Word Clouds

This assignment was right up my alley because I love making word clouds with Wordle!  What is Wordle?  “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.”  

First, I created a word cloud of the ISTE NETS T standards from 2000 by copying the standards and pasting them into the text box of Wordle. Then I created a word cloud from the ISTE NETS T standards from 2008. After making edits to the font, color, and layout, I used Jing to capture images of the clouds. After comparing the two word clouds I could visually see that the focus has changed within the 2000 standards to the 2008 standards. In 2000, the standards had a strong emphasis on technology. However, the significance in 2008 was then evolved to learning. Check them out below!

ISTE NETS T standards from 2000

ISTE NETS T standards from 2008

I also created a word cloud activity in my teaching field.  I wanted to create a meaningful word cloud that students would benefit from.  There are many students who aren't aware of specific holidays; they just see them as getting a day off from school. Before Martin Luther King, Jr. day, I would share his "I Have a Dream" speech word cloud with the students to help them understand what the day is about. Click here or look below.

This activity relates to the ISTE NETS T standard 2: Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments.  This standard is about designing, developing, and evaluating assessments and digital age tools.  This activity allows teachers to incorporate this technology tool into their teaching.  I could use word clouds on a daily basis for my visual learners in my classroom.  The students could also create word clouds to display assignments in a colorful design which will motivate student creativity.