SCROLL DOWN TO READ THE POST
Wordia: Getting more involved with your dictionary
As we continue to redefine reference and authority and what tools to use when, enter Wordia.
I discovered Wordia yesterday through the remarkable Unquiet Library blog. (Thanks, Buffy!)
Who and what is Wordia?
Wordia has impressive Web pedigree and a bit of an English accent.
With partners HarperCollins, the National Literacy Trust, the UK’s Open University, and Michael Birch (founder of Bebo), Wordia is a 2.0, democratic-style dictionary built on user-produced videos. Official definitions are courtesy of the Collins English Electronic Dictionary (Digital Edition: 2008). A number of actors and comedians chose to contribute video, but subscribers don’t need such credentials.
The group describes itself as:
a team of language enthusiasts and general word nuts who have joined forces to create a new kind of dictionary – a democratic ‘visual dictionary’. A place where anyone with a video, webcam or mobile phone can define the words that matter to them in their life.
We believe that everyone wants to express themselves more clearly, whether to win debates, spark conversations or simply to make people laugh with a well-chosen word.
Over the years we’ve tried many ways to improve our grasp of the English language. We’ve listened, jotted and scribbled down words that have excited, confused and challenged us. wordia.com is our way of improving our own vocabulary and in the process, discovering what words mean to other people. Like most people, we’re interested in what other think and feel.
I can see so many uses for Wordia at school.
- We can use this as a model for our own student work. How will students creatively connect with words? Can we create our own small locally useful collections of video words, say for SAT study?
- We can have learners produce videos for upload to the audience of Wordia. This would be so much more fun and so much more valuable than worksheet homework with definitions and sample sentences.
- I suspect that learning vocabulary from those little orange workbooks is not the ideal approach. It is fun to hear how a variety of individuals interpret meaning and how they choose to creatively demonstrate their understandings for others.
- English (or other types of) teachers might subscribe to Wordia’s RSS feed for a dose of the word of the day, or get it sent to them by email. I can see starting each day’s instruction with a new word video.
- Librarians (and other teacher-types) might embed Wordia videos on their own pages designed to promote understanding of specific vocabulary. (Embeddable code may be easier to find on YouTube than on the site itself.)
Here’s an example:
If you’d like to do a little more thinking about dictionaries and what they might contain and how they might look, don’t miss lexicographer Erin McKean’s really funny and smart TED talk on dictionaries as containers. Her ham butt metaphor will make you reconsider possibilities!
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
The English language is as big as it is. . . Paper is the enemy of words. . .The book is not the best shape for the dictionary.
Filed under: Uncategorized
About Joyce Valenza
Joyce is an Assistant Professor of Teaching at Rutgers University School of Information and Communication, a technology writer, speaker, blogger and learner. Follow her on Twitter: @joycevalenza
ADVERTISEMENT
SLJ Blog Network
The Moral Dilemma of THE MONSTER AT THE END OF THIS BOOK
Cover Reveal and Q&A: The One and Only Googoosh with Azadeh Westergaard
Winnie-The-Pooh | Review
A Reading Community: A Love Letter to Local Independent Bookstores, a guest post by Heather Del Piano
The Classroom Bookshelf is Moving
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT