You have probably seen examples of word clouds created in
Wordle where a piece of text is entered and then a word cloud is created where word size is proportional to its frequency in the text.
Tagxedo has a similar function but provides more customization. For example, one could choose from several different built-in shapes or even upload their own image to have there word cloud in that shape. Look below and see my first try at
Tagxedo where I used an image of myself (although one would never know it was me.) You can also customized the color scheme and simply use text from a website by entering the url of the page, or one could even type directly in a text box and the word cloud would be created using that text. A possible use of
Tagxedo at the beginning of the year would be to have students take a picture of their profile and then either write paragraphs about themselves or enter words that describe them and the things that they like and the word clouds could be in the shape of their profile, printed, and hung in the hall or on a bulletin board as a "getting to know you" artifact.
