Create Stylish Word Clouds with Tagxedo

The De-tech-tive 4 Teachers Word Cloud

Tagxedo is a free, online web tool that students can use to create very visually appealing word clouds.  As you can see from the image on the left, word clouds can be generated in the shapes related to the topic.  For visual learners this is an excellent tool to highlight or emphasis key terms, concepts or themes.

Tagxedo offers many terrific features such as:
1. customization of fonts, themes, colors, orientation and shapes.  
2.  saving images for printing and sharing
3.  numerous fine-tuning options

Teach-nology:
(the pedagogical rationale for the use of technology in the classroom)  

Skill	Teach-nology
Visual Literacy	To interpret, recognize, appreciate, and understand information presented through objects and/or symbols
Creativity	To elaborate, refine, analyze, and evaluate ideas in order to improve and maximize creative efforts.
Language Skills	To expand and improve vocabulary by using various language expressions such as synonyms, homonyms, antonyms, etc.

Sample Activities:

The official blog of Tagxedo offers an excellent resource for teachers entitled "101 Ways to Use Tagxedo".  Below is a sampling of some of the great lesson ideas offered:  

1.  Contrast Candidates in a Political Debate - Using debates, speeches, slogans, promises, etc., students can examine the political platform of two or more political candidates.

2.  Current Events - Using key terms from various news outlets (newspaper, radio, television, etc.), students can summarize the latest newsworthy event.

3.  Make a Self Portrait - Using one's dreams, hopes, character traits, goals, etc., students can summarize their personality. 

4.  Make a Tagxedo Poem - Using a favorite poem or one written personally, students can create a word cloud highlighting its theme.  


How to Get Started:

View the video tutorial below to create your first Tagxedo word cloud in minutes!




Tagxedo is a fantastic resource to help students improve a variety of 21st Century skills.  Click here to get started!


This post originally appeared on The De-tech-tive 4 Teachers.

Create Graffiti Style Text Images

At a recent EdCamp I attended, a student-led session highlighted the idea that the best way to engage learners was for educators to interact with students at their level.  Many ideas and strategies on how to achieve this were exchanged, but the one idea that struck me was that the on-line tools we so proudly use for our classroom activities may not be as engaging as we think!  In order to fully connect with students, it is important to use web tools that fit the interests of the students before us.  In other words, a specific web tool may be engaging to one class but not another.  Clearly, teachers must take this into account and have a Web 2.0 toolkit that includes a diverse set of resources that fits the needs of a wide range of students.  

The De-tech-tive 4 Teachers - Graffiti Style

As a result of this latest revelation, I have begun revisiting some web tools that I had earlier dismissed.  One of these tools is The Graffiti Creator.  The Graffiti Creator allows users to create a graffiti-style name or logo within minutes.  There are many options to choose from including various font styles and artistic features that will add life to your creation.

How to Get Started:

Below is a Graffiti Creator screen-cast tutorial that will assist you in creating your first graffiti-style image:



Sample Activities:

1.  Class Website or Blog - jazz up your classroom on-line space with a graffiti-style message or title.

2.  Student E-portfolios - students can include a graffiti-style name bar to introduce their e-portfolio.

3.  Presentations - insert a graffiti image into any on-line or print based visual.  

NOTE: For on-line insertions, users may need to use 'PrtSc' on their computer keyboard to generate the image.  Once generated, a cropping tool will be needed to crop the excess portions of the image to isolate the graffiti text.  

A special thank you to Dave Guymon (@DaveGuymon) for first introducing me to this web tool.

There is a lot of potential with The Graffiti Creator.  Please feel free to explore the possibilities with your students today!  Click here to get started.

This post originally appeared on The De-tech-tive 4 Teachers.