One Line Description:

Wordle is a free, online tool for creating word clouds.

Brief Description:

Wordle is a free, online tool for creating word clouds.  A word cloud is a visual tool for displaying key words for a topic, lesson, or unit.  There is nothing to download or install.  It can be used from any computer with internet connection as long that computer has Java installed.

To make a Wordle word cloud, you submit the desired text from a web page or other document.  Then you click ‘Go’.  Once you click ‘Go’ the magic begins.  It automatically determines the frequency of each word in the document and will create a word cloud with the most frequent words in the document.  The frequency of the individual words will determine the size of the words in the word cloud.  In the example above ‘computer’ is the most frequent word used in the copied document.  Click here to see more examples.

Once the first word cloud loads, you can easily change features like the font, layout, and color.  You also have the option to randomize and it will create a new word cloud with the same words.  You can do this over and over until you get a design you are happy with.  You can then easily print the word cloud for use in your classroom.  If you have the capability to print to a PDF file, then you also have the capability to save the image as a file that can easily be used again and again.

Opinion:

Wordle is an easy to use and excellent tool for students and teachers.  It allows you to copy all of the text from a report, web page, song, etc. and automatically create a word cloud.  You might have never heard of a word cloud or used one before, but they can be a great tool for summarizing key terms and concepts in a report, lesson, chapter, or unit.

The capabilities for customizing the look of each word cloud is fairly limited.  This could be good or bad, depending on your opinion.  The limited controls definitely make it user friendly and easy enough for very young elementary students to use.

I highly recommend using Wordle to make your word clouds.  It can be a great tool for summarizing the key concepts of any document you want to visually summarize.

Ratings:

Intended Users:  Students and Teachers

Wordle Example

Official Website

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