Infographics
Infographics are a way to visually represent data from research or surveys electronically. We have been asking our students to create charts, graphs, and diagrams for years. With an infographic, we are asking our students to create the same visual representation, just using technology instead of paper and pencil. Infographics make it easier for readers to view and understand data. The visuals give readers a better understanding of what they have read and give their eyes a break from a large expanse of text. Infographics are great for our students to view as well. Diana Laufenberg, in her interview with Katherine Schulten, explains that "infographics work in the classroom because they grab students and allow an entry point to learning. They sum up pages and pages, even chapters, of information that would take a reader hours to process," (Schulten, 2010).
There are many websites and applications that can be used to create infographics. Easel.ly, Infogr.am, and Piktochart are three websites that I tried when creating an inforgraphic. Of the three sites, I found Infogr.am to be the simplest to use and best for inexperienced tech users. This would be a good website to use when having elementary students create their first infographic as it is very basic and easy to use. With that being said, Infogr.am does not give as many options as far as templates and objects that can be added or changed to your infographic as Easel.ly and Piktochart. I wanted a website that would give me more customization options.
After eliminating Infogr.am, that left me with Easel.ly and Piktochart. Both websites had several templates to start with and lots of options that can be added to the infographic. Both websites allow for the uploading of pictures or videos. One pro to Easel.ly is that it can be shared or you can get link that can be embedded. Piktochart only allows you to download a PNG/PDF of the infographic or you can get a shareable link. I was almost ready to choose Easel.ly as my infographic maker of choice until I decided on the topic for my infographic: book reading. When I searched on Piktochart for books and tablets, which would be useful for my topic, I was given several items that I could add to my infographic. With Easel.ly, there were no objects for books or tablets with the free application.
Given all of the information I gathered on all three websites, I decided to go with Piktochart. I am a little disappointed to be limited in adding videos and how I can share my infographic, but it was important to me to have lots of options and Piktochart gave me the most for my topic without having to pay for an upgrade. See below for my final product, my infographic on book reading!
Perrin, A. (2016, September 01). Book Reading 2016. Retrieved March 05, 2018, from
There are many websites and applications that can be used to create infographics. Easel.ly, Infogr.am, and Piktochart are three websites that I tried when creating an inforgraphic. Of the three sites, I found Infogr.am to be the simplest to use and best for inexperienced tech users. This would be a good website to use when having elementary students create their first infographic as it is very basic and easy to use. With that being said, Infogr.am does not give as many options as far as templates and objects that can be added or changed to your infographic as Easel.ly and Piktochart. I wanted a website that would give me more customization options.
After eliminating Infogr.am, that left me with Easel.ly and Piktochart. Both websites had several templates to start with and lots of options that can be added to the infographic. Both websites allow for the uploading of pictures or videos. One pro to Easel.ly is that it can be shared or you can get link that can be embedded. Piktochart only allows you to download a PNG/PDF of the infographic or you can get a shareable link. I was almost ready to choose Easel.ly as my infographic maker of choice until I decided on the topic for my infographic: book reading. When I searched on Piktochart for books and tablets, which would be useful for my topic, I was given several items that I could add to my infographic. With Easel.ly, there were no objects for books or tablets with the free application.
Given all of the information I gathered on all three websites, I decided to go with Piktochart. I am a little disappointed to be limited in adding videos and how I can share my infographic, but it was important to me to have lots of options and Piktochart gave me the most for my topic without having to pay for an upgrade. See below for my final product, my infographic on book reading!
Perrin, A. (2016, September 01). Book Reading 2016. Retrieved March 05, 2018, from
Schulten, K. (2010, August 27). Teaching With Infographics: A
Student Project Model. Retrieved
March 05, 2018, from
Troutner, J. (2011). Be Creative with Info-Graphics. Teacher
Librarian, 38(3), 48-50.
Great blog! I particularly liked your thought, "We have been asking our students to create charts, graphs, and diagrams for years. With an infographic, we are asking our students to create the same visual representation, just using technology instead of paper and pencil." I honestly had never considered it this way, but that is so well put. It really is just taking the same skills that we have asked students to do in our classes, and transform them into a more lively and technology driven fashion. I was disappointed like you were about the lack of features on the free accounts.
ReplyDelete-Courtney Walker
LSSL 5391-01
Great work Michelle! I like that you used a variety of visuals to represent the information from your article. I also chose Piktochart because it offered a good selection of templates, but they weren't overly busy like some of the ones in Easel.ly. It was annoying to not be able to download my creation as a pdf though. I would be curious to have a side by side comparison showing what the upgrades offered for all three. Infogr.am was definitely my least favorite. Nothing really caught my eye. I can see how the infographic would benefit our students because one has to really be selective in what information to include.
ReplyDeleteI also liked Piktochart because it gave me more ability to customize and make my infographic
ReplyDeleteappealing. I started off with Piktochart and when I tried Easel.ly and Infogram, it didn't give me as much option as I had on Piktochart.
Creating infographic using technology could be fun. I can't wait to show students how they can create one.
That's a great infographic. I had no idea how easy it was to create them. This assignment was very helpful because I never would have looked at creating these without it. I did not realize that creating the graphs and charts could be so fun!
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