Module 4 Post

Infographic Tool: Infogram

Are you tired of the same "make a poster" activities in your classroom, but unsure of how else to combine creativity with a visual display of learning?

This new tool is perfect for you if:

• You are looking for some variety in your classroom
• You enjoy building creativity and art into your lessons
• You want your students to be able to display what they've learned

Infogram is a great tool for any content area, but today I'm going to specifically focus on its applications to social studies classes! I was inspired by this post, "Infographic Tools" from the Library Tech Talk Blog.

The Basics:

Infogram is a free online tool for creating different styles of infographics. There are tons of options, but a few tools stand out and make it an excellent option for student use:

• Real-time instant saving, like Google Drive tools, so that students never lose their progress
• An easy "Share" button that provides students with an accessible link to share with peers or their teachers
• A wide variety of options for charts, graphs, and other data displays with built-in, spreadsheet-style data collection that students can easily edit and see the changes in real time appear on their infographic
• Many different cohesive design themes that automatically tie every element together with a color palette and style

Everything your students will need to create a professional-looking infographic is built right in to the online platform! They can insert charts and graphs (and edit the data to fit their results), search and import images, and even add integrated and interactive elements such as Youtube videos and files from their Google Drives.

Potential Applications in Social Studies:

Here are just a few ideas for how you might utilize Infogram in place of a physical poster for your students to display their knowledge:

• Timelines: Infogram has several different layout options to create timelines, which could be used to track any historical events or changes over time. Challenge your students to include interactive elements such as videos or documents right in their infographics!
• Research and Survey Results: Particularly for classes like psychology or sociology, an infographic can be an excellent tool for showcasing survey or research results! Infogram's built-in charts and graphs are easy to edit and manipulate as needed for your students' data.
• Famous Figure Profiles: Rather than have your students create a poster on a famous figure from the time period you're studying, have them create a digital infographic! It's easy to import photos and images into a new project on Infogram: just search within the image tool, drag, drop, and you're done!
• Geographical Analysis: Infogram also includes maps of the world and the United States than can be edited, color-coded, and otherwise manipulated to reflect whatever kind of data or information your students are looking to showcase.

Rationale:

• The SC State Educational Technology Plan outlines the importance of using technology in the classroom in order to promote universal design and student competency with technology tools. Infogram provides an intuitive way for students to showcase their knowledge using visuals.
• The researchers in "A Technology Plan" outline five important aspects to successful technology integration in schools, and one of their primary arguments is that the PEOPLE are more important than which technology tools are utilized. Infogram provides a solution to a big teacher request to find alternatives to the more traditional "creative" showcases of knowledge in the classroom.