Infographics

I'm not sure if it's laziness or a short attention span, but when I get to a web page or blog post that is filled with many paragraphs of text, my reaction is to close out the page and move on to something else.  If it's something I'm really interested in, I might read through the first few paragraphs, then usually just skim the rest.  I think this is why I'm drawn to infographics.  Much of what I look at online are new classroom ideas or tools.  In the initial introduction to a concept, I would much rather get a big picture overview than have to wade through all the minor details.  Infographics are great for that.

I just completed a free, online course about infographics offered through KQED's Camp KQED Teach.  It was a good introduction to the basics of creating effective infographics.  As part of the course, we were asked to create and share infographics with their community of learners.  I felt uncomfortable with that at first, but after getting some feedback on them, I'm glad that I posted them for others to see.  Here is one of the infographics I created in the course.  I plan to share it with teachers when they come back in the fall.

I used Google Slides to create it because of it's flexibility and ease of use.  Then I turned the file into a JPG for posting.  I suppose I could have also turned into a PDF.

I found the process of creating the assigned infographics worthwhile and can see several benefits of using them with students.  I would like to see our students create infographics as I think that the process of summarizing information or data in a concise, easy-to-understand, and attractive way can help develop higher level thinking skills.

I'm wondering how other schools are using infographics in their classrooms.