Word Cloud

I spent way too many hours playing with word clouds and still do not feel like an expert, but I played in the sandbox and explored the available tools on each site.  My most recent experience with word cloud was in a professional development meeting at the beginning of the school year.  It was announced we would become a pilot school for Canvas.  Teachers were asked to contribute their thoughts through a word cloud on transitioning from Schoology to Canvas.  The word cloud was displayed to the group through this warm-up activity, and it grew, and became more colorful and honest.  Teachers began to laugh and relax with this icebreaker activity.  It brought humor and lightness to a contentious topic.  I could see word clouds being used in a professional development setting, as I appreciated the activity. 

I can use word cloud in my classes as an introduction to a topic for an icebreaker.  I am accustomed to using KWL style charts for introducing new units.  Three columns – K: what do you know about this topic?  W: what do you want to know?  L: what have you learned (at the end of the lesson).  I liked Wordart because it had a lot of templates of images to use.  I could have an image relating to the topic, for example, I created a word cloud with the image of a hot cup of coffee.  I then described the characteristics of coffee and its qualities.  I also added my opinions, past experiences, and background knowledge of the topic.  I also like word clouds for personal introductions as we introduced ourselves for this sandbox activity.

ABCya Word Cloud felt more elementary level to me but I was impressed with the final product. I liked the color combinations it offered and I felt the vintage-style font fit the colors well. I could not figure out how to adjust the size of the font.

Word It Out separated words like flip flops, nature lover, bare feet, etc. which I found annoying.  What I really liked about this website was that I could type in my words (no commas necessary), and then I adjusted the number for the frequency of the word to have it enlarged.  I ended up having all my words on google doc and categorized them 1-10 (10 being most important).  Then I went back to the website and adjusted each individual number based on the importance to me.  I was hoping to have more creativity in the layout of this word cloud but it seemed basic (landscape or portrait style).  I also really liked the font I used and the color combination of background and words.  I felt the font expressed my personality well.      

Monkey Learn enlarged words on the word cloud based on frequency of word typed.  This was annoying because I had to type words repeatedly to increase the font size.  I did not create a final product for this website or for  Answer Garden. 

I considered the first two chapters in the text as it referred to design and visual presentations, and font styles.  One of my hobbies is photography, and I like to consider the visual layout and design elements of each frame when I take a picture.  I also can apply these elements to my powerpoint presentations in the classroom (2D) or the layout of a library (3D).  I have a creative eye and appreciate aesthetics of spaces and visual media for presentations.