Transcript WORD CLOUDS - NorthEdgecombeTechnology

Word Clouds:
Expression combined with
Design
Created by Russell Smith,
Technology Facilitator,
North Edgecombe High School
What is a Word Cloud?
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A word cloud (a.k.a. a “tag cloud”) is a visual
depiction of the word content in a written article
“Tags”, or the words in a word cloud, are
usually singular, and are arranged in order of
importance and the number of times a word
appears in a body of text.
The words in a word cloud will vary in size and
color based on their importance and
prominance in a body of text.
Example of a Word Cloud
This word cloud was created from the text of the first paragraph of
President Obama’s inaugural speech in January 2009:
What can Word Clouds be used for?
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Word clouds can be used to demonstrate the
proliferance of certain words in a student’s writing;
for example, it will highlight the overuse of certain
common words such as “I” and “and”.
Word clouds can indicate the importance of certain
words in a text based on a word’s size and
arrangement in the cloud.
Word clouds can be a creative way of allowing
students to express their thoughts in a visual
manner.
What are some websites that allow
the creation of word clouds?
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Wordle: http://www.wordle.net
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WordItOut: http://worditout.com
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Tagxedo http://www.tagxedo.com/
Wordle
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Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds”
from text that you provide. The clouds give
greater prominence to words that appear more
frequently in the source text. You can tweak
your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and
color schemes. The images you create with
Wordle are yours to use however you like. You
can print them out, or save them to the Wordle
gallery to share with your friends.
How To Use Wordle
• Copy and paste in a block of text from a website or
word document
OR
• Enter the URL of any blog, blog feed, or any other web page that has
an Atom or RSS feed
OR
• Enter a del.icio.us user name to see their tags
THEN
• Click “Go” or “Submit” at the bottom of the page to create the
Wordle. It can then be saved to a gallery or printed.
How to use WordItOut
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Click the “Word It Out” button on the main page of the website.
Copy and paste a block of text from a website or word
document into the text box. Click the button labeled
“Word it Out” to create the word cloud.
The word cloud will then be created. To have the word cloud
recreated in the same style, click “Redraw”
To have the word cloud created in a different style, click
“Random Settings”.
You can also click “Set Target” to choose the point on the
screen where the center of the word cloud will be placed.
To save your word cloud, click the “Save” button. You will be
prompted to enter a title, description, related web page, and
your e-mail address. No password is required.
How to use Tagxedo
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Tagxedo is the most visually unique word cloud
generator of those explored in this presentation.
You will be prompted to install Microsoft Silverlight in
order to properly use Tagxedo, if your computer
doesn’t already have it installed. Click the “Create”
link after installation.
You will presented with the creation panel for
Tagxedo. Notice that as you move your cursor over
the words on the screen that they expand and seem
to “leap” towards the screen!
How to use Tagxedo, continued
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In order to upload text into Tagxedo, you can choose to load
text from a text file on your computer, type in the URL for a
website, or copy and paste text manually.
You will be able to select from a number of wording options,
such as whether to allow punctuations and numbers,
eliminating common words, combining related and identical
words, etc.
You will also be able to adjust the color scheme of the word
cloud, choose from a large assortment of themes, select from
an assortment of fonts, and choose the orientation of the words
(horizontal, vertical, a combination of both, etc.)
You can also choose from a predetermined assortment of
shapes that the words can be arranged into, such as an apple,
a banana, a circle, a cloud, a foot, the outline of the United
States, and many more!
How to use Tagxedo, continued
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You can also adjust the amount of emphasis that is
placed on words, maximum word count, the
proximity of words to each other, color variation,
background opacity, etc.
Once the word cloud has been created, you can
save it in a number of ways, including as a thumbnail
or a regular sized file. You can save the word cloud
in different formats, such as a .jpg or .png file
When saving your word cloud, you will be prompted
to enter a username, a title, and comments for the
cloud.