Making Infographics

OK, you've all seen them on Facebook, Pinterest, and the various blogs that you read. Someone takes what normally would be a long, drawn out description of something that would normally take a few pages of text and turns it into an infographic which takes all of the pertinent information, puts it into bullet points and interesting pictures and makes you actually interested in learning about the subject matter.

I've always wanted to learn how to make infographics because, let's face it, kids don't have the longest attention spans, and I personally think they look really neat. I tried downloading an app to my iPad but could never get around to find the time to figure out how it works. Today when I was reading Richard Byrne's blog, Free Technology for Teachers I saw his write-up for a tool called Canva and thought, it can't hurt to take a look, can it?

Canva.com

Upon going to the site, you are asked to create an account. Once your account is set up, Canva offers to give you a short 5-step tutorial on how to create your design. The steps are simple, going from searching the site for an image, background, layout, etc. and each step has a short tutorial if you're not sure how to complete the task. Once you're done, you can publish your creation.  There are many projects to choose from including: various social media posts, posters, invitations, business cards, and many others. 

I can't wait to create interesting posters and infographics for my students this year and I'm looking forward to learning what they can teach me about this new and exciting technology.