Thursday, December 23, 2010

Google NGrams

Hi teachers-

I'm really, really excited about this new tool from Google.  Google NGrams allows you to search trends of words appearing in a database of 5.2 billion words from all of the millions of books Google has in its digitized Google Books catalog.  It's a very interesting tool in that it's a window into people's thoughts over the past 500 years.  I can only begin to imagine the new research opportunities available to students.  The discussions that you could generate with this tool are limitless.  Check the tool out here, and see below for a few examples.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
This should be a really fun thing to play with over Christmas.  Let me know how you're using it in your classroom.  And keep those success stories coming in!  I'll post them after break.

Thanks, and have a great break,
Marc

2 comments:

  1. I played with it, but not in an educationally acceptable way. Specifically, I wanted to see how certain expletives have been used historically.

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  2. Wow, Anne- a great glimpse into how you spend your time! I'm impressed...

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