How are Word Clouds Used in the Classroom?

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What Does the Term Word Cloud Mean?

A word cloud is a cluster or assemblage of different and diverse words. It displays the various texts in unique styles and sizes depending on a particular factor or parameter. In other words, a word cloud is a visual representation and illustration of several crucial and relevant textual data.

Also known as a text cloud, wordle, weighted list, or tag cloud, it can consist of significant and varied keywords. It can include those that get applied and used on websites.

In a word cloud, the significance of a word gets represented by its size and style. The more a text is bolder and pronounced, the more relevant it is. It can get summarized in a few words. The more eye-catching a text is, the higher is its level of importance.

For this reason, a word cloud is one of the best ways to separate and extract the most relevant and prominent section of a selected piece of text or data. It divides the necessary parts and areas from one source, like blog posts. It transfers or relocates them for the intention and purpose of record-keeping to the chosen databases.

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Generally, a word cloud represents or depicts the significance of the highlighted and portrayed text using a single word for each. Its relevance gets demonstrated using a selected style and size for the font with a particular color showing the importance of the texts or tags.

This method of illustrating and showing the words helps to make or generate a comparison and contrast between any two or more chosen and distinct portions of the data.

Consequently, it makes it possible to locate and discover the resemblances and similarities present in the wording and appear within any part of the selected section.

According to Slides With, A word cloud can also come with some hyperlink references associated with it. It can direct the user to other items, websites, and products. Typically, the referenced pages hold some sort or kind of relevance or significance to the highlighted and displayed words or tags.

What are the Advantages or Benefits of Using a Word Cloud in the Classroom?

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A word cloud offers a colossal number of flexible and varied ways to get used and applied in different sectors, fields, industries, and domains. That is why it can find application in more than a single approach.

A word cloud has a primary purpose of getting used in the classroom. It is to make the monotonous lessons more interactive, engaging, and attractive. It increases the appeal of the courses by pairing an audio system of teaching and learning with a visual one.

A word cloud also helps to make polls, especially in an online classroom where each student has access to a digital mode of communication. It shows the selected options in the word cloud, each with a unique style and color. The polling system works with live word clouds.

It makes modifications to the displayed text as the votes come in. The option with the highest number of supports gets shown as the most pronounced and boldest word. The opposite stands true for the least chosen one. This entire voting system makes the process more fun and engaging, leaving the students satisfied with the progress and development of the poll.

A word cloud makes the lessons more engaging and can even make them easier to understand. Additionally, they create a convenient method of interaction and learning that does not require much work, time, energy, or money.

A word cloud allows the students to study, absorb, and remember the necessary keywords for a long time. It ensures that they do not forget them by stimulating their visual senses and nerves, increasing their concentration, and memorizing power.

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A word cloud also converts unsophisticated black and white text into pictures that can catch anyone’s eyes. The words that form the collection in the system use different and distinct color schemes, font styles and sizes, and even shapes as and when required.

It makes almost all people take a second glance at the word cloud and not ignore it or move past it. In a classroom, it is of the highest essentiality. It can get owed to most students tending to skip the boring parts of their textbooks even if the portions are relevant for their exams and future.

What are the Different Instances in Which a Word Cloud Can Get Used in A Classroom?

Students and teachers can use a word cloud for various purposes and intentions in a classroom. They can get created digitally or manually using paper and making the words with colored pens or markers. For the former method, various apps exist online that can serve the required objective.

There are a few ways to include and incorporate a word cloud in the curriculum that ensue within a classroom. The methods consist of the following:

  • Teachers can put or arrange the outline and plans for their courses in a word cloud and display them to the students. They can make it at the beginning of a semester or a year. The word cloud can give the students an idea of what is to come and the most relevant and significant parts or portions of their course.
  • A word cloud serves as an effective way of teaching the students how to learn and memorize essential keywords and vocabulary. The teachers or students themselves can mark the necessary and relevant words in different colors and sizes.
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  • Students can use a word cloud to make their after-lesson review a fun one. They can create their feedbacks and responses in a unique manner or fashion. It can make it easier for the teacher and their peers to take references from and understand.
  • Students can make a word cloud in their unique ways and methods as a form of reflection from an idea, discussion, video, or reading shown or debated and discoursed in class. They can share their notions and concepts or further elaborate on a given topic.