Using word clouds to create a visual representation of participants' responses is an easy and creative way to highlight and share data and pull out common themes. Numerous free online tools allow you to create word clouds or tag clouds from text. Virtual polls conducted with mentimeter or polleverywhere allow for immediate display of word clouds.
When to Use: At the end of a project
Estimated Time: 5 minutes for participants
Participants: Young Children, Youth, Adults, Educators
Supplies:
- Method of collecting responses by on-line polling, spreadsheet, or from a text document
- Word cloud generator such as
Tips:
- You may have to edit participant responses to correct misspellings, capitalization, past and present tenses before generating your word cloud.
- Different word cloud generators offer options for customizing color schemes, fonts, word orientation, etc.
Sample Topics: Ask participants to supply 3-5 descriptive words.
- Feelings and Reactions
- Themes - subjects and topics of interest
- Values - what is important
- Favorites/ Least Favorites
Resources:
- Creating live word clouds with Google Slides from Poll Everywhere
- How to interpret word cloud data from Boost Labs
- Tips on using Wordclouds.com from Europlanet Society