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It’s been quite some time since we looked at word cloud options for our last “Head to Head” post. Today, we thought we’d examine two popular “talking photo” sites that are both lots of fun: Fotobabble and Blabberize.
Similarities:
Both of these sites allow you to add narration to images, and they’re both super easy to use. This makes for lots of engaging fun for students, but also can serve multiple educational purposes. Both would be great for digital storytelling activities, for demonstrating reading fluency, practicing vocabulary words, dictating a poem or story, or as an alternative to run-of-the-mill classroom presentations. Also, both give you a URL to share with others and also the option of an embed code for copying and pasting into a blog, wiki, or other webpage. Neither has education-only versions and neither lets you save your creation without registering. BUT, overall, which one offers more? Let’s take a look…
Here’s our Fotobabble image:
And here’s our Blabberize creation:
Differences:
The difference students will notice is the moving mouth feature offered by Blabberize. After you upload your photo to Blabberize, you create an outline that will move when your recording is played. You can even add more than one mouth to your picture to have multiple parts of the photo talking “to each other.” This feature will make a huge difference for kids. I’ve used Blabberize with 9 year olds, and they find it absolutely hilarious. I could see it working with kids much younger and much older, too. It’s little things like this that add an extra amount of engagement and enjoyment to school projects. They’re having so much fun watching their photos talk, they forget that they’re learning!
While the moving mouth feature gives an edge to Blabberize, Fotobabble earns points for having slightly more versatility. You can upload an image from your computer, add images from facebook, or import an image via URL. Another positive difference is its slideshow feature. As of this posting, this is still in the beta stage, so it’s not perfect yet, but Fotobabble allows you to create a collection of talking photos and then present them as a narrated slideshow of sorts. But, I don’t think all the kinks are worked out of this feature yet, because putting one together isn’t completely intuitive.
Our Winner:
A photo finish has been called in this race. Both of these tools make for exciting learning, engaged students, and lots of fun. You can’t really lose with either. We really like the potential of the slideshow feature of Fotobabble. However, we have to give the nod to Blabberize. Those moving mouths are just too irresistible.
In this case, we have to recommend giving both a try. Let us know how it turns out.
Photo Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/32052070@N08/3976878774 via flickrcc
In this blog series, we’ll be comparing similar Web 2.0 tools so that you can decide which is best for you.
I posted a couple of weeks ago about using Wordle, a very cool and easy site that generates word clouds from text. Like I said then, it is a [...]
In this blog series, we’ll be comparing similar Web 2.0 tools so that you can decide which is best for you.
I posted a couple of weeks ago about using Wordle, a very cool and easy site that generates word clouds from text. Like I said then, it is a very fun and engaging site to use. But it’s not the only option out there.
Word Clouds definitely have educational value, especially when it comes to analyzing texts for word frequencies.In a word cloud, the most frequently used words appear more prominently. Pasting in a story that a student has written or a speech by a political figure can reveal some surprising results and lead to some meaningful and analytical conversations.
My question today is, which of the following three options is best for you: Wordle, Tagxedo, or Wordlings? First a look at each–here’s a word cloud from each site that I made of then-Senator Obama’s concession speech after the New Hampshire primary in 2008:
Made in Tagxedo:
Made in Wordle:
Made in Wordlings:
Interesting how the same speech can turn out three different ways in terms of word size. Now onto some pros and cons of each…
Tagxedo–I really like the fact that you don’t have to register to make one. I really, really like the fact that you can make your clouds into different shapes. You can even make them into any word you want or upload your own picture. This would appeal to students in a big way! In addition, the interface is pretty easy to use. The only thing I wasn’t too keen on was that I had to download some plug-in called “Silverlight” before I could make my cloud. Seemed to be a Microsoft product. This is probably because I’m on a Mac. But my entire school is on Macs, so this could be a potential headache. If you try it and you don’t need to download anything…I’d highly recommend Tagxedo.
Wordle: They’ve been around the longest and they have a good thing going. Lot’s of visual appeal, no account needed to create, very easy interface (I especially like the easy-to-find Randomize button–makes things fun!). I think their word clouds turn out the best of the three, as well. The important, repeated words really stand out more in the Wordle I made than in the other two. Really, as far as a comparison goes, the only thing Wordle doesn’t have is the word-cloud-as-the-shape-of-something thing.
Wordlings–I wish I could recommend this one, but it’s the weakest of the three by far. First of all, as far as I could tell, you can only create a Wordling if you have a twitter or facebook account. Fine for me, but not for students. Also, their interface was a little confusing. And each time you changed a selection (font, color, shape, etc.) it completely rebuilt your cloud over again, one word at a time. This made for slow going. Finally, I just don’t think their cloud is as accurate. In a speech where “Yes We Can” is repeated over and over, the word Yes should be prominently featured, I think. I know it’s a newer site, and you can make cool shapes, but for now I have to give Wordlings a thumbs down.
So there you have it. In our opinion, when it comes to word clouds Wordle, by a hair, reigns supreme. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them add in some shape effects before too long. But we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Tagxedo as well.
Stay tuned for more in our Head to Head series, when we break down similar Web 2.0 tools to help you decide which one is best for you!
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