TagCrowd: make your own tag cloud from any text
TagCrowd: make your own tag cloud from any text.
This tag cloud was generated with TagCrowd from a job description for Senior Instructional Designer at Western Kentucky University. I love how a simple visualization (in this case a ‘snapshot’ of the frequency of words in the text) can reveal and represent. This cloud represents what the university is looking for in an upper level instructional designer for their online division. It represents an accepted schema for broadcasting a need. Oftentimes it represents a long wish list that an employer might want to get when it hires someone. That ‘ordinary’ level of understanding is clear to most folks as they begin to respond with cover letters and resumes, but it seems to me that the tag cloud reveals a meta-level of information as well that is subject to larger and more varied explanation.
For example, the most frequent (and hence, the largest font size) word is ‘instructional’. Yes, this is expected, but the visual also drives home that the position is an instrumental. They want someone who has practice in instruction. For example, it might seem like I would not be a true fit because I do not have a specific degree in instructional design, but I think that the data reveals that what they really want is someone who has been an instructor
