Visually showcasing your thoughts/feelings is an excellent way of capturing experience that is sometimes hard and potentially overwhelming to explain. It is also really helpful for education and job applications as it helps you demonstrate the key skills you have acquired in a way that is really quick and accessible to view.

So, what is a word cloud? A word cloud is a collection of words that create an image specific to the focus of the theme of the workshop. The size of each word indicates how big its importance is. 

Now we know what a word cloud contains, and looks like, you can use this template to create your own. Before you start you need to know:

The workshop I am reflecting on is…

My audience is…

The skills I am going to cover in my word cloud are…

Before we start creating your word cloud you need to consider your skills in critical thinking (by reflecting on the positive and negatives and how your learning will assist you in the future), communication (how you worked with others, or created a piece of work to share your knowledge and experience), collaboration (working with others), and creativity (developing something new and presenting it a new format) and how they were gained/developed in your chosen workshop.

Critical thinking:

Communication:

Collaboration: 

Creativity:

Now we know what a word cloud contains, and looks like, you can use this template to create your own. Before you start you need to know:

The workshop I am reflecting on is…

My audience is…

The skills I am going to cover in my word cloud are…

Before we start creating your word cloud you need to consider your skills in critical thinking (by reflecting on the positive and negatives and how your learning will assist you in the future), communication (how you worked with others, or created a piece of work to share your knowledge and experience), collaboration (working with others), and creativity (developing something new and presenting it a new format) and how they were gained/developed in your chosen workshop.

Critical thinking:

Communication:

Collaboration:

Creativity:

Once you know what words you want to gather together, you need to organise those words from most to least important for the image you're trying to create, from your experience of the workshop. The most important words will be bigger and bolder, the least important words will be thinner and smaller. You could do it the traditional way and create it with pen and paper, using bigger writing and thicker pens for the more important words, and then smaller writing and thinner pens for the least important words; but another option is for you to take the digital approach. There are a number of different digital platforms that you can use to create them. If digital is for you then you might want to look at:

www.freeworldcloudgenerator.com offers a simple use for creating a free word cloud. You put in all the words you have created from the prompts above and it will generate a word cloud you are able to download. Full details on how to use the generator can be found here:

https://wordart.com is highly recommended and is slightly easier to use than the generator above. It gives you a clear set of instructions on what you need to do as soon as you start creating. Full details on how to use word art can be found here:

www.jasondavies.com isn't the most modern platform to create a word cloud on, however it is has a very simple and reliable approach to creating a word cloud. Full details on how to use the Jason Davies platform can be found here:

Once you've created your word cloud, add it to your portfolio. We recommend adding a small description to accompany it, just so the person looking at it understands where you're coming from and what you're trying to say.