Word Cloud Art Music Leads Us Where Words Cannot

Give-and-take Clouds are a favorite tech tool for classrooms.

You input are large passage of text, and so a shape is created from the words, with the more frequent words displayed in a bigger font size, and the less frequent words shown smaller.

This tin can be a great tool for many classroom activities:

• Students can analyze their own writing to run into which words they apply oft (perhaps too often).
• Brainstormed ideas from the class can be collected to see which ideas rise to the peak.
• Text from famous speeches and writings can exist displayed in a cloud to reveal keywords and themes.
• Submissions from polls and votes can be imported to see the most popular responses.

For years sites such equally Wordle and Tagxedo have provided teachers and students with easy to utilise word cloud generators. Unfortunately those sites use Coffee and Silverlight which practice not run on Chromebooks. As more and more schools deploy Chromebooks, schools accept been scrambling to discover new options for generating discussion clouds.

Thankfully at that place are now several excellent options that use newer technology and will run properly on a Chromebook. See beneath for five examples of Chromebook-friendly word cloud tools that y'all and your students can use.

Tagul
https://tagul.com
Tagul is the most powerful option of the tools we will examine, just is notwithstanding very easy to use. Key points about Tagul include:

• You lot need an account to utilize Tagul, but tin just cull to use your Google account to log in so you lot do not need to create a username and password just for the site.
• Can add words by typing them in, pasting from a certificate or spreadsheet, or importing from a website.
• Can choose from a wide range of shapes, including uploading your own shape.
• Can adjust fonts, layout of the words, and colors.
• Can save your word clouds to access or edit later.
• When done you can download the prototype, impress, or share online from the site.
• There is a paid version which allow yous download higher quality images, merely otherwise you can do everything in the free version.

Give-and-take Clouds for Kids (past ABCYa)
http://www.abcya.com/word_clouds.htm
As the name implies, this tool is much more suited for younger students. The site is colorful and user friendly, with only a few options, so young children should find it welcoming and easy to use. Key points include:

• You do not need an account to use Word Clouds for Kids.
• Yous can add words past pasting them into a large textbox.
• In that location is a limit of two,000 words, so you may have to cut down the original text.
• After the give-and-take cloud generates y'all tin adjust a few settings including font, layout, color, and number of words.
• At that place is too a randomize characteristic to adjust all the settings randomly.
• When done yous can save the concluding result as a JPEG prototype.

Wordsift
http://wordsift.org/
This tool is simpler than Tagul, just is easy to use and does a nice task, so it would be a skillful selection if you just demand to brand a quick word cloud, or perhaps for younger students. Key points include:

• You practise not need an account to utilise Wordsift.
• Y'all tin can add words by pasting them into a large textbox.
• And so yous create the discussion cloud by clicking the "Sift!" Button.
• Click the "Cloud Styles" button to change the layout of the cloud.
• Click the gear icon to open up the advanced settings and adjust maximum number of words, font, color, and more than.
• Through the avant-garde settings you can besides download the terminal consequence in PNG or SVG format (although the download feature was not working for me when I tried it).

Discussion Cloud Generator (from Jason Davies)
https://www.jasondavies.com/wordcloud/
This option is likewise simpler than Tagul, with fewer options and features, but works well for a quick word cloud. Key points include:

• You do not need an account to utilise Word Cloud Generator.
• You tin add words by pasting them into a large textbox.
• There are only a few options such as type of spiral, font, caste orientations, and number of words.
• You lot just click "Go!" To generate the give-and-take cloud.
• The final result tin can be downloaded in SVG paradigm format (which will need to be converted to a more mutual format for many applications).

Word Deject Generator addition for Docs
Google Docs Add-on link
Rather than existence a website, this tool is actually an Add-on for Google Docs. It has the least corporeality of options of any of the tools here, simply is convenient if y'all want a word deject made from the text in your Google Document. Key point include:

• Install and utilise equally a Google Dr. add-on from the Improver menu.
• When you run it, a word cloud is displayed in a panel on the right of the document.
• The give-and-take cloud is much smaller than the other tools and does non have an option to resize.
• You can download the word cloud image by clicking the "Make Downloadable" push..
• Advanced options allow you to ready the maximum number of words, every bit well every bit list words to exclude.

What other discussion deject tools have you lot used on a Chromebook? What creative ways take you or your students used them? Feel free to share your ideas and experiences in the comments below.

Mail service by Eric Curts. Bring me to your schoolhouse, organisation, or briefing with over fifty PD sessions to choose from. Connect with me on Twitter at twitter.com/ericcurts and on Google+ at plus.google.com/+EricCurts1

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Source: https://www.controlaltachieve.com/2016/04/chromebook-word-cloud-tools.html

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