Tech Tip Tuesday: Creating Infographics

I love infographics! Of course, I kind of love numbers and data too (I have an Accounting degree), but I really like how infographics take numbers, data, and information and make them into a visual. To me, infographics are easier to understand than a paragraph of text or a table of numbers. So perhaps you're asking, what's an infographic? When I introduced this term to my students this year, most of them had not heard it, but when I showed them an example, most of them had seen at least one before. I imagine you have seen them too and maybe didn't know what they were called. An infographic is a visual image, such as a chart or diagram, used to represent information or data.

Here's an example of an infographic about infographics: why people need them, who reads them, and how to make them. It was created by infolicious on visual.ly. {Please click the infographic to see the full-size original post.}

Infographics could be used in a lot of different ways in education. Millions of infographics about thousands of topics already exist with great information for students. Teachers, coaches, and administrators can create infographics to share information about clubs, sports, classes, or extracurricular activities. As an alternative to written reports, students can create infographics to demonstrate learning.

My students recently finished a unit on Microsoft PowerPoint, and I completed the unit by showing them free online alternatives, such as Google Slides, Emaze, and Prezi. We also spent a day talking about infographics, and I had them create infographics about themselves using one of three infographic creation websites: Easel.ly, Venngage, or Piktochart. After they had practiced using the tools with that assignment, I gave them a second assignment to research a college, school, or post-high school certification program that interested them. Each student used the information learned to create an infographic about that particular college, school, or program.

​As my students learned, it is not particularly easy to create an infographic. However, websites like the ones we used make it easier. All three websites provide free infographic templates and similar tools to customize text, colors, graphs, and images. I would suggest looking through the free templates offered on each website before deciding which one to use. Regardless of which tool you use, you can download the finished infographic or share a link to it. Of course, all three websites have paid versions, including reasonably-priced options for teachers and students.

My personal goal is to become better at creating infographics and to use them more frequently in my classroom and with my extracurricular activities. Have you created an infographic? Do you have any suggestions on how to use infographics in your classroom?