Infographs/infographics are a great way to visualize and organize information. A quick Google search will show millions of infographs with info ranging from the parts of a hamburger to the impact of plastic waste on marine life. The reason for the rise in the popularity of infographs is largely due to the fact that they no longer require the knowledge of a graphic design to create. Sure, you can use Photoshop or Illustrator, but other free web tools, like Google Drawing and Piktochart, make infographics accessible to everyone.
In regards to data or historical facts it is easy to see the value of putting the information in a visual format like infographs. What is less obvious is how infographs can be used to explain intangible information like analysis or mathematical theorems. I recently had my students create infographs charting/explaining motifs in the first five chapters of The Great Gatsby. I gave them four simple guidelines and two means by which to create the infographs.
Guidelines:
- The infograph must have 5 or more graphical elements (i.e. charts, graphs, pictures, etc.)
- The infograph must show the progression of the motifs
- The infograph must cite evidence of the motifs throughout the first 5 chapters
- The infograph must explain the importance of the motifs
Creation Options:
- You can create the infographic on butcher paper
- You can create the infographic using Piktochart or Photoshop
For those of you that don’t know Piktochart is a free, web-based infograph creator. It took a little time for the kids to get accustomed the the user interface, but once they did it was second nature for them.
It was also important to publish the infographs for a real audience. So they added them to their blog, and I added them to a Thinglink (above) that I tweeted out.
It was also important to publish the infographs for a real audience. So they added them to their blog, and I added them to a Thinglink (above) that I tweeted out.