week 2 -tagul

Name of the Tool
tagul

URL of the Tool
http://tagul.com/

Please select the one, primary category for this tool:
Communication Tool

Please describe this tool in your own words in about 250 words.
Generally, tag or word clouds visually depict the words used in a given text. Tagul is a creative form used to generate tag clouds. Tag clouds are artistically created, so that included words have different shapes and features like text inside text and rollover effects. Frequently used words may stick out with an increased font size, groups of tags may appear in uniform colors. Additionally, tag clouds can visualize relationships of words.
Tag clouds are much easier to grasp than simple lists, as words can be weighted with the help of font size and color. When we look at a text cloud, we see not only an informative, beautiful image that communicates much in a single glance, we see a whole new perspective on text.
The purpose of the tag cloud is to give user an easier way to browse the site and at the same time see popular content. Each tag is linked with a URL and is “clickable” which can be used for navigation. In recent years tag clouds have gained even more popularity because of their role in search engine optimization of web pages. Properly implemented, tag clouds make the website appear more interlinked
TagCrowd is a web application for visualizing word frequencies in any user-supplied text by creating what is popularly known as a tag cloud or text cloud. TagCrowd is taking tag clouds far beyond their original function:as topic summaries for speeches and written works, blog tool or website analysis for search engine optimization (SEO), r visual analysis of survey data

What do you need to know before using this tool?
Need to ha a written text that will be evaluated by Tagul. Tagul selects the most commonly used words in this text.

What do you need to have before using this tool?
internet connection

How do you use this tool?
1. Tagul, which can be found at http://tagul.com/cloud
2. Copy and save in word text that you want to be analyzed by Tagul
3. Paste the chosen text to an indicated area
4. Then choose the font, background color, speed, font color etc and save

Please create an example with this tool and either embed in your blog or submit the URL.


Please describe a scenario of how you might use this tool in a teaching environment

The chosen text is Cystinosis, the topic that I present at different meetings. Creation of word tag is very helpful for my presentation. I will include it in the second slide, right after intial slide with the title. This added slide with tag will be very informative and "eye catching", as it will introduce the most discussed words

What are the advantages of using this tool in a teaching environment?
1. Tagul is initially designed to use it for visual representation of discussed topic, with big words indicating their importance
2. One can use it to analyze text through using a tool like TagCrowd. Intiially tag cloud needs to be created from any text and with TagCrowd one can analyze whether or not the use of words is balanced. This is useful especially for speech/presentation to analyze if some keys words are really the key words

What are the disadvantages of using this tool in a teaching environment?
It may teach only through visually recording to memory headlines, similar to reading headlines in the newspaper, which would limit the student's curiosity in deeper analyzing the problem