Cool Tool - Tagul

This week for my cool tool, I used tagul.com to make a word cloud. You must make a free account to use this website. There is an option for a premium account so you can download word clouds in higher resolution and have no ads. Using words you choose, either by typing them in or importing them, it creates a shape with them, usually something that is part of a general theme. You can choose the color, the font, and the size of the words. You can also choose the shape the words you choose are in, whether the words will repeat or not, any animations, and with the orientation of the words within the shape. These word clouds can be saved to your computer, printed, or even printed onto things such as t shirts to be purchased.

I made two word clouds. The first one I made was just getting used to the website and how to use the tools. I chose to use my name as the focal point that repeated to fill in the shape I chose, and things I love as the other words in the word cloud.

The second word cloud I made was a bit easier since I had a hang of the software. It was a word cloud comprised of Ed Tech terms, with Ed Tech as the central repeating idea. I went through the weekly Share Your Thoughts, and made a word cloud of the central term used each week. I put them in a shape of the globe, as Ed Tech is all about sharing. 

I believe this could be used in the classroom very easily. It can be a way to organize parts of something a whole idea. In my future Early Childhood classrooms, I could create a word cloud with about me items for students, or as a big chart of classroom rules. Beyond simple ideas such as those, if you “google word clouds in the classroom” you get 549,000 hits. The first hit is this weblink, https://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/108-ways-to-use-word-clouds-in-the-classroom-word-clouds-in-education-series-part-2/, with ideas such as a course outline at the beginning of a school year with your outline on it. This could be beneficial in the classroom because a lot of students are visual learners. When they see something laid out in a pattern like these, it can really bring together concepts for children. Visual aids can benefit everyone.

This app could easily be used by older students. Younger students might struggle with using it, and benefit more from the final product. It is slightly confusing to use, such as how exactly you make the word cloud is unclear. There isn’t a guide that I was able to easily find on how it works. When I googled how to use it, all I got was a FAQ, which didn’t answer some of my questions.

Word Clouds are a wonderful tool both inside and out of the classroom, and can benefit anyone using them.