Transforming Posters/Infographics

For good reason posters are a common choice of outcome for teachers to use when asking students to demonstrate their accrued learning. Of course this is nothing new, teachers have been asking their student to make posters to show their understanding for many years before computers became commonplace in classrooms.

Given that posters are so popular, this post is not about exploring the reasons for this, but asking the question, if you're going to ask your students to make posters with their computers, then why not ask them to use these tools to TRANSFORM their posters, not just replace/replicate them? Why not use them for formative assessment, as well as for summative assessment? This is something screens excel at compared to traditional paper posters.

Infographic or Poster?

First and foremost, if you're expecting your students to include more than a minimal amount of information, then you probably need them to make an infographic, not a poster.

Infographics are not posters; posters do not contain much information as they are designed to be simple and effective, infographics are designed to be complex and effective... A simple bit of Googling will illustrate this nicely:

Google Search for 'great posters'

Google Search for 'great infographics'

As can be seen from the above screenshots, posters and infographics are actually very different.

The purpose of a poster is to utilise (usually) one powerful image and a relatively small amount of text to communicate a message.

The purpose of an infographic is to condense large amounts of information into a form where it will be more easily absorbed by the reader.

Considering this distinction, it is likely that for most teachers, an infographic is more likely to be a more appropriate choice if you are expecting to use this medium as a vehicle for  assessment, and for your students to demonstrate subject content knowledge and understanding, as they will probably need to include a great deal more information than would be expected on a poster.

Six simple snippets for successful infographics:

1. They don't need to be printed, in fact they function better when screen based, why? because... when screen based, a portrait format works best (supports scrolling), which means that they can... 
2. Leverage the freedom of the vertical dimension on screen, no need to cram content into the space limits of a traditional paper/printed page.* 
3. Customise the page setup: portrait approx width 25cm length 50cm (approx length twice width) 
4. Base the design on a template, ideally within the same context eg 'infographic earthquake" find an example that will serve as a 'mentor graphic' or graphical model. 
5. Use a mentor graphic—imitate, then innovate. Copy layout, font choices, structure, icon use and placement, then integrate your own content. 
6. Choose your tool carefully, Pages is great for more control and polish, but requires considerable skills to use effectively, and does not lend itself to online collaboration, sharing and feedback. 
7. Cheat! Online tools like Canva and PiktoChart are great, even with interactive maps/charts, but you have to work within the limitations of the free version, and choose your template carefully. Google Drawings make collaboration, sharing and feedback easy, but are less polished, and more limiting graphically, it can be done though, here's one I made earlier. 
8. Icons are essential - if you're using a web based tool you'll need them to be transparent; in Google you can use tools > colour to filter them to transparent images. Keynote shapes also have loads of icons that can be edited and saved as a png file to keep them transparent.
   
   
   *You can still use the BFP (Big Format Printer) for printing extended infographics if you insist...

Use 'Mentor Graphics'

Simple but effective potential 'mentor infographics' for earthquakes, just Google 'earthquake infographic'

Grade 5 Expo Example

As the students are working in groups it makes much more sense for them to work in Google Drawings, much easier to collaborate, comment, organise. With a whole team working on one infographic it's even more important to use a mentor graphic that the whole team has agreed on, so that choices about font, layout are easier, and consistency is much easier to achieve.

Mentor Graphic

Google Drawing

Final PDF

Grade 6 Example

Here's an example from a Grade 6 Humanities unit, here the student chose a mentor graphic and then structured her own design around that; the similarities are obvious, but so are the differences. Inevitably, as they progress through the project their 'copy' evolves into a graphic that is more and more an imitation and less a duplication of the original mentor graphic (click to enlarge):

 

RAT Your Infographics

RAT (Replace, Amplify, Transform) your graphic. Don't just replace paper posters, amplify, or better still transform them on screens using SAMMS.


Situate them online so you can easily facilitate the ability for students to work on any screen, and any space, place or time that is convenient for them, this can also be a great environment for students to work collaboratively or cooperatively. (Not the same thing*)

Encourage students to use their access to the Internet effectively, constructively, and responsibly:  smart searches to identify powerful images and information for them to assemble, remix, represent... and of course cite.

Leverage the power of the mutability of the digital medium, whatever you do, do not leave the construction of the infographic to the end of the unit, have the students start the infographic as soon as possible, and then allow them to adapt, develop and evolve it  formatively over the course of the unit into the final product.

Make it multimodal, this means using images as illustrations and not just as decoration. If the infographic is presented online this also adds the possible affordance of animation (animated gifs are ideal, students can easily make their own with licecap, or giphy) and even selective use of short (looping?) video clips. A powerful way to leverage this is for students to create a short screencast narration of the rationale behind the content of their infographic.

Finally, socially network it, so they can easily be shared with the teacher and with their peers for effective formative assessment, especially peer assessment (Students as learning resources for one another, Wiliam, 2011) This allows students to share an early draft of the infographic in a shared online space where all of their peers (including their teacher) can review and provide feedback on their ongoing work, constructive criticism, clarification, and celebration.

CARP

This little acronym can be handy—not as easy as learning by imitation, but definitely worth keeping in mind:

*Cooperation = parallel practice, Collaboration = integrative practice (Ingram and Hathorn, 2004)

Cooperation means many working on one thing, individual contribution is unclear, collaborative practice means each member as a 'ownership' of a specific element, these elements are combined to form the final outcome.

Creating Infographic Visuals with Easel.ly

A previous post about using Gapminder World to visualise data, highlighted lots of ways to consume and analyse patterns in data. The most powerful way for students to understand a concept is to use data to create a visual representation. This technique encourages deep thinking and forces students to draw out the main points and then convey them to an audience.

This post therefore looks at creating an infographic with Easel.ly. This is the easiest and yet most functional tool I have come across so far. Easel.ly allows you to drop and drag from collections of symbols, change colours, annotate and duplicate. If students log into the website they can save edits and then download a jpeg of their work.

WHAT ARE INFOGRAPHICS?

CREATING AN INFOGRAPHIC

Before you begin a project with your students it is important to step back and look a few infographic examples. Websites such as Visual.ly and the work of David McCandless and his website Information is Beautiful provide some great examples. Ask you students to rate them using the following criteria, which I have borrowed from the following website - Rubric for Effective Infographic (UMW FSEM)

Usefulness: A useful infographic should have a clear purpose present, the data should come from a reliable source, the display of data should be proportional to the values (i.e., it should avoid data distortion), and the graphic should relate to the audience (i.e, it should meet the needs of the intended audience). 

Legibility: A legible graphic should have a general aspect in the areas such as labels, axes, font, and contrast. Font would vary in size depending on the importance of the content and be an appropriate type. Axes and labels generally go together so use them when needed; include a scale when appropriate. Contrast should help with the clarity. So these bring a basis for what makes a legible graph. 

Design: An effective infographic must use most of the available space, utilize color where needed, and present the information in the graph in a useful (containing a purpose), legible (conveys the data clearly) and aesthetically pleasing and interesting way. The choice of graphic needs to be appropriate for the data. 

Aesthetics: In order to make an infographic aesthetically appealing you need to first make sure all of the data is organized. That is, avoid clutter or information overload. The organization of the infographic should have clear purpose to the viewer, avoiding confusion. Once the infographic is organized, it directly correlates with the overall attractiveness. If it’s easy to understand, it is easy on the eyes; in other words the infographic is attractive. Once the organization and attractiveness are achieved, the interestingness comes naturally. Add colors or small images to ultimately make an infographic aesthetically pleasing.

Source: Rubric for Effective Infographic (UMW FSEM)

USING EASEL.LY FOR CREATING INFOGRAPHICS

Easel.ly comes with a series of themes, which are either useful starting points for students or they will constrain the students thinking. My feeling is that a clean slate is the best starting point for a creative project. 

1. Ensure students login with school email address so that their work can be saved
2. Click on a the first chart to begin and then drag and delete the object
3. Explore the objects button and explore the different category
4. Change the colour on an object
5. Add text boxes, graph outlines, or even maps from objects.
6. Click on the save button
7. Then click home button once finished. 
8. Click on the share button to download or to send someone a link to your infographic.
9. You could create a Picasa Web Gallery and ask the students to upload thier image, and then use the commenting functions and the above rubric for guiding feedback.

Simple example which I created from this Economist Article on Japan

Visualising Data with Gapminder World

Data is an important quantitative tool in many subjects including Geography and Economics and it helps our students understand trends, patterns and the contrasts that exist in the world. Student's ability to visualise and therefore interpret data is becoming an important skill at the intersection of the arts, maths and humanities disciplines.

This blog post, looks at ways to help students interpret data through effective use of the Gapminder Tool. A subsequent post in this series "Creating Infographic Visuals with Easel.ly" explains how to create infographic visuals with Easel.ly which help them showcase their understanding.

Techniques for using Gapminder in the classroom

Gapminder World is the utopia of online statistical tools, that enables students to construct and interpret scatter diagrams with a range of human development statistics. The amazing aspect is that they can drag the data back in time, showing a 4th dimension to the pattern. Our students also have GapMinder Desktop installed on their MacBooks, enabling offline access.

Top Tips for using GapMinder

• Remember to change the indicator on each axis
• See this link for the full list of indicators, or to download the raw data.
• If you like a graph, save the URL into a Google Doc for future reference
• Click on two or three different countries to simplify the view.
• Drag the timeline back, and see the trails of data. 
• Ask students questions about the direction of change, what is the correlation, cause and effect.
• Hover the cursor over each circle to see the data and to see the axis statistical values.
• Need a lesson on correlation and causality? See the brilliant Khan Academy.

Going deeper with GapMinder - Skitch

• Try using programs such as Skitch with students to help them annotate the GapMinder diagram to highlight correlations and the main points. This technique forces students to think more deeply about the data, trends and patterns.
• Students can save these into their notes or assignment. 

Screen Recording and GapMinder - Quicktime

• To really push students, you need to make them think more deeply about the connections an trends in the data. Ideally you want to glimpse into their thinking processes (metacognition).
• You can do this by asking them to use the Screen Recording functions within Quicktime, and to answer a question such as "describe two countries, one that follows the correlation and another that does not and the relationship between the data"
• The student will record a short clip of them speaking, whilst also clicking and dragging the GapMinder gadget. Whilst you might not access this video explicitly the level of thinking required really pushes students who are comfortable writing something but find it harder to verbalise thier thinking. 

The Flipped Classroom and Infographics

Both of the concepts, the Flipped Classroom and Infographics are in vogue at the moment. Hence my choice to share the image below. Infographics are just an informative way of displaying information, you can use Google to search infographics and your subject and you will find a wealth of ideas. Student can also use the infographic idea to showcase their own information. We will try publish some more ideas and inspiration about this later.

An excellent website for infographics is here - http://www.good.is/infographics/

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

Food for Thought