www.tagxedo.com
A Creativity Tool
Tagxedo is a free web2.0 tool that allows one to create “word
clouds” with a wide array of shapes, colors, and fonts styles. The end result
is an artistic display of whatever you can display in words. The images created
can be printed, saved to JPG, PNG, or IMG files, shared on Twitter and Facebook,
linked directly to another URL, and printed at home. You can even send the
image directly to zazzle.com and instantly create a t-shirt, mug, bag, and more
with your word cloud on it.
To use Tagxedo, you really only need web access and words. You
can add your own pictures for the clouds too, but they have so many options,
that even if you aren’t feeling terribly creative, it’s already covered. To
really personalize things, having a theme helps, but you can explore and design
with their ready-made images.
Click here to learn how to use Tagxedo: http://screencast.com/t/MuuMQHVH
A completed design:
Using Tagxedo is an opportunity for endless creativity in a
variety of different settings, and the site presents many links to lists of
options for use, including a Tagxedo facebook page with examples and a blog
with “101 Ways to Use Tagxedo.” In medical education, an instructor could use
the tool to stimulate brainstorming with a visually appealing end result. Topic exploration and learning may be facilitated
with the end project being a word cloud of key words on the subject matter. One
could create office artwork that teaches patients through visual and verbal representations
of disease conditions. A caregiver could encourage the patient to create a word
cloud that expresses their feelings, thereby imparting a therapeutic benefit to
the tool. Multiple images could be used
together to compare/contrast or highlight positives/negatives of diseases and
conditions.
Stimulating creativity and providing outlets for artistic
license is part of medical humanities, which is often overlooked in medical
education. Implementing a tool like Tagxedo allows an educator to mix a little
more imagination into routine learning, possibly providing a better foundation
for recall and memorization for some students. Tagxedo is a great tool for this
because it is free, easy to use, and creates art without the messiness of
paper, glue, markers, and scissors.
While
the tool is easy to use, there are limitations to just how useful it can really
be. Word cloud are not well-organized and the words cannot be maintained in a
certain order, so Tagxedo is certainly not a precise way to convey facts,
figures, and information. Nonetheless, Tagxedo creates an impression, and when
well thought out and presented, a lasting impression.
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