A wordle of this blog post.
Recently, I’ve come across two excellent presentations for using both of these technologies. Both were created by Tom Barrett, a teacher in Nottingham, England, that I follow on Twitter, another technology I recently blogged about. (You can follow Tom on Twitter, too, if you have a free Twitter account.)
I’ve blogged for a while about Interactive Whiteboards now, especially the $50 build-it-yourself version which is based on the Nintendo Wiimote. I’ve also highlighted Wordle as an interesting way to visualize language. I’m going to focus on the presentations on these two topics, but Tom also has presentations on Google Earth, Google Docs, Pocket Videos, and Twitter if you’re interested.
Thirty-Eight Interesting Ways to use your Interactive Whiteboard focuses on Smartboards, but includes lots of great ideas for most IWBs from basic shortcut functions to advanced techniques such as having students write on the board and then, instead of erasing, creating a presentation on Slideshare.net or a Google Presentation that can then be uploaded to the class blog for students to review. Great idea!
Thirty Interesting Ways to use Wordle in the Classroom covers a wide range of ideas appropriate for many different subjects. Some suggestions are pretty obvious, such as doing a simple lexical analysis of different texts: student created, children’s stories, literary works, etc. Others are quite innovative, such as photocopying a wordle with white words on a black background onto a transparency and having students come to the overhead projector and color nouns one color, verbs another, and so on. This presentation is sure to spark some great ideas.
All of these presentations are Google docs, so you’ll need to sign up for a free Google account to view them, if you don’t have one. Tom has compiled these tips and ideas from the suggestions of several teachers and even offers information on contributing your tips at the end of each presentation. His contact information is at the end of the presentations. Get in touch with him if you have something to contribute.
ESL Technology.com 
Excellent input. Your suggestions regarding Wordle are inspiring. Thinking about using it for salesfolks – most are visual thinkers.
I enjoyed reading your article. I’m in the process of developing a training on effective ways to integrate the interactive white board into teaching (Academic ESL) and I find your input very helpful. Your Wordle activities are great and can be easily adapted for a variety of settings.
Thank you