Eliza Zipper
I created a Wordle based on my notes from our Israel trip and was surprised by what I found. Wordles are a fun way to see which words come up most often in a given text by giving greater prominence to the words that appear more frequently in the text. What words should be given the most significance in this Israel Seminar Wordle? Click here to see the Wordle and compare it to your thoughts.
Before creating the Wordle, I expected to see words like “struggle” and “narrative/story” show a lot of prominence. Although they did come up, other words like Israel, Israeli, Jewish, and Judaism showed much more significance. It is easy to forget how often we use these words because they are such a basic part of our Jewish educational vocabulary. Since they are used so frequently, it is important to think about how we use them. What thoughts, feelings, actions, and beliefs are inherent in Israel and Judaism?
This Wordle, like any narrative, is subjective. It is constructed of phrases that stuck out specifically to me instead of perhaps phrases that stuck out to the cohort as a whole. Given that it can often be difficult to present stories accurately, we need to think about what roles we play, both conscious and subconscious, in constructing a Jewish narrative for our students and program participants.
Questions to consider
1. What words on the Wordle:
- Were you surprised by?
- Do you think are missing?
- Deserved greater or less prominence?
2. How do these words tell a narrative about Israel education?
3. If you could create a different narrative of Israel education, what would it look like? If you want to design your own Wordle, click here.
This is really a fascinating exercise. As someone who was also on the trip - I wonder what my wordle would have looked like. I wonder what it would look like to do a series of wordles - for 16 year old trips, for Birthright trips, for MASA programs - would they look the same or would they look different?
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm surprised that the word JEWISH was so big (even though it is over to the side) - this was a trip about Israel education not Jewish education. Or - perhaps there is no difference and to be an Israel educator means to be a Jewish educator.
Thanks Eliza for sharing - really interesting - and also a very useful peace of data for evaluation purposes (but that's another story)
Neat idea Eliza.
ReplyDeleteDavid, just to indulge you, I created a wordle based on the joint RSS feed from all of our trip blogs from the current round of Shorashim's Taglit-Birthright Israel trips (http://www.israelwithisraelis.com/blog).
Check it out here:
http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1512493/Shorashim_-_Taglit-Birthright_Israel_Blog
Note the prominence of a particular PI fellow!
Interesting to note that the Birthright trips' wordle did not include "Jewish" or "Judaism" in it...
ReplyDeleteVery interesting, indeed. It's hardly scientific, though. It would be interesting to compare "end-of-trip" reflections with ongoing narratives.
ReplyDeleteI think this is really cool. I find it interesting how big Jerusalem is but how small the Kotel is. Does that mean that Jeruselam is a lot bigger than just the former home of the Temple within our trip? I wonder how many people might think that's blasphemous as our historical/spiritual connection to Jerusalem (as represented through the kotel) is so intense.
ReplyDelete