1. What skills (e.g. image-editing, programming) do you need to have before using this tool?
No advanced skills are needed.
2. What resources (e.g. email address, contact information, microphone, camera) do you need to have before using this tool?
For Tagul, you have to sign up with an email address, or log in with existed Google or Facebook.
For Wordle and Tagxedo, you can create a word cloud directly on the web without logging in.
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using this tool in a teaching/training environment?
Wordle and Tagxedo are faster and easier to create a word cloud than Tagul. However, the Java for Wordle is really inconvenient. It was frustrating when I tried Wordle for the first time that the wordcloud can not be created and I thought there was something wrong with my laptop, later finding out that I would have to install a Java.
Tagul is more fancy as it offers various fun shapes and you can upload new shapes. Tagxedo also has fancy shapes, but you can not upload new shapes. The single words in Tagul word cloud can be editted with different colors, size, font, and angles, which is not possible with Wordle and Tagxedo. Tagul has animation features, which the other two don't have. Wordle and Tagxedo word cloud can be saved easily to computer, but Tagul word cloud can not be saved to computer, which is a drawback of Tagul.
4.How would you use this tool in your classroom/institution/organization?
I once used Tagxedo to create word cloud of my students' names and insert it in the course page of Moodle. It makes the page more active, beautiful, and pleasant to eyes. More importantly, it increases the attachment of students and the professor as students will feel how creative the professor is for making the word cloud and this is a way to show that the professor cares about the students. The word cloud with all the names is also a symble to show the whole class is a unity.
Word cloud can be used to show the most important key words when input a web link or a passage.
Word cloud can be used as a creative reflection tool. Professors can ask the students to create a word cloud with the words that they think are most important or most impressive for the content they have learned.
Here is a comment by CHEAH SIN MOH
I am currently using Answer Garden, recommended by Dr. Thomas Chai. I had earlier tried with Wordle, Tagxedo and Tagul. I needed a program that can generate Word Cloud based on input from various users. I found this feature in Answer Garden. It is very easy to use and it is free. You can always create your own Answer Garden and a link is provided. You embed this link in any document, for example, I embed mine in a web site created using Weebly. Anyone who click on the link will be brought to my Answer Garden where they can enter words into the text box. Click submit and we are done. I intend to use Answer Garden to capture keywords on topics that my students found most difficult to understand and plan a revision class sometime during either the MST week or the June term break. Tested it out with Dr.Thomas Chai to ensure that it works, and it did!
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