There are simple online tools available to generate world clouds (or tag clouds), which are visual representations of text data that can emphasize frequently-used words by giving them a larger font size or a different font color. They allow viewers to quickly see the most prominent words in a text set to see their relative ranking.
Word clouds are a fun way to get students to engage more with online discussion by generating word clouds once a board is closed in order to see what terms were most significant to the class. From this, students can consider what was most important to the group about a given discussion. Word clouds can also set the tone for subsequent online (or in-person) conversations. Additionally, these can provide valuable feedback to the instructor as an assessment as to whether the course is producing the desired outcomes, and can serve as a talking point that instructors can bring up with their students.
Above is a Wordle-generated word cloud that was derived from an online discussion board discussing the text of Ana Lydia Vega’s short piece “El día de los hechos” (“The Day It All Happened”) and its relation to short documentary films about groups being denied citizenship in the Dominican Republic. As shown in the word cloud, there is a lot of emphasis on questions of nationality and citizenship, including familial descent versus birthright.
With word clouds, students can often configure the text in different ways and assign different colors to the visualization, therefore creating additional meaning to the final product. Each week a different student can generate the word cloud, and post it to the previous online discussion, or create a new thread for some analysis by classmates.
Some free word cloud generators to get you started:
Wordle — This is what I used to generate the example above. You can input text right into a text box or have the toy scan a URL. It is a Java Applet so would require a screenshot to make a JPG or PNG image.
Jason Davies’s Word Cloud Generator — This is also a simple toy that will let you type or paste text or alternatively provide a URL. There are different options for weighting word prominence, as well as how to display the cloud. You can generate a PNG with this that will open in a new window or tab.
Tagxedo — This is a URL and search-based tool, so you can plug in a URL or a news item, for example. If you use Twitter often in your classroom, you can visualize a Twitter handle’s entire output, or a blog’s RSS feed. It also has more options for fun shapes, as in my visualization of this blog as a star, below.
WordSift — Developed by Stanford University, this tool accepts typed or pasted text. Upon generating the simple word cloud, it provides a thesaurus mapping of the prominent word and points to the use of that word within the text. It also allows the user to click on other words in the cloud to in turn generate their respective map and usage. This was created with English language learners in mind and may be useful to classrooms with students working with English as a foreign language.
Tagul — This site requires a free sign-up and has more options for designing word clouds (it is also linked up to Zazzle to custom print your word cloud on various items). The ability to customize your shape is a nice feature, which you can achieve by uploading an image of the shape you want. Below is an example I made of a word cloud using Samuel Butler’s translation of Book XXIV of Homer’s The Odyssey shaped as a basket (don’t worry, there is no significance here!).
It is worth keeping in mind that a word cloud is a very simple tool for data visualization, and has its critics. You may want to discuss its limitations with your students (maybe they should avoid using them in term papers), but I think it is a fine creative tool for livening up online discussion and fostering community.
