Monday, October 27, 2014

It's Digital Citizenship Week! 5th Graders Learn To Share Their Knowledge With Infographics Using Canva!



Last week was Digital Citizenship Week, so it seemed like the perfect time to get students thinking about what it means to be a good digital citizen.  Students researched using several great online resources, our favorite being - Common Sense Media's Digital Citizenship.  After a rich brainstorming session, students distilled the digital citizenship information into a list that they thought gave the most important "take aways" for everyone to remember.  

Along side our study of digital citizenship, I wanted to introduce students to another way of sharing their findings.  With all of the digital tools available today, there are so many fantastic options for students to choose when they want to share their learning.  They can create a video, stop motion animation, digital poster, ebook, trailer/commercial, blog, interactive images, to name just a few. One option is to create an infographic, something many of my students have seen, but not really considered.  An infographic is a visual image such as a chart or diagram used to represent ideas, information or data. I shared examples of infographics from USA Today, one of the first newspapers in the country to popularize infographics by using them in their daily format back in 1982.




Check out this quick explanation by a company called Open Creative Communications!




Using infographics is a great way for students to share their research findings with an audience of classmates or beyond. There are several great infographic tools for students to choose from when creating an infographic.  I suggested we try Canva.  Canva is one of the newer infographic web tools and has recently added an app as an option for access! 

  



I use Canva for a variety of graphics and thought it would be great to try with students.  It is free and has many great free options, though there are paid features as well.  The free options provide more than enough options for my students.  Students loved Canva, and seemed to really engage with this creative way of sharing their learning!