Using Infographs in the Classroom

The use of Infographs have been trending during the last decade, and they are being integrated into classrooms all over the world. An Infograph is a collection of imagery, charts, and text that gives a convenient presentation on a specific matter (Nediger, 2018). Infographs must be engaging visually and communicate information concisely and plainly for it to be effective. The reason Infographs have become so popular is that it does a great job of  making complex information easy for students to digest, especially those students who need a more visual way of learning. While Infographs may look daunting to create, don't feel intimidated by them. There are many online resources to help create polished and professional looking Infographs quickly and easily. I explored 3 common Infograph websites, Easel.ly, Piktochart and Infogram. I looked at the features of the free versions of each site. The chart below breaks down the positives and negatives of each site. After analyzing the 3 sites, I feel Piktochart had the superior free version. I created an Infograph (seen below) to demonstrate how it could be used to present information in the classroom.  

Sites:	Easel.ly https://www.easel.ly/	Piktochart https://piktochart.com/	Infogram https://infogram.com
Positives:	·         Helpful PDF Guidebook ·         Creations are simple and intuitive ·         User-friendly and could be used by students ·         Larger number of free templates compared to other sites	·         Library of helpful tutorial videos ·         Each template contains helpful advice with the text ·         Step by step tour of each feature on the templates ·         Creations are fast, simple and intuitive ·         Easy to download and share	·         Live Chat with their support team is available in the home page at all times ·         Comprehensive Help & Tutorial link, with videos and helpful tips included ·         Only site to have templates for Facebook Infographs
Negatives:	·         Free templates are very disorganized and disjointed ·         Templates feel very randomly ordered ·         Categorized by category and not template type ·         Infographs do not look as polished as the other 2 sites ·         Only low-resolution image is available for download ·         No distinctions for free and paid features	·         Limited number of Infographics, Presentations, Posters, Reports, Flyers Free Templates ·         Free version only allows you to download infographic as a low or medium resolution image, not a pdf	·         Limited Free Infographic, Dashboard, Reports, Facebook, Chart, and Map Templates ·         Unable to download infograph at all in the free version, pdf or image

Example of Infograph, created on Piktochart:

As you examine the Infograph above, you can see how much more engaging and appealing it is compare to reading the data in a report. Infographs are an incredible tool for teachers to engage students with, and the best thing about them are you can convert any type of information into an Infograph, from maps to data to list and so on and so on.

References:

Bladon, B. (2015). Crash Course in Infographics. Retrieved from https://www.easel.ly/ebook/crashcourseinfographics

Demographics of Social Media Users and Adoption in the United States. (2018, February 05). Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/social-media/

Infogram Features. (2019). Retrieved from https://infogram.com/features

Nediger, M. (2018, August 20) What is an Infographic? Infographic Examples, Templates, and Design Tips. Retrieved March 8, 2019, from https://venngage.com/blog/what-is-an-infographic/#1

Piktochart Tutorial: A Simple Guide to Piktochart for Beginners. (2017, January 28). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=157&v=Eq-85gzw3GI