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"I wrote in my book about the power of using word clouds in the classroom. They are such a good tool for activities linked to literacy, problem solving and much more. The classic Wordle and Tagxedo still rank highly in my estimation but as more and more use of technology moves to tablets and other mobile devices; so the search for a decent word cloud generator moves from the desktop to the mobile device too. Over time, more and more Apps have become available on the App Store and so in this post I'll explore my top six Apps for creating word clouds using iOS devices. Note, not all of these apps have Android alternatives although some have."

enter a fragment of an english word - Word Search produces a list of words which contain that fragment

The first online social dictionary. Upload photos, tag, and rate your favorite words. Search for definitions simply by adding the word after the url - example: http://word.sc/favorite

The Word List Generator Project has created a database of 2084 words that elementary school teachers can use to help students practice and build sounding out and word-form recognition skills

Free service makes it easy to generate vocabulary lists from any digital text. The Vocab Grabber creates a word cloud of the most frequently used words in that pasted digital text. Click on any of the words in the word cloud to see the definition.

"Google Docs is a powerful word processing tool that many schools have adopted. As it's similar to Microsoft Word and other word processing tools, most of its features are intuitive to use. However, in addition to completing many of the functions of a traditional word processor, Google Docs provides even more capabilities that can be invaluable to educators. Here are ten tricks that can make your life easier with Google Docs:"

"Paste your text into Analyze My Writing and it will generate a ton of information about your writing. Analyze My Writing will give you a break-down of the readability of your writing on five indices. The analysis will include listings of the most common words and most common word pairs in your writing. A listing of how frequently you use punctuation and punctuation types is included in the analysis provided by Analyze My Writing. Finally, a word cloud is included at the end of the analysis of your writing. "

"Pictures convey meaning in profound ways. I'll illustrate this using a free word cloud program called www.wordle.net. Below I have a series of favorite quotes on visualization, with references. Attached I have a word cloud of the quotes (minus the source). Please read the quotes and then look to the word cloud. I ask you: which is more powerful? Which gets the point across quicker, stronger, and faster? Which would your students prefer to read?"

Word hippo gives another word or the opposite of words dictionary.

"When in Boston, I taught next to a Geometry teacher who would later go on to become Teacher of the Year. Lining the walls of his high school Geometry classroom, from floor to ceiling, were vocabulary words with drawings and examples. At the time I thought it was a bit extreme. I mean, aren't these kids in high school? Over the years since, I have come to realize just how important word walls are and that he was absolutely right in putting it all out there like that. If you think about it, there's a measly 5 year age difference between a 4th grader and a 9th grader. Yes, kids do grow up quick, but what is it about those 5 short years that suddenly allows students to remember and recall everything and no longer need visual reminders?"

"If I had a dollar for each and every time someone has asked me to suggest a great PDF to Word converter, I'd probably be able to shop at Whole Foods every day for a month. It's one of the conversion types topping the formatting pile. My love of organic fruit and veg aside, here are some of the best free PDF to Word converters around."

"Like all teachers I have found that the right visual aids can make all the difference between students understanding a term or walking away shaking their heads. This pattern is carries over to learning new vocabulary words and or seeing the connections between similar words. Here are five visual dictionaries and thesauri that can help your students learn new vocabulary words."

"I've shared some ways that word clouds can be used in the classroom, and here's another activity that works for all ages and subject areas. Find a website that you are planning on sharing with students. This could be an informational text on a science topic or simply a current events article. Copy and paste the website URL into the online tool Tagxedo. This website will create a word cloud using text from that website."

"In response to some of the requests I received this week regarding iPad apps for early literacy. I decided to arrange apps into different categories and in different posts. Today's list features apps to help your kid or student temper with the notion of words. These are basically word games and puzzles that scaffold vocabulary and grammar learning. Enjoy"

"If I were doing this project today I would have students do every step on the iPad using  1. Notes to brainstorm and write their 75 words 2. Word Cloud to paste in and create their cloud then design their layout 3. Superimpose to layer their images together, mask their photo, and save I have a tutorial showing how to layer and mask images using the green screen app here. The images can also be layered in the latest version of the Green Screen app by DoInk now that you can resize images."

Meet Ten Word Wiki, a Twitter style version of Wikipedia that only describes stuff in under ten words but they also add a pinch of humor to all their definitions. For instance, the definition of Google, in ten words, reads something like this: The Centre of the Internet. They can find you anything.

"It's not often you'll hear this refrain, but this is one user who sleeps quite soundly about deciding to hitch his wagon to a decidedly inferior technology product. With nary any regret, I've created my last document in Microsoft Word, a product I first began using 27 years ago. Now it's all Google Docs, all the time. And the thing is that I'm making the switch fully aware that Google remains leagues behind Microsoft when it comes to turning out "full-featured" word processors. But it makes not a bit of difference. In a moment, I'll get into why."

"Teaching kids how to speak kindly to one another can be challenging. We've put together a list of phrases and strategies your students can use when they're talking to their friends. It's also a great starting point for classroom discussions about using kind, helpful words to build people up, rather than hurtful words that tear them down."

"One of the most boring and banned words in classrooms is 'went.' There are SO many synonyms that you're simply trying at all if you stick with the word 'went.' Lucky for you, there's hundreds (literally) of other ways to express yourself using the English language."

"Care. Think. Design. Act. These words are the first thing that people see when entering Digital Shop, our middle school makerspace. This mantra anchors the threshold experience, a visitor's first visual impression of the space. But what do the words really mean, individually and collectively? Why those words, in that order? And how do they resonate with our learners and with my colleagues in regard to their impressions of the program?"