TT 8: Infographics

March 3, 2018

What's an infographic? Its quite simple really, and the answer is in the name. Infographics are visual representations for information, and often are organized around and accompanied with images to help a person to remember that info better. It makes sense really, since providing a person with the same information in different ways will give them extra schemas to relate to, and will assist them in transferring that information into their long term memory. For students, this is something they will initially struggle with, and so providing them with an orderly and aesthetically appealing means of getting that info would be a huge help. I think that they can be used in the classroom as either a means of summing up a topic and to be used as review, or even to be used to introduce a new topic since it can have a ton of information on it in an organized manner. They can also be used as handouts or put up as a poster in the classroom. There's actually so many infographics that exist out on the world wide web already, but there's also many free websites and programs that can be used to make your own. I'll add a few that I came across while doing a bit of research, and like you can see infographics can vary from serious to funny, and useful to unnecessary.

Here is an infographic on infographics!

https://www.questionpro.com/blog/how-to-create-a-story-from-an-infographic/

 



Here is one that I might actually use in my classroom as a poster on the wall.

https://www.health24.com/Medical/Tests-and-procedures/How-to-spot-bad-science-20140911

 

And here is one that I might include as a handout for a biology class.

 



 

http://freedesignfile.com/65281-creative-biology-with-medicine-infographic-vector-10/

 

You can also find some infographics that are outrageous, but give a good sense of what an infographic can look like with data and images together.

http://www.hmxearthscience.com/videos_images_files/tag-infographic.html

 

 

So the second task for this assignment was to create our own infographic. I decided to try using Piktochart for this, since it was suggested, but it looked like there was a ton of different (and partially free) sites and programs which can help you making one. Once I was able to figure out a topic, it was quite easy to use the site to make my infographic even though it didn't like me doing so on my tablet. There was a short tutorial video that it suggests you to watch before starting, and it was great to see some of the features and capabilities of the website. I feel like having your students create an infographic would be a great project for them, and a much better and more interactive way than the typical poster project. For my infographic I made up a quick one that includes a few tips on reducing your carbon footprint, a topic I may be talking with my class about in the next few weeks. Nothing too fancy for a first try but trying it out as great. It is definitely something that could be super useful I think. I will have to make sure to keep this idea in the back of my mind to use in the future.

 



- B