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2 Reasons why I love Infographics

Attention:

If you don’t know what infographics are, it’s about time you learned.

If you are a teacher and you don’t know what these are, it’s about time you started getting your students to use and create them.

Infographics, also known as information graphics are: The picture worth more than a thousand words¹.

Wikipedia presently states an infographic is a “graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge’.

But why are they important to harness and use?

Proof:

You have probably come across a few infographics in your life: Subway route systems, weather maps, and even the common red octagonal stop sign, which is a simple form of an infographic. Below, I have listed the importance and reasons why I love infographics:

Graphics are universal, meaning they are easily understood across cultures.
If you have traveled to a non-English-speaking country, think of a time you have tried to read signs to figure out what they mean. If you were in a Spanish-speaking country this was possibly easier than if you were in China or Thailand where not only the words, but also the script is completely unintelligible to you. However, many of these countries have used the idea of infographics to convey meaning to those who need it. Think of the red octagonal sign with the gibberish script on it. Placed at a corner, an English-speaking driver of a car still should inherently know to stop. Just as they might understand the squiggly lines on a yellow sign might mean a curvy road up ahead. The graphic does more for the international user than any word in any language ever could.
Complex information is displayed visually to appeal to this type of intelligence.
Howard Gardner explains those having Spacial/Visual intelligences as “having visual and spatial perception. [They are able to] interpret and create visual images. [They have] pictorial imagination and expression [and] understand relationship[s] between images and meanings, and between space and effect.” http://www.businessballs.com/howardgardnermultipleintelligences.htm
I feel this is my primary type of intelligence.

We understand why we might want to use or create infographics and for who, but how?

Strategy:

Determine topic of the infographic.
Research data needed to display.
Decide on color scheme.
Design infographic and keep it simple.
Try: Graphs, Timelines, Flowcharts, Size Comparisons, Venn Diagrams, Annotated Pictures and Maps
To create graphics use:

Go Beyond: Use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, 3D Studio Max or any free available graphic design software like:

Vector Inkscape | Insightpoint
Raster Gimp | Gimpshop | Smoothdraw | Serif Drawplus | Project Dogwaffle Free
3D Graphics Blender | Google Sketchup

Find more graphic design tools at snap2objects blog here.
See a step-by-step guide to creating an infographic using Adobe Illustrator here at vector.tutsplus.com
See a few website examples of infographics here, here, here, and here.

¹ Coined by Thomas Adam Johnson Monday, June 13th, 2011

Sneak Peak: End of the Year Video

06 Jun

Attention:

For those of you who would like a sneak peek at the end of the year video I made for the MYP kids at Concordian International School, this blog post is the embedded video and link to it.

Proof:

Strategy:

Want to make one yourself?

Subscribe to Animoto
Upload, or choose pics/video from your computer or even Facebook
Choose some music – Animoto has lots of nice stuff, but you can upload your own
Choose the theme and transitions
If you would like longer than 30 second videos, you need to pay $5.00
Download high quality videos for $3.00 per video
Use Freemake Video Converter to edit, change formats, and add images

I was using Adobe Premier, but with all its bells and whistles I wanted to use something a lot simpler. Freemake definitely does everything I needed and the quality seemed better than what Adobe was giving me. Freemake feels like early versions of iMovie that were easy to use with an easy learning curve. Try it yourself to see what I mean. Good luck and happy video making.

A great plugin for Firefox is called netvideohunter which allows you to download videos directly from Facebook, Youtube and many other sites.

1 Comment

Posted by Dr. Thomas Johnson | ict-design.org on June 6, 2011 in Design, Education, Technology

Tags: Concordian International School, Education, Facebook, Freemake Video Converter, IB Middle Years Programme, International, International Baccalaureate, International Schools, Video, Youtube

Here’s a quick way to get attention, give proof, and have a strategy

24 May

Attention:

Read this now to understand my gripping way to write. This article showcases the formula for how I will post in the future. Within each article I will follow a casual, strategic, useful and therefore an easy to follow style of writing. After grabbing your attention like I did already I will make you want to read on because I will systematically give you proof like the following.

Proof:

In the jump article by ProBlogger, “making posts easy to scan” and “consistency” are two points that I will also use in my blog posts. Chris Brogan reiterates making posts easy to read with the idea of structure. He says:

Note that I use the “strong” tag to separate segments throughout the post. There are a few reasons to do that:

It gives your eyes a way to skim.

It breaks up the post.

It rolls into an easy summary

Strategy:

In each blog post, you will notice that I will:

be compartmentalized into the three categories: Attention, Proof and Strategy because it is simple, formulaic and logical.
use bulleted lists as often as possible, as they are easier to read and glean information from quickly
highlight important information within articles, to allow for people to skim fast through articles for the most relevant information
support reasons with sourced, recent and relevant evidence as this University of North Carolina article points to as having impact.

You too, can write good articles by following this simplified strategy. Read more at the jumps listed earlier or do some relevant and recent research by searching for: “How to write good blogs”. Tell me what you think of my new approach to blog writing.

1 Comment

Posted by Dr. Thomas Johnson | ict-design.org on May 24, 2011 in Design, Education, Technology

Tags: Social media marketing

I wonder when they will start making this?

22 May

The three coolest things I have seen lately are the Fujitzu 4 in 1 Bento Box, the Sixth Sense by Pranav Mistry and this concept phone, which is pretty slick.

All three devices are moving away from the touch keyboard the way we know it. As I mentioned in the Bento Box article, I like the tactile feel of a nice keyboard, but I was sitting in an ISTEC meeting the other day taking notes on my iPad with the touchscreen keyboard, and I felt this was something I could get used to. This would especially be true if it was not something that I was brought up with.

I was talking with a PYP computer teacher the other day and she was saying that little kids seem to have a much faster learning curve on an iPad versus computers with a traditional mouse and keyboard. This idea led me to thinking about a question posed at the ISTEC meeting, “What are fundamental skills that all students should have by the time they graduate from high-school?” and a group member thought one part of the answer was “touch typing skills”

I wonder if this will actually be a skill set in the future. I guess we will have to just wait and see. In the meantime, I can’t wait to add more new gadgets that make my jaws drop when I see them to this list. Enjoy the earlier jumps and the following video.

https://ted.com/talks/view/id/685