A Hot Spot For Words

I first read about Wordia on Richard Byrne's site, Free Technology for Teachers.  Based upon his review and recommendations I browsed the site.  This site, intended for use by adults,  is provided free by Education Games Network Limited based in England. 

The main part of the site is a search engine combining words, games and videos; results do include a dictionary definition of the word.  If there is not a video for the word for which you searched, you are encouraged to upload your own video.  Hosts of the site are animations, Dr. Johnson, creator of the first English dictionary and Boswell, a schoolboy from today's London, England. 

Games can be played individually or as a group using a whiteboard.  Teachers signed up can track students' scores and progress.  Wordbanks are generated for each student as new words are explored.  Badges are earned when milestones are achieved.

When the Subjects tab is clicked a page reveals four main areas:  English, humanities, science and Internet technology.  Users can upload a word list to assist Wordia in making games.  The Videos tab page displays the top five videos, a featured school and the following subjects, English, geography, history, religious education, music, art, drama, science and Internet technology.  Videos can be uploaded here.  Top games, a featured school, all games and a new adventure game, Journey Through Time, are available when the Games tab is selected.

On the home page there will be a Featured Today word complete with a video, game and dictionary definition. 

Toward the bottom of the home page Top Subject Games , Top Subject Videos along with the Resource Browser listing games by age and subject are found.  When a specific game is chosen they may have classroom help and a lesson plan along with the word list. 

For those words with videos or games this is an excellent resource.  As with all web 2.0 apps preplanning is essential to determine whether an word is part of the Wordia database.  I am thinking of uploading a word list prior to my next big unit as well as making a couple of definition videos; this might be the best part of this site---participatory learning.