Deb Boisvert Technology Coordinator                                            
Deerfield Community School, Deerfield, NH  dboisvert@sau53.org ,  @debot

Which side of this page drew your eye first?

An Infographic uses timelines, graphs, diagrams, flow charts and icons to communicate information in an easily understandable, engaging way. Just as in writing the author delivers their message by:
  • Purposefully guiding the reader/viewer,
  • Thoughtfully focusing the message, and
  • Carefully choosing engaging media (words or graphics).
Digital and visual literacies are the next wave of communication specialization. Most people will have technologies at their fingertips not only to communicate but to create, to manipulate, to design, to self-actualize. Children learn these skills as part of their lives, like language, which they learn without realizing they are learning it.- Connecting the Digital Dots: Literacy of the 21stCentury 

After looking at the Infographic on the right and watching Kathy Schrock's video, discuss how Infographics are important today and how you could use them in the classroom . 
How could an Infographic replace or support the traditional research paper?


Reading Infographics - Developing an Eye and Understanding

Go to the New York Times Learning Network series, Teaching with Infographics - A Place to Start.  Find an Infographic that interests you.
  1. Why did you choose this one?
  2. What are three things that you learned from the Infographic.
  3. What are three ways the designer conveyed the infromation so that it was easier to understand or more engaging. 
This is a great activity to do with students. Another way to find Infographics is to do an image search for your interest and the word Infographic. Here is one of the many that popped up with Horses Infographics, The Learning Life,  Mind Blown: An Exploration of the Human Brain, or What Happens in an Internet Minute?
Other sources for infographics Visualoop


Creating Infographics 
  1. Use one of the data sources below or other data sources that interest you. 
  2. Identify three pieces of data that make an interesting point about the subject. 
  3. Sketch out different ideas for how to present the information in an engaging way
  4. If you have time use Easelly or PictoChart to create your own Infographic.
  5. Sample student lesson and work.
  6. Tips and Tricks for doing Infographics


Programs that will help you and your students build an Infographic
  • Easelly  create and share visual ideas online.
  • PiktoChart  create and share visual ideas online.
  • Tableau Public more sophisticated - free download software
  • Many Eyes  more sophisticated  - online use with registration.
  • Wordle -  “Word clouds” that  give greater prominence to words that appear more often.
  • Hohli - online cart builder
  • Creately - online diagrams
  • StatWorld - Interactive, downloadable maps on an amazing range of data
  • Simile Widgets - Free interactive web widgets.
  • Google Draw is an excellent tool to easily create poster sized print outs. Go to Page set up to create your oversized page. Print as a pdf and print out with Foxit below.
  • Any Graphic design platform ex. PowerPoint, Publisher, or Serif Draw Plus (free download)
Other Graphic Design Tools
Tile Printing tools - Tile printing allows you to print a large image on multiple pages so that they can be taped together to make a large poster or banner. This is hugely motivating
  • Foxit PDF reader free printing poster size - "Tile Large Pages" to the print dialog box. With this new feature, users can tile pages that are larger than the selected paper size at a specified scale. The whole page content will be divided and printed on pieces of paper.
  • Posterazor - download Mac, Win and Linux

Created by Customer Magnetism, an award winning Internet marketing agency.
Additional Readings/Resources. 



Date created | Relevant Institutes | NHEON Admin Email | NHEON Site

http://infographiclabs.com/news/what-is-an-infographic/ 7/25/2012
Subpages (1): Infographics in the Classroom
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