-: Coming up on Mobile Learning in the Classroom Piktochart.
(upbeat music)
Hi, I'm Zoe Falls and today
on Mobile Learning in the Classroom
we're going to talk about Piktochart.
So I use Piktochart with my students
when I want them to really go in
and synthesize in new information.
So it's usually a response to new content,
a new unit, or just information that might
be new and relatively dense.
I have them go through and do the reading,
talk about it amongst themselves,
maybe do a discussion board,
some in-class discussion and then
in groups they design an infographic.
With Piktochart it's a free website,
and there are options to purchase
and schools can get really good discounts
on purchasing if this is something you use
and find that you really like,
but would like to have more options.
But even at its free level it's really
a robust program and website for you to go in and use.
So your students can create their own infographic
or they can use a template.
So we're just going to go in and look at a template.
That is not the template, come back.
And we're going to go and check out
the About Me template.
And one of the things that again I like
is you can have them do this individually
or you can have them do this as a group.
And so in their groups they'll get to share
their knowledge and work collaboratively
and then really get into the heart
of what's going on.
So with this infographic it kind
of guides them through the types of things
that they can put in.
So they come up with a title.
And the thing that I convey to my students
when they're working on their infographics
is they're conveying a message.
So as the reader, as the audience,
I should be able to go through
and read the story, read the narrative,
of the information they're trying to tell me
and walk away knowing something.
It's a visual elevator speech
about what they've just learned.
So we start at the top and it gives information
so you can put background information,
you can have them do an about me
at the beginning of the semester
as you are trying to get to know your students
and your students are trying to get to know each other.
Or it could be background on the topic
if they have to learn something about the Civil War
and maybe they have to talk
more specifically about Gettysburg.
And maybe within that they have to identify
one moment, one battle, maybe one leader,
one soldier, within the Battle of Gettysburg
that they tell that story.
And they can pull information from other places,
from their peers, and they could figure out
the point of their infographic
and then they populate it.
And another feature that I like about this
is the multi-modality of it.
So you're encouraging the students
to use both visual, textual, and even some audio
and pictorial representations within their infographic.
So you can insert lines and shapes
so they can modify everything.
So even if they use a template they can modify.
They can add icons.
So if they're trying to stick with a theme
they can select one and it automatically
comes in and you can adjust it for size
and you can rotate it.
And you can also add photos.
So if they have their own photos
that they'd like to upload they can do that
plus it comes with a whole slew of photos
that are already going to be licensed to use
with this software.
So they can select from that
and then they don't have to worry about copyright issues.
So if you're working with younger students
or students that are still learning
how to appropriately cite and use sources
they find online, that could be helpful.
And again different photo frames
if they did something like this number five,
again there are pictures within it.
So they can use pictures to represent numbers
and you can talk through the different,
what that means, how that helps them,
conceptualize and visualize what's going on.
And then the other cool thing is how you can
have them share and save.
So in the free version you are limited
on how they can save it.
But they can save it as an image
and then once it's an image most people
can go ahead and save that image as a pdf if you need to,
but they can download it as an image
and send it to you.
Or you can, they always have a URL with their account
and you can set up accounts with Google.
So if your school is using Google Classroom
or you're a Google school you can just go ahead
and log in with Google and then your students
don't have to have another account sign up
and you as a teacher don't have to worry about
another sign in and another password.
So there are other infographic websites out there
but I like Piktochart because of some of the features.
I like that you don't have to use a template at all
if you don't want to.
And just real quick, it does more than just infographics.
You can do a presentation.
So if you have them doing a digital presentation
it sets up a poster but then it moves them
through as though it was a presentation.
They can also do a poster.
So if you're doing a larger class project
and they need to make a poster for that,
there's that option.
And there's also a report feature.
So if they've done some sort of survey
or they're analyzing information, there are ways
to do graphs and charts where they can represent
that information and again it still follows
some of that infographic logic.
If we look at this one where they're still conveying
a message and at the end of this infographic
or this chart you walk away knowing
sort of the bullet points of what information
the students found relevant
and as a teacher it's a good way
to clue yourself in to what your students are picking up on,
what information they're synthesizing,
what they're identifying as important,
and maybe where the gaps in their knowledge are
so that you can attend to those later on.
So this has been Piktochart and I'm Zoe Falls,
have a great day.
(upbeat music)