

[Tom Gunnells]

Julie,
This site sounds really cool. I think this would be very helpful for students in a couple of different core areas. It could allow students to understand definitions, and learn new words. Students could also use this as a virtual thesaurus. It has many practical applications and is more interesting for kids to use, than plain old dictionaries.

[Dionna Harvell]

Wow, Julie that you for this resource, I went to this link and typed innocent and a link of nouns, adverbs, and adjectives connected to it. This is a great resource for all ages from elementary to adult learners; I am definitely going to use this, to help my students create correct grammatical structured work.

[Joe Bedingfield]

This is a cool website that I found very similar to Smart Concepts, but easier to use. Thank you for providing this website and I hope to explore more in the near future.

[Brittany Connors]

Thanks Julie! This is something I can use with my higher level readers during Reading Workshop or word study. They often want to know what words mean since in 1st grade they lack a lot of background knowledge. Great resource.

[Deborah Johnson]

This graphic dictionary seems like a great tool for students! I could help but think about how helpful this would also be for my ESOL students when learning different words and relationships among words. I also agree this could be a great resource for visual learners! I will be bookmarking this site!

[Marcus Clark]

I checked out the website and entered some web mastering terms. Wow, that is cool. It reminds me of Prezi a little bit. When I typed in browser, it gave other terms that students should know as well. It gives a better understanding of the definition instead of wondering what other terms in the definition mean, it gives you that too. That is a cool and new way to look at defining terms. I will be using this website this coming week!!

[Lindsay Sanders]

I agree that it has the Prezi-vibe. I love the visualization of this application as well as Prezi. At the high school I teach at, our students participate in "The Word of the Day", which is used to help them with their SAT vocabulary. I think this site would be a useful tool for students or teachers to use with their students to maximize understanding of these important and challenging words.

[Sharlene Kroneck]

omg. I love it. I like the symbols and shapes and colors (legend) to describe the words. This would be fun to use on a writing assignment. It gives you so many options to choose from. I like the balloon descriptions as well.

[Dan Winther]

Thank you for sharing about Visuwords. My team of teachers are struggling to find a way to have the students work with vocabulary words. The students have done webs before on paper, but they do not get anything out of it. I think that this tool may be one option for the students, so that they can fully integrate the words into their everyday vocabulary!

Thank you!

[Karen Soles]

Julie, great resource.  I can see using this when my class is working on writing and editing skills.  We do activites with overused or "Tired Words" and this will be a nice addition to the resources that they can use to challenge themselves to find better more interesting choices of wording to use.

Thanks!

Karen Soles

[Lisa Napierala]

Wow, I have never heard of this website before and it is really great.  This is a great tool for students to use during writing workshop when they are looking for synonyms for what I call "garbage words."  For instance, I typed in the word hard on the website.  There were numerous synonyms and antonyms for the word.  Also, without doing grammar in school, many students don't know what adverbs, verbs, adjectives, and nouns are.  This is a great tool to help learn that grammar as well.