Using digital infographics

Hello visitors!

I must confess that I'm a great fan of agent 007, so I want to pay tribute to his home country by showing you some interesting facts about the UK. You can use it in class to work the different countries that make up the United Kingdom (Geography) also adding some information about festivities or other facts. 

I'm using an infographic, which is a graphic visual representation of information to present it in a quick and clear way. It can be very useful for you as teachers to capture your students' attention on selected pieces of information. For them it can be a tool for developing their own creativity as they need to think how to select the objects, the information and present their works in an eye-catching way. It also features collaborative work, useful if you want your students work in teams.

To create this infographic I'm using Piktochart, an online tool not only to create infographics but also presentations, reports, flyers and posters.  Once you're logged in, you can choose from 3 visual formats (infographics, presentations or printables). Browse for the template layout you want to use or start with a blank one. For your students it can be hard to start from scratch, so it's strongly recommended that they use a preset template and then edit it according to their needs. Each page of the infographic is called 'block'so you can add, delete or clone blocks to fit your creation. On the left side of the page you can see a toolbar where you can select the graphics (shapes & icons, lines and photos; pro users can add animated icons and photo frames). You are allowed to upload your own images (jpg, png, gif or svg files) and change the background. Furthermore, you can change the text size and colour as well as other tools (insert charts, maps or videos). For my creation I wanted to use maps, which you can edit in terms of colour, size and, in this specific case, choose separately the different countries forming the UK.

What I enjoy most was to set the different elements and changing sizes to fit the space. It allows you to use your creativity in designing your creation and you can group the different objects making the spatial planning easier. On the other hand, I had some problems when displaying the results as in the previsualization some elements were not exactly the same size or place and I needed to edit several times to get the final result. Finally you have different options to share your outcome (you can't keep it private in the free version): you can publish it in Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest or get an embed code.

Image by Alex Molina. CC0 Creative Commons

See you soon! You can also check my creation here.

Creating educational mind maps

Hello visitors!

My next mission will take place in Japan, for that reason I need to gather as much information as possible to go unnoticed during my stay in the land of the rising sun.

My teacher friend is preparing a project on Japanese culture with his students and he wants to present it using a mind map.

Image by Alex Molina. CC0 Creative Commons

There are different online tools, like Coggle, Mindmeister, Mind42, SpiderScribe or Bubbl.us, but he has chosen Creately. Here is his experience with this tool.

'Creately is fairly intuitive, it offers a wide range of diagrams, not only mind maps (over 40 types with specialized shape sets...even family trees!!). Depending on the diagram you want to use you'll find libraries with more or less variety of objects and shapes ready to use (unfortunately the mind map library is not very extensive, but there are other libraries that are good enough to remedy the situation). It's a good tool to organise ideas, concepts or even to summarize a didactic unit.

You can use either an existing template or create your own. I've chosen creating a new one, adding the objects from the different libraries like shapes and arrows. I had experienced some problems scrolling up and down the objects in the library, it was difficult to view all the objects when loading all the available libraries, so I recommend a quick browse before starting the mind map. 

To create a visually appealing mind map it is also advisable adding your own pictures or background images according to the topic or creating links to expand the information. Creately even provides linking to another mind maps which I have tested out.

In short, Creately is useful to present a project in just one look, it's visually attractive and can help to engage your students in the project. Students perhaps find it tricky to use, it is recommended to show them how it works so they can create their own mind maps.'
 
Good luck with your students! Here's the link to the mind map.

Comics to deal with emotions

Image by Alex Molina. CC0 Creative Commons

Hello visitors!

Secret agents are used to deal with crime and death, but teachers need to know how to react in the classroom when a student loses someone dear. Depending on the situation and child's personality, he or she will prefers to remain in silence or perhaps the need of expressing feelings will make the conversation comes up. Teachers need to have a lot of tact to handle such delicate matter and be very supportive.

In this case or in any other situation which involves helping children to deal with emotions is important to use tools they are familiar with. Comics can be useful to show real situations, and reading similar experiences can help children to deal with their own emotions.

Having said this, I want to show you an online tool to create your own stories through comics. It's called Storyboard That, so let me explain its features.

First, you start creating a storyboard, where you can choose how many cells is going to have your creation. Then, add the scenes and characters the software includes, or you can add your own.

I was really surprised by the amount of different characters offered, which can be edited (body features, position, mood as well as preset modes) and make the creation experience truly rewarding. I have enjoyed the process of editing the scenes in order to adapt them to my needs, creating zooms or cropping characters.

Once all the scenes are created, add the text by clicking the "Textables" tab and use different speech bubbles to complete your comic.

Finally, Storyboard That offers different export options (PDF, png, zip or pptx). You can print your outcome as well. In order to embed, you will need to make your storyboard public. It also offers managing your students and assignments, so it's a great tool to work in class. If you are worried about students' privacy, by default all storyboards are created under a private educational account.

The only problem is that you are allowed to use the software on a free trial for only 14 days, after this period expires you need to pay to access all the features. Anyway, I think it would be a great idea to use it with your students in class.

For more info you can see an overview here.


Enjoy it! Click here to view the comic on the Storyboard That website. It features a student who loses his grandmother and needs support to understand his loss. It is important to send a positive message and reflection on this issue.


Made with Storyboard That

Creating Support Slideshows

Hello visitors!

Today I want to share with you a story. As a secret agent I have been witness to the most creepy cases, so I decided to write my own scary story. 

Image by Alex Molina. CC0 Creative Commons

My teacher friend has asked me for permission to show you, and he added some tips for his students to create their own stories in class. He realized that using a slideshow to introduce this writing activity is going to catch his students' attention and add some motivation to develop their imagination and creativity. 

He told me he decided to use Genial.ly, which is a great online presentation tool. He had enjoyed creating the slideshow using a template (but you can create your own), adding the pictures of my story and adding some effects to make it visually attractive. Nevertheless, he found some difficulties while adding the background music. Genial.ly allows you to embed audio tracks from other websites like Spotify or Soundcloud, but you can't use one single track for the whole presentation as you watch the slides. Luckily he managed to record his own music, upload the different tracks to Soundcloud and then embed them in the slides.


I can't wait to watch it!!  Enjoy the story!