Infographics

With the increase of visuals in the classroom and attempting to more fully engage students in creating and using presentations in the classroom, infographics are an easy way to have students present information or create visuals to use in classroom presentations and projects.  Infographics are a visual representation of data, and having students create them draws on a number of skills and literacies.  There are a number of tools that allow for the creation or use of infographics in the classroom, but I chose to stick with the two that I find easiest and most familiar.

My favorite tool for creating infographics is called easel.ly.  In easelly you can reuse public infographics or create new ones from scratch.  You can use premade themes or create your own infographic from a blank slate.  There are a variety of options for backgrounds, text, charts, images, and other objects you can add to your infographic.  You simply drag and drop different elements onto your canvas and arrange them how you like.  They are easy to create and add information to, and when you are finished your inforgraphic can be saved, shared, or downloaded.  Check out easelly and start creating your own!

The other tool that students can use to easily create an infographic is infogr.am. Infogram has very similar features to easelly but focuses more on interactive charts and graphs.  Again, creation is easy using premade themes and then adding your own personal information to it.  There are a variety of chart types you can choose from and a myriad of ways to visually present your data.  You can add charts, maps, text, images, and video.  When you are finished, you can publish your infographic online, embed it into a website, or share the link.

Overall, infographics can be a neat way to challenge students to visually present information in the classroom, useful in presentations and projects, and help explain concepts and terms to students who may better understand concepts with a visual representation.  For more information on infographics and using infographics for assessment, check out Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything on Infographics.

And if you're still not sure what exactly an infographic is or what purpose it can serve, check out the infographic below on what an infographic is (I saw this on another blog that I frequently visit, Free Tech for Teachers, when I first learned about infographics and found it helpful).