PBL Tool: Infographics

Tired of having the students complete the same projects year and after? I know that is something that we all feel from time to time. I'm starting a series of posts that are dedicated to showing new project options for your students to use. My goal is to offer a menu of ideas for students to reference when they are determining the best tool for sharing their knowledge. So let's get started.

Let's talk infographics today. Chances are, you've seen an infographic before and haven't noticed it. In case you haven't, or to refresh your memory, here's the basic idea behind an infographic. Infographics are visual representations of information that could include data, information, knowledge. It's also a great way for students to identify trends and offer their own perspective on quantitative information. 

There are three parts to the infographic: visual, content, and knowledge. Here's a breakdown of each element.

Visual - consists of two types of graphics, theme and reference. The theme is the overall visual representation of the information. Reference graphics consist of icons that steer viewers to important information.

Content - usually consists of statistics and facts about the topic.

Knowledge - Contains insights and analysis of the content. It's the most important part because it shows the thinking of the student. Anyone can find facts. We want students to analyze. 

If you haven't seen an infographic before, then let's take a look at a few. Here are some good examples of infographics:

How Laws are Made
Students and Social Media
Twitter Spectrum for Educators

Now that you've seen some examples of infographics, let's look at a few options for how to create them. I would definitely suggest using a web 2.0 tool to create your infographic. The tools are embedded, easy to use, good looking, and free. And once they are created, it's easy to share because the product is web-based. Embed on your site, share the link, or tweet your creation. What's not to love?

Piktochart - A free, web-based infographic creator. Sign up for your account and start building. Lots of templates to choose from and offers drag and drop functionality.

Visual.ly - Another free, web-based infographic creator. Visual.ly offers a searchable database of infographics that were submitted by its users. 

Microsoft Publisher - Simply enough, make a Publisher document. You'll have to do a lot of work because you'll start from scratch. And it probably won't look as cool. 

I hope that's enough to get you started. I think infographics are a great way to share student knowledge. Try it out and let me know what you think.