Word clouds can be used for educational and/or fun purposes. You can place them on your blog or your social networking site. They are a great tool to summarize large documents (reports, speeches, etc.) as well as websites.
There are a number of tools available to create word clouds. We will be using Wordle and Tagxedo to create our word clouds.
Activity #1 - Create a Word Cloud using Wordle. Using at least 15-20 words associated with Social Media and Web 2.0 Tools, create a word cloud. When entering your words, make "Social Media" stand out. Remember you can change the layout, font, and colors of your word cloud. Take a screen shot of your finished word cloud and include it in a post along with a description of how you might use a word cloud in the future. (You could also save your word cloud and copy the HTML Code to be used in a gadget on your blog.)
Activity #2 - Experiment with Wordle and create a word cloud. You can use words from your favorite poem, lyrics from a song, text from a essay you have written, favorite sports teams, friends, etc. Place a screen shot of your finished project in a post or include the HTML code in a gadget on the sidebar.
