(From Alberto Olivas, alberto.olivas@domail.maricopa.edu)

I recently conducted a workshop on public dialogue processes and moderator training for a conference of environmental educators. I thought you would be interested in this striking graphic representation of the participants' views about public deliberation before and after the training (see below). If you're unfamiliar with Wordle, the size and prominence of the word indicates how often it came up; large words were repetitively used, and small words may be single instances or uncommonly used words.

On the evaluation form for the moderator training we asked two questions at the very end:

"Think about your understanding of public deliberation BEFORE you attended this workshop. Please provide five words or phrases that you would have used to describe public deliberation."

Here's the Wordle of their BEFORE responses:

"Now, think about your understanding of public deliberation AFTER attending this workshop. Please provide five words or phrases that you would use to describe public deliberation."

Wordle of their AFTER responses: