Articles

November 21, 2012

Word Clouds in Education: Turn a toy into a tool

When it comes to finding the deeper meaning in a text passage, a word cloud is a simple application that you might have seen as a cute bit of fluff rather than a useful academic tool.  Most word cloud programs work in the same, straight-forward way; the more a word is used in the text, the bigger it is shown in the cloud.  A glance at a cloud is an easy way to preview a passage, or to analyze text.  So what does this mean for your courses?  
by Joseph Kern