Coming up on "Mobile Learning in the Classroom",
"Vocabulary, Words and Dictionaries. Part Two". (upbeat electronic music) Hi, my name is Guy Trainin,
and this is "Mobile Learning in the Classroom" from Tech Edge,
and today we are doing part two of "Vocabulary, Words and Dictionaries",
and what I want to start with is etymology. Etymology is really a powerful tool,
because it helps kids and adults realize how words are connected and how the roots
operate to create families of words that are rela
ted
to each other. Now, there is a certain level of etymology
that becomes just a point of interest, and that's great too,
because kids can be really curious about words, where they come from,
and if they get really interested in words, it's a win for everybody:
they are learning, they are inquiring about new words,
where they came from, and it becomes something they are interested
in, and the culture of rich vocabulary,
rich discussion around vocabulary can really propel the understanding of ne
w
words. So, the first tool I want to talk about
is really, really simple. Inside your Google search, if you do a word,
and after that you write "etymology", so I'm doing it right now,
and I'm looking for the word "captain" and the etymology of "captain".
And what you get is a very simple map of where the word came from.
And so we've got the Latin into Late Latin and Old French,
and then two words in Old French, one connected to it, and one that is a variant:
"chieftain" versus "captain", and th
en in English the word "captain"
is compared to the word "chief", which we borrowed from the French a little
bit later. And look how elegant it is, it's really quick,
you get the sense of where it came from, and then, if you want more, you can get more,
and you can see immediately it gives you more definitions
and all of that information, and even the graph
of how much that word is being used over time. And this comes from the Google Ngram, which
can track the amount of words is used in publishe
d sources,
so you can see that it was used a lot until 1800,
and then it's being used less. So you can have more information.
So that's the easiest way to get word etymology, this is a fantastic service from Google,
and I love that aspect of it. But if you want something a little bit different,
there is an online etymology dictionary, and it's just etymology, etymonline.com,
and you just type a word, let's type the same word, "captain",
and now we are getting the sources when did it start, 1590s
,
what was it before, 14th century, so you can see this build over time
and words that are related to it that show up there as well.
So this is a really easy way to get etymology of words modern or not so modern,
and what I love about this dictionary, it's very short, it gives you a quick answer,
so it's another way to just get an answer. If you want something more complicated
and in more breadth of where this word has been used,
the Oxford English Dictionary is probably your best bet.
This is t
raditionally the place that most people go
to get the last word on these issues, and the OED has been really
doing this for over a hundred years, and now they are online,
and in many ways you can get a lot of results online.
So if we look at a different word, but related, the word "capital",
and we do a search, we'll obviously get some definitions.
Right? So you can the definitions, time capsules,
let's go to... Let's go home
and search for the word again. So we are searching for the word "capit
al".
And what you can see is that immediately you get
a basic entry that you can expand, so let's view the full entry.
And what I love is on the right-hand side you can see
that words that are next to it in the dictionaries actually show up.
And I love that feature, because the one thing we lose
when we look for words online is we lose where they are in the sequence
and what's just before them and what's just after them,
which is one of the most fun things to do in the dictionary
is to see what
words are right around, and sometimes you find fantastic words that
way. So we haven't lost that feature in this set
up. And what you can see is you get a definition,
you get an etymology, where did it come from, Anglo-Norman and Middle French "capital",
and then you get specific dates and specific quotes
from a historical document, so you can actually start tracking
how it was used over time, which is a fantastic, rich resource
if you are exploring a specific word. So if you are looking for the
short answer,
I would go with the Etymology Online or with Google,
but if you want something with depth and multiple sources,
the OED, the Oxford English Dictionary, is probably
where you want to go. The next resource is a different resource,
it's a resource I talked about a long time ago.
It's available on the iPads, I love it actually on the iPad,
but also on the computer. It's the Visual Thesaurus, and in the Visual
Thesaurus you can get a few things for free, and then
you have to pay. I sti
ll think it's a fantastic instrument
to explore the connections between words and to really see how things relate to each
other. So if we are looking for a word like "run",
you can see the connections. So I just type the word, and it shows me
which words are connected to it. And you see on the side that you can see
which ones are nouns, which ones are connected to the meaning of the word "run" as a verb,
and different meanings, and that's how the network is connected.
And what I love about this
in the visual format is that clicking on any of the words opens
up a new network of words that allows you to
see how these specific features are connected
to each other and not just to the original word.
And so there is a way to go back and forth within those networks to discover lots of
words and to find out how these words are connected
to each other. And the powerful thing here is
that it allows kids, just like with etymology, to explore, to enjoy themselves, to be curious
about words and how
they are connected,
without roaming through a huge dictionary and also in a way that promotes those connections,
how are things, how are words and concepts linked to each other,
and that's a powerful way to learn lots about words.
So this is Visual Thesaurus, available at visualthesaurus.com or on an
app, so, both will work, it'll run on Chrome,
it'll run anywhere else, and you can get a 40-day trial if you want
to try it. I find it powerful when I use it with students
and show them the capacit
y as future teachers. There are different subscriptions available,
so that's something to explore, but even as a free resource
a few times, I think, it's worth it. The last thing that I want to talk about
is an app called Grammarly. There is a free version and a paid version
in Grammarly, and it allows you to edit anything you write,
so it's a different take on vocabulary and words
from my perspective. And what it does is it helps go through anything
you wrote and analyze it for repetitive patte
rns, for
grammar and for spelling, word meaning.
So, Grammarly will point out any problems you have.
For example, if you are using a lot of passive voice,
it will tell you; overuse, it's saying, "Well, 'extremely' is
fine, "but that's one of those common words.
"Can you use a different word that will be more specific,
"more precise, and will enhance your writing?" So, it's a way to get that review.
I use Grammarly on a daily basis, and I highly recommend it,
but there is a paid subscription beyo
nd the basic analysis of words,
so you do want to consider whether that's worth doing
for the amount of work you are doing. But even at the free version there are features
that really help you understand what you are doing
and what you are not doing. You get weekly summary of what errors you're
making, how much you've been writing, things like
that, which is really, really great.
So, it's a great way to enhance vocabulary and word choice from the writing perspective,
not just from reading and di
scovering new words.
So, today on "Mobile Learning in the Classroom" we finished part two of talking
about vocabulary, words and dictionaries, and I'll see you next time
on "Mobile Learning in the Classroom". (upbeat music) Email: gtrainin2@unl.edu Twitter: @tgite
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