Word cloud tools are part and parcel of teachers' digital tool kit.Their importance stems from the fact they are web based and can be access anywhere with an internet connection. There are a variety of reasons why you as a teacher and educator should use them with your students and here some of these reasons :
- You can use them to create infographic-like visualisations to enhance students learning
- You can create out of them nice posters to use in the classroom
- You can use them to brainstorm a certain study topic
- They are also useful in teaching vocabulary
- They might be used as post-reading activity to test students understanding of the text
- Create a class word cloud that highlights class expectation
- Post students first names to create a class or group word cloud
Last year I posted a list of the best 10 word cloud tools but because web 2.0 tools keep dieing on us I deemed it important to revisit these tools and update the list adding some new ones and deleting the ones that are no longer working. Check out the finished work below :
1- Tagxedo
This is another great word cloud tool. You can use it the same way like Wordle but with an added feature which is that of creating clouds in various forms.
2- Wordle
This is my favourite word cloud tool and it is probably the most well-known of them all it helps you generate word clouds from the text you provide. Key words are given prominence in your cloud and you can use the clouds you create the way you like, print, or share with others
3- Wordsift
This is a really simple tool to create word clouds. It was originally developed at Standford. Just paste your text and press" Sift" to visualize your cloud
4- ABCYA
ABCYA provides a very practical tool to create word cloud for kids. The tool is very simple to use and has a kid-friendly interface.
5- Tagul
This is another cool web tool to create tag clouds for free. The procedure is the same like the ones above except that Tagul requires a sign up
6- Word it Out
Word it Out is a tool that offers extra features like allowing you to create word clouds from documents, or website URLs.
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