Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.
Source: http://www.wordle.net/
The image below was created by a Wordle user. Once images are created, they are added to the Wordle Gallery and free for others to use.
Image Source: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Wordle&FORM=HDRSC2#a
Here are a couple of short tutorial videos on how to use Wordle.
My first experience with Wordle started out easy enough, but got quite tricky (for me) when I tried to add my image to another blog. It took me several tries and some time to take the image from the Wordle site to the blog site. It wasn't a simple cut and paste. I had to take a screenshot, then crop the image, then save it to my computer, and then I could finally upload it to the blog post. A few extra steps, but think it will be okay once you get used to them.
Another critique is that you cannot choose the form of the words that you want. For example, you cannot format the words into a specific shape. The words will be formatted into whatever shapes are programmed onto the site. (I believe there is a site that can do that--Tagxedo.) But, you can change the colors and the font of your Wordle image.
Also, all images are saved to the public gallery. This means anyone and everyone will be able to use them. (So be sure not to include any personal or identifying information onto the Wordle generator.) This means users can conduct a search for a Worlde instead of creating one. There are many Wordle images to choose from--in many different languages.
As with everything else, we should all be cautious of what we do and see on the Internet. According to Wordle's creator, the Wordle homepage will never feature images or links that are inappropriate for classroom use. I recommend looking at the FAQ page before using Wordle in your classroom. Here is the link: http://www.wordle.net/faq#license.
I will end on a positive note . . . using Wordle is FREE. Considering that, I suppose I really have no complaints, after all.
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