In this blog post, I will share with you some of the best word cloud generators to use for various educational purposes. These generators require no graphic design expertise, making them accessible to educators and students alike. Simply input your text, tweak the design elements like colors, typography, and layout, and voila – you have a captivating word cloud to share in your educational endeavors.
While these tools are generally available for free, some do provide paid options. Note that registration may be necessary for some of these wordle art creators.
Ways to Use Word Cloud Generators in Class
Using word cloud generators in the classroom can be a dynamic and engaging way to enhance learning. Here are some creative ways to incorporate them into your teaching:
- Vocabulary Enhancement: Create word clouds from new vocabulary lists to aid memory and emphasize frequently used words.
- Summarizing Key Concepts: Use word clouds to summarize texts, focusing on main ideas and terms.
- Initiating Discussions: Start new topics with word clouds to visualize key terms and stimulate classroom discussions.
- Gathering Feedback: Create word clouds with student feedback for a visual representation of their thoughts on lessons or activities.
- Character and Theme Analysis: Analyze literary characters or themes by generating word clouds from relevant texts.
- Facilitating Brainstorming: Employ word clouds during brainstorming to identify central ideas and themes.
- Foreign Language Learning: Use word clouds to highlight common words and phrases in a new language.
- Enhancing Presentations: Incorporate word clouds in presentations to visually emphasize main points.
- Visualizing Research Data: Summarize research project findings or themes using word clouds.
- Classroom Icebreakers: Create word clouds about students’ interests or experiences as a fun, getting-to-know-you activity.
Word Cloud Generators for Teachers and Students
Here are our top picks for word cloud generators for teachers and students:
1- Word Art
WordArt is a web-based word cloud generator that allows you to easily create beautiful and unique word clouds. WordArt is simple and easy to use and you don’t need graphic design knowledge to start creating amazing word clouds. You can also customize your word cloud art including things such as words, colours, layouts, shapes, and more.
You can type in your word lists or import them from Excel spreadsheets then click to generate your word cloud. You can add animations, edit your word cloud the way you want and when you are done you can share it with others using a unique URL or you can download it in PNG format.
2- Word It Out
WordItOut is another powerful word cloud generator to help you create beautiful word clouds. The process is simple and easy and no registration is required. Copy and paste your text in the tool’s input box, edit the settings of your word cloud, and click on Generate. You can then customize the look and feel of your word cloud by changing font, colour, layout, and size. Once done, click on Save.
Some of the interesting features provided by WordItOut include: the ability to customize the settings of your word cloud as you like, generate word clouds from sentences or tables or whole documents, apply filters to choose which words to display or delete, keep track of your word clouds (email required), embed your word cloud on any website or blog, download your word clouds as an image file, and more.
3- Word Cloud Generator
Word Cloud Generator is a popular Google Docs add-on that allows you to generate and share various forms of word clouds. You can use this add-on to easily generate word clouds from Google Docs. This is especially helpful if you want to know the main idea of a text, what it is about before you decide whether to read it or not.
The add-on offers a wide range of features including the ability to control the number of words to display in the cloud, insert a word count table in the document, drop specific words, select your own favourite palette, insert document in two sizes, download word cloud. Word Cloud Generator is free and can be downloaded right from Google Workspace Marketplace.
4- WordSift
WordSift is another good word cloud generator to try out. Here is how it works: copy and paste your text into the input box (for better sifting results paste over 300 words) and click on Sift. WordSift creates a graphic representation of your text with important words appearing larger than the rest.
WordSift offers different interesting features not found in other word cloud generators. For instance, visualization of word thesaurus relationships, a limited Google image search, the ability to sort words the way you want (e.g., A to Z, Z to A, Common to Rare, Rare to Common, etc), the ability to mark words, the option to select from various word cloud shapes and many more.
5-TagCrowd
TagCrowd is another great word cloud generator to use on any web browser. There are three different ways to generate word clouds on TagCrowd: paste the URL address of a webpage or blog post you want to visualize, paste or type your text in the input box, or upload a plain text file (maximum file size 5 megabyte). Once your word cloud is generated you can tweak it the way you want.
TagCrowd does not offer as many customization options as the preceding word cloud tools but still you can control how many words to show, exclude certain words, convert uppercase to lowercase, show words frequencies, and many more. Once your word cloud is ready you can embed it in your website or blog, or print and save it as PDF .
6. Word Tag Cloud
Word Tag Cloud, as its name indicates, is an online word cloud generator that is simple and easy to use. Simply input your text into the text box and click on Create my Cloud button. Word Tag Cloud allows you to customize your word cloud as you wish: you can select which words to remove, change colour, number of words, and more. Once your word cloud is complete you can download it in PNG format.
Related: Best Vocabulary Apps for Students
Final thoughts
By condensing large texts into digestible, visually engaging formats, these generators help highlight key themes and ideas, making learning more interactive and enjoyable. Whether you’re summarizing an article, visualizing key points of a lesson, or just adding a creative touch to classroom materials, these word cloud generators provide a simple yet effective solution.
They offer a blend of simplicity, creativity, and functionality, making them indispensable tools in the modern classroom. So, next time you’re looking to add a spark of visual interest to your teaching or learning, consider using one of these word cloud generators to bring your words to life.
