Winning Them Over with Infographics

On the first day of my leave replacement, you could say I was nervous. For 6 months, I would be taking over the classes of a beloved 7th-grade teacher who had very big shoes for me to fill. For that reason, I knew a lot weighed on that first lesson, and I had only a few minutes to win the class over.

I’ve had a soft spot for infographics. Not only do they present information in a fun and creative way, they make the information stick in my brain. Read me a fact, and maybe I’ll remember it. But pair it with a clever image, and that information is on lock.

For the remainder of my leave, I tried to introduce all new topics with a complementary infographic. My visual learners (those who learn through pictures, images, and spatial understanding) benefitted from the graphics, and my verbal (or linguistic) learners enjoyed the language and data that paired with the images. The infographics also helped create visual representations of difficult-to-understand information for my students.

I had to create many of my own infographics, and in those 6 months, I found a number of excellent resources to help me accomplish that.

If you’re interested in trying your hand at infographic creation, here are a few of my favorite resources to help get you started.

Bring Out Your Inner Designer

Canva

Canva.com or for Infographic Introduction, visit: https://www.canva.com/create/infographics/

Canva is a free website that is perfect for designers and non-designers, alike! With a variety of free templates, stylish font choices, and illustrations to add flair to your graphic, creating a compelling infographic is easy. There is no need to download Canva either. Simply go to Canva.com to set up your free account and start designing.

The site is easy to navigate and incredibly intuitive. To get started, select your layout, and add your background. From there, you can add elements and text at the click of a button.

Good to note: There are premium subscriptions and content that do cost money. Any premium content used without having a paid-subscription to the site will run you $1 per item. Premium items are marked with a small dollar symbol on the bottom of the image.

Although the free subscription comes with a lot (including 2 folders to organize designs, access for up to 10 team members, 1 GB storage for photos and assets, access to over 8,000 templates), the paid subscription offers even more. For $12.95 per month, you can have unlimited folders for designs, access for up to 30 team members, unlimited photo storage, access to 300,000 images, priority support, and more. If you’re not sure which subscription you’d like, they offer a 30-day trial of the premium subscription.

Easel.ly 

Easel.ly (https://www.easel.ly/) is a site specifically focused on creating infographics (where Canva allows you to design a variety of non-infograpic designs).

Easel.ly shines with even more infographic templates, customizable size options, and access to 100,000s of images. It also offers free webinars and tutorials to help you get started.

But my favorite part about Easel.ly is the access to community designs. If you’re looking for inspiration, you can see what your fellow designers have created on their community page. (But remember! Before you present a found infographic to your students, make sure to check their resources to ensure the information is accurate.)

Easel.ly also has a premium subscription for $36 a year, which you can learn about here.

Searching for Solid Data

Looking for quality data to back up your graphics?

• Data.gov (https://www.data.gov/) is a great place to start. It’s the home of the U.S. Government’s open data. Here you will find data, tools, and resources to conduct research, develop web and mobile applications, design data visualizations, and more.
• Statista (https://www.statista.com/) is another great option that offers immediate access to over one million statistics and facts.

For More

For more information like this, visit the Teq blog at https://34.201.222.12/learning-community/teq-talk/. 

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