Saturday, 20 September 2008

Creative thinking


Drifting through my feeds this morning I came across an interestingly fresh idea for a dictionary (thanks to Changing the Game for the heads up on this).

The site is Wordia

This is what they say about themselves:

We’re 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.


PS

Thinking about the comment from John up in Scotland I recalled that I had recently read in the Dcsf magazine for Primary Teachers (the September edition does not seem to have been uploaded as I write this)the views of Dr Tanya Byron (post her report - Safer Children in a Digital World). She comments that: We need to ease the pressure on young children and create an environment where they can come at things in their own time.

She also echos my comment back to John about managing the risks of environments online being very similar to managing those of crossing roads!

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2 Comments:

At 20 September 2008 10:45 , Blogger John said...

This could be a great site for getting children excited about words by making their own wee videos. It looks like it might be using youtube for hosting which will give schools difficulties.

 
At 20 September 2008 10:52 , Blogger Doug said...

I am quite excited about it and I agree that the 'You Tube' thing could easily be a barrier (if we let it).

I don't want in any way to minimise the worries that people feel about accessing a variety of sites that might be a problem. We really must collectively find a suitable answer to this. Is the danger as real and unacceptable as it might seem or is it like 'crossing the road' something that people can learn to deal with.

 

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