Word cloud generators Targu Mures, 2011 May 25th Iwona Moczydlowska, MSCDN Siedlce Web 2.0 programmes applied to adult education

Word clouds generators as Web 2.0 tools web based apps everybody can use them to create, publish and shar e other Internet users may comment free Word cloud generators Web 2.0 key features

Definition of a word cloud generator Web based application for creating graphical representation of any text; the most frequent words from the text are represented in bigger size. Word cloud generators

Word cloud of a word cloud generator Word cloud created by ABCYa

How to make a word cloud? I. Go to the word cloud site II. Open the word cloud application III. Enter your text into the text box  Type or  Copy and paste or  Specife the URL or  Upload a file IV. Click on Submit/Visualize Word cloud generators

Making a word cloud with Wordle The text to be processed into a word cloud has been copied and pasted into the Wordle text box Description of the ITAAT project copied from the ITAAT website

Word clouds of ITAAT project description The same text, different results made by Wordle

Examples of wc generators Tagxedo Various applications, different capabilities, different results

Representation of ITAAT website (made by WorditOut)

Different results  Text  Words  Cloud Representation of ITAAT website (made by Tagxedo)

Text settings  Ignoring words Common words/stop words/words frequently used Words containing 1/2/3 etc. letters  Removing punctuation characters  Displaying words Multi-word phrases (add ~ between two words and they will be displayed together) Stemming (+language support) – grouping words of the same family, for example teacher, teachers will be displayed as one word in good wc generators Word cloud generators

Words settings  Entries placed according to count alphabetically randomly  Case to display most common lowercase uppercase Word cloud generators

Cloud settings  Word size (proportional to the number of times found or all words are the same size)  Colours (of background; words)  Fonts  Layout direction (horizonatally, vertically, mixed, randomly) shapes (geometric, organic) cloud margin Word cloud generators

Advanced capabilities  Shaping the cloud in a form of your own uploaded image - Tagxedo  Connecting words in the cloud to web pages – Tagul  Viewing words definitions in an online Visual Thesaurus - WordSift, VocabGrabber  Combining words with Google images and videos - WordSift Word cloud generators – extra

Ways of publishing wc  Print  Save to the public/private gallery  Save as an image on the computer disk  Paste Print Screen into a Word text or PowerPoint presentation  Embed   Post to Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc. Word cloud generators

Why should we bother to use wc?  attractive  beautiful  fun  more than lists and graphic organizers  informative  stimulating  allow creativity, expression and imagination  enhance critical thinking  simple and easy to use  it’s free! Word clouds characteristic

Several ideas for using word clouds  presenting idea/topic/  lead-in to a discussion  prediction  summary  reflection on  prompt to remember/reconstruct  revision of texts  texts comparison  article introduction  website analysis  poem visualisation  book/film review  resume in a single glance  topic research task  vocabulary/grammar language exercise  styling PowerPoint presentation  conference/workshop poster  name tags  brand cloud  ………….. Word clouds in adult education

Resources          Word cloud generators

Resources  Tim Barret (red.), 52 Interesting Ways to use Wordle in the classroom, pli=1 pli=1  Terry Freedman, Word Cloud Shoot-Out,  Hardy Leung, 101 Ways to Use Tagxedo,  Nik Peachey, Using Word Clouds in EFL ESL, (3 Sept.2008)  Shelly Terrell, 19 Word Cloud Resources, Tips & Tools,  Simon Thomas, Language Activities with Wordle and word clouds, word-clouds-2 word-clouds-2  Text + Image = Tagxedo: The Next Generation of Word Cloud Fun, next-generation-of-word-cloud-fun next-generation-of-word-cloud-fun Word cloud generators

How word clouds are used in MSCDN? Embeded in the MSCDN ITAAT blog  to summarize information,  to facilitate learning,  to show connections,  to decorate. Mazovian In-Service Teacher Training Centre Siedlce Department

MSCDN ITAAT blog  Polish website of ITAAT project available only to invited readers. Address :  aims : 1) provide Polish members of ITAAT with information about the project (language – Polish); 2) promote Web 2.0 technology  content : project description, info about the partners, project materials, current information (topics, tasks, meetings), intercultural issues  Web 2.0 programmes used so far: Blogger Google Docs, Slideshare, You Tube, Podomatic, Picasa, Survey Monkey, Jigsaw Planet, Wallwisher, Tagxedo, Tagul, ImageChef (and also other tools like Photo Story 3, Hot Potatoes) Mazovian In-Service Teacher Training Centre Siedlce Department

MSCDN ITAAT blog Mazovian In-Service Teacher Training Centre Siedlce Department

Information Technology Applied to Adult Training