This week we explored the infographic.  It is pretty much what it sounds like: graphics and information combined.  Infographics are becoming more and more prevalent with the increasingly visual society we live in.  Today, I attempted to create my own infographic.  It was a slow and frustrating process.  I looked at three different infographic tools that were recommended and finally settled on using Piktochart.

Once logging into the program, I had to do some searching with much trial and error to finally be able to work with a template.  Before exploring the website, I created the list I wanted to use for persuasive essay writing tips.  Once beginning to design, I cut a lot of my text off due to the template I chose.  Finding and working within the confines of a template seemed to be the most frustrating part of the process.  It seems that some templates were free while others you need to pay before using.

After playing around with the template quite a bit, I was finally able to incorporate my text and graphics.  I did not change much of the color scheme mostly due to the fact that I was getting frustrated and could not figure out how to change the background color as a whole.  It did become easier as I continued.  In the end, I was mostly happy with my first attempt.  I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to lines matching and margins, but I had to let that go some when creating this infographic.

In order to use this idea with students, a template that would perfectly match the assignment must be made.  I think it would be a bit of a challenge for some of my high school students to work in this program, but many of them are more advanced technologically than I am!  This assignment would be one where I would want to design along with my students so having a classroom set of laptops would be crucial.  I could go through some basic design choices using my computer on the Smart Board while they created on their own.  I like the idea of using this infographic as a research assignment.  One project we recently did was to write a campaign speech and poster as if they were a character from Julius Caesar.  Researching how to write a campaign speech effectively by creating an infographic would be a nice way to include more research skills in the unit as well as extend to United States history.  I need to become more knowledgeable on the program before attempting to do this with my students.