For one of my Animal Science courses, I was asked to write a
paper about the symptoms of West Nile Virus and how it is spread through
different organisms in the environment. I had heard of West Nile before but had
never studied it in depth. Based on what we learned in ALES 204 about
generating tag clouds, I made my own tag cloud using an article about West Nile
Virus infection in horses. I felt that this would help me to organize my
thoughts and get an overall picture of the key concepts of the disease.
I was surprised at how useful this technique really was. The
tag cloud presented the main ideas, solidifying concepts that I already knew,
while also tying in new concepts that I had not associated with West Nile
before. For example, a term that stood out in the tag cloud was Culex tarsalis, a species name I had
never heard of previously. Further research indicated that it is a main
mosquito vector of West Nile Virus in Canada. The fact that it was of fairly
significant size in the tag cloud gave me a clear signal that it is an
important factor to be addressed.
This proved to be a great tool in helping me outline my
ideas and get a better idea of the important topics that should formulate the
body of my paper. If you are interested in making a beautiful tag cloud like
the one above, be sure to check out the Tagul website.
Deanna Halls has made some good points about the techniques
we have learned thus far in the course. I have felt the same insecurities that
she has about putting personal information on public display on the web, but
agree with her that social media has played a role in all of our lives at some
point or another. However, whether you are just catching up with friends or
posting an online career resume, I strongly agree with the central theme of her
post: you have be vigilant in conducting yourself properly in all aspects of
social media to avoid blurring the lines of personal and professional
communication
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| Figure 1. Tag Cloud-WNV in Horses. Photo uploaded by khilsent on Flickr. Retrieved on April 12, 2012. |
Thursday, 12 April 2012
Topic of Choice Post: West Nile Virus Tag Cloud
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That is such a cool tag cloud Kendra. I have also used tag clouds since this class to pick out the key words on a piece of literature. I had seen them before on twitter but I had never had much application for them. It's very interesting to see the words which are generated. I know enough about the West Nile Virus that I can get quite a bit of information about the article on just the tag cloud alone.
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