Word Clouds

Word clouds are images generated from a set of words, where the size (and sometimes colour/orientation) of the words indicate how often the words appear in the set.

Word clouds can be a great way to stimulate thinking about a topic - either through just viewing it or through getting students to contribute.

The word cloud above is based on an article you will read in one of the up-and-coming topic sections in THIS module (Kudos and a virtual hi-5 to anyone who can tell which article it's from).

From the word cloud:

• Can you tell what the topic is? (the bigger the word the more often it's mentioned)
• What are the stand out words? Why might they be so? Do you think these indicate the 'focus' of the article?
• Do some of the smaller words give any hints?

Word Cloud Generators (sites):

There are several word cloud generators around and most of them are similar. Here are two slightly different ones...

• www.wordle.net is an easy/basic tool that you can copy/paste and/or type words into then randomise and customise how it looks. It requires Java to be updated so you may run into troubles using it on Wintec computers. It is also a little tricky to save your word clouds for use later (see instructions below).
  
  
• www.tagul.com has lots more features, and doesn't require Java, but you have to sign up first. If you plan to use Word Clouds for teaching I would recommend this site because you can save and alter your word clouds later. Plus it comes with better options for saving the images (including printing them onto t-shirts and mugs!!)

Inserting words:

You can copy the text from any article, document or web page to see the most frequently occurring themes or you can get students to contribute their own words electronically.

Saving the image from Wordle.net:

To save the image you have to take a screen shot (push the 'Print Screen' button on the keyboard), paste it into MS Word, crop it, then right click on the picture and 'Save as picture'.

Discuss it:

Please contribute to the Word Cloud Discussion Forum and get another activity signed off against Assessment One.