How I Use It
Creating an infographic is a great alternative to writing a paper or creating a slide show. Students are able to create a content based product filled with information that they have learned and use a canvas to display their product. Visual learners love to create infographics and it gives them an opportunity to shine. When first using this tool I would start with a smaller screen and allow students to have an opportunity to learn all the various tools that are available. One full class was necessary for exploration, but it was time well spent and in the future students will be able to jump into the project quicker. As the teacher you must explore and create one yourself first - this is critical. It will allow you to answer students questions and model how to get started. In the future I will pair student experts with another student as this will help those struggling students to learn how to use the tool. As the teacher you need to move around the lab quickly to help students and having students help one another is great way to spread the expertise. The products created were well worth the investment of time, but make sure that students preview and edit their work before publishing.
After looking at many infographic creating websites Piktochart was the winner. This is an easy to use website that guides you step by step on how to create an infographic. It is almost similar to creating a powerpoint - name your presentation, select a background, select from icons, upload images, add text, etc and you have created an infographic. This is a great teaching tool and offers an alternative to creating a slide show. It is important for students to show what they know and this is an awesome tool. The free version works well for students and has enough features that students did not feel limited. One feature that was helpful was that you could sign in with your Google account so students did not have to create an account in Piktochart. There is a bit of a learning curve on how to add images and move things around on the infographic so some practice is necessary, although students picked up the features very quickly. Some students will need initial support in order to get started, but with s practice all students were able to complete an infographic. You are able to drag or upload files to the site which helped students to add content. Due to the learning curve I would do a practice run first before creating a final product.