Wordle seems to be an obvious tool of choice for teachers who want to generate text based concept maps.  And for good reason too, it is very easy to use and provides a multitude of open ended teaching and learning opportunities.  If you would like to read the Ultimate guide to Wordle for Teachers click here to see these many ideas.

Wordle is however not the only option for you to use in when creating word clouds in the classroom as there are a couple of new competitors each with their own unique features that separate them from Wordle.

Worditout is VERY similar to Wordle n the fact that it offers the ability to create word clouds from web pages, text input and RSS feeds but the 2 features that set it apart from Wordle is that it creates an embeddable Word cloud for you to drop into a blog or website and it also allows you to import tables into worditout.  It is not as visually appealing as Wordle but does not require sign up which is brilliant for short sharp learning sessions.

Click the link below to see my Edgalaxy Cloud

Made with WordItOut

I would like to have shown you the embeddable version but could not get it to function.  Maybe you might have more luck.

Tagul

takes word clouds to the next level.  They look great they have interactive roll over text that allows you to click on a word in the cloud and be taken to a hyperlink.  It is fully customisable layouts and can be placed inside a shape such as a love heart or circle.  The only downside to Tagul is that you have signup to be a part of the action.  (It is free however) It is very lightweight in that all clouds are under 50kb when finished.

In short if Tagul required no sign up it would be the leader in this field in education as it offers a multitude of web 2.0 features looks great and offers far deeper presentation options than wordle or worditout due to its interactive text.

Check it out

here.

If you know any others I'd love hear about them