Grade Keeper: word clouds tools

Showing posts with label word clouds tools. Show all posts

Friday, April 22, 2011

Tagul . Free Word Cloud Generator

Tagul is a free word cloud generator . It is one of my favorite web2.0 tools .What makes Tagul specific is the fact that words in Tagul clouds can be linked to word in Google search .When you click on any word you will be directed to a Google result page . Tagul clouds are created from text that is copied into your account and not only that you can also create word cloud from any URL that you specify .

Some features of Tagul

here is what Tagul offers to its users

It is free
It requires a sign up
It is very simple to use
It links words in clouds to Google result pages
It supports transparent background color
It has new forms for cloud creation
It provides a full features API
It allows you to share your word cloud via a generated embed code

How can I get started using Tagul ?

Head over to Tagul main page and sign up for free
Watch this tutorial to learn more

Word It Out ; create free word clouds

Word It Out is another word cloud generator . It functions more or less like Tagul , the tool I have covered in an earlier post . Word It Out is free and has many important features that make it worth using in education with our students .

Some features of Word It Out

Here are the main features that Word It Out offer to its users ;

It is free
It does not require any sign up
It lets you create word clouds from sentences, documents, web addresses or tables
it lets you filter your text and decide which words to include in it
It offer awesome layout and you can customize your colors,fonts and sizes
you can share your word clouds with others
you can embed them in your blog, wiki or webpage
you can also download your own copy as an image file

How can I get started using Word It Out ?

Log on to Word It Out main page
Click on create button on top
enter your text and click on word it out
That’s it about Word It Out ; create free word clouds

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Wordle in Education.

Wordle is a very interesting web2.0 tool . It is a fun application that creates “ word clouds” from text that you provide. The key words or words that occur repeatedly in the text become prominent in the cloud and the ones which are used the least are the smallest units of this cloud . The visual aspects of word clouds are interestingly eye-catching which in turn provides many opportunities for educational use.

Some features of wordle

Let me walk you through some of the most interesting features of Wordle :

Wordle is a free and easy to use service
It does not require any account registration
You can tweak your clouds with different color schemes, layouts and fonts
The clouds Wordle creates for you are images that you can use as you wish
You can print , save or share your images with your friends

How can I get started using Wordle ?

First go to Wordle main page and click on “ create “ . You will be directed to the page where you can either :

Paste in a bunch of text
Enter the url of any blog , or any other web that has an atom or rss feed .
Enter a delicious name to see their tags

Whichever you choose , you click on submit and you will get the result.
To customize your cloud use the tool bar on the top of the image , you can change its color ; layout, font ,and language.
Under the image you will find buttons to open your cloud in a new window , print it , randomize it , or save it to public gallery.
Here is a Wordle cloud I created for my this blog using the web2.0 tool Wordle

To learn more about Wordle visit their FAQ page
You can also watch this video tutorial for better understanding of how to use this web2.0 tool .

wordle tutorial

Applications of wordle in education

Here are some ideas on how we can use Wordle in the classroom with our students :

Wordle can be used as a reflection tool at the end of the semester with students compiling a list of the main terms or ideas of what they had learnt during the whole term .
students can use it to summarize the content of a lesson or reading activity
They can also use it for self reflection . Teachers can provide a word cloud on a certain topic and students write essays and articles based on the clouds provided

That’s it about Wordle in Education.