Wordle – DIY Word Clouds
My first contribution to the UTechTips site! Firstly, let me say that it’s a great privilege to be working alongside Jeff this year. More than that, it’s just plain fun.
On to the Tips…
Apparently, I am very late on the bus with this particular tool (thanks Jenny and NZChrissy for pointing that out).
However, I looked at whether it had been covered on UTechTips and I think that often with Web 2.0 tools, we find that we are bringing in new readers in our faculty ALL THE TIME. So how do they go back and discover new tools or read some of the great posts of our past? I wonder how many teachers would jump on board were they now to read early Will Richardson or past Warlick. How many past Thinking Stick posts are still meaningful to new adopters? If they are keen to collaborate, shouldn’t they be reading old Always Learning posts. (or is this all just shameless plugging?)
Anyway, again, back to the tips.
A simple site that creates word clouds (like tag clouds) from text that you submit, either by pasting it in or by submitting a web address (URL).
Imagine an in-class visualization of how certain news agencies cover the news. How would a word cloud of CNN differ from one of BBC for example? What words would stand out?
Imagine pasting in a chapter or more of a piece of literature. Visually and textually, how would Pride and Prejudice look? Find out.
What would a student’s own essay look like?
We have often argued that Visual Literacy is at the core of a successful 21st Century Learner. In a world saturated by visual representation, here’s a great tool to expose students to some.
And imagine the discussion that will occur as classmates argue the merit of the cloud and the “worth” of the words that were selected as descriptors.
Do they convey the message of the author?
How do they change or support the way you thought about what you read before you saw the cloud?
What words stand out to you? Why would that be different to my own?
For fun, I “clouded” a graduation speech I gave years ago.
Cool.
More powerfully, here’s Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
Give it a try.
Images created using Wordle
Welcome and you bring up a good point. Over 50% of the traffic to The Thinking Stick comes from Google Searches. Teaching trying to find resources on the web and Google happens to think that something I wrote is relevant.
Are they still worth anything? I don’t know but just today I got a comment on a post I wrote over a year ago. So to someone somewhere it’s worth something….maybe.
Glad to have you posting here! Sitting across from you on a daily basis does make for great conversations.
You may have been late on the bus to this one, but at least you’re on it! Love the Wordle using the Martin Luther King speech. I’d love to enlarge that, laminate it and use it as a poster. Looking forward to meeting you in Shanghai in a couple of weeks. Don’t hold that comment against me! All said in good fun.
Dennis,
Welcome! Great to see you posting on UTT! I WISH I were working with you and Jeff this year, although our tech team here at ZIS is pretty stellar. I’ve tried convincing them that one of them needs to attend Learning 2.008, alas, I think we’ll go unrepresented there.
Hey I wonder if anyone’s made a Wordle of Obama’s convention speech? Maybe I’ll try it!
Cool, take care.
@Jenny – of course, I wouldn’t! I can take it. And I did ask for it. Shanghai will be fun.
@Jason – actually, someone did Wordle his speech…in fact, that’s how I discovered Wordle. The article had the word cloud image and cited how they created it. Here’s the link.
I had never heard of Wordle until I saw Jeff’s tweet on twitter a week or two ago. I wrote about it on my blog http://tinyurl.com/6lz6ya. I think it could be very useful for the visual arts, poetry, and certainly, education. -Colleen
Thanks Colleen.
It’s a pretty cool tool, though no match for substance and deep thinking. But a good “hook” or conversation starter about a speech, book, or passage.
Nice post.
New blog post: Wordle – DIY Word Clouds http://www.utechtips.com/?p=847Quote
[...] this app. I very kindly replied that yes, he was! He wrote about this exchange in his first post for U Tech tips and recounted it with good humour. The focus of his post was, you guessed it, Wordle, and he [...]
[...] Wordle – Mais uma ferramenta on-line de criação de Word Clouds. Muito populares estas ferramentas de análise e contagem de expressões na actual web 2.0. Na realidade, não estou a ser nada depreciativo, muito pelo contrário. Estas ferramentas de visualização de dados revelam o seu poder e utilidade mal as usamos. E não se enganem, o Wordle é um serviço de visualização de dados. Simples, mas as principais vantagens do Wordle são podermos fazer copy-paste de um texto nosso para análise ou pura e simplesmente apontar para o nosso blog (imagem de capa deste post). Reconfigurar as opções, experimentar diferentes composições e depois é só gravar a imagem ou um PDF. Desafio-vos a experimentar para perceberem o que estou a dizer. Visto no UTechTips. [...]
@jplaman Sweet…someone later to the party than me! http://is.gd/qpXrQuote