Piktochart

Want to create your own infographic?  Check out Piktochart.

Here's an infographic I made today for my class on technology integration. It was a little bit of a learning curve, but once I got the idea, it was pretty easy.  I am using the free account, so the themes are limited, but I think it would be just as easy to start with a blank canvas.  

This is also a good alternative to other presentation tools. Click on tools and chart and enter your data, then choose the chart type, then add text and images if desired.  Click and drag to move charts around, but be careful of overlapping charts.  I would recommend grouping all elements of a graphic once they are organized, then you can move them simultaneously.  To do this just highlight all of the elements and click the group icon, which is to the left of the delete icon in the top toolbar.  There are tutorial videos under resources, or go to /piktochart.com/demo/.

After your Piktochart is saved and published, it can be viewed as a presentation, printed, embedded on an HTML website or shared on social media sites.  Here's the link to my infographic to view it online. Note this is best viewed on Chrome or Firefox.

Time Toast

I am taking another technology integration class and this week I had to create a timeline using TimeToast.com.  This is a really cool tool for creating animated, interactive timelines.  This would be a great tool to use for history class or even tracking the plot of a novel that spans time.

It is pretty easy to get started. There is a free account or you can sign up for one of the two paid plans for a few dollars a month if you want to have a classroom account.  Teacher moderation is included in the paid plans.

Once you create a timeline, by entering the name and a category if you choose, you click on Add Event, enter a date and name of the event.  Then you can also add more info and a link as well as a photo all on the same form.  You must have photos saved on your computer ahead of time so you can upload it to your gallery, however. Then click create event and the form will close and a tag will be posted on your timeline.  Just repeat for as many events as you have and then your timeline will be done.  It is automatically saved to your dashboard.

Your visually enhanced timeline can be viewed in full screen.  Just click on any event and a page will open with the additional information about the event.  It can also be viewed in text view, just by clicking on Text View at the top of the page.  You will see a table with all of the information in chronological order.

Here is an example of a timeline, the one I created for my technology class on the history of communication technology devices. It can be embedded in your HTML sites as well! Enjoy.

Scratch Halloween Cards

Happy Halloween from Scratchers!

I haven't been posting as much here because I am posting on my other blog which is for another grad class, but thought I'd share this one. I love Scratch.  Here are some multimedia Halloween "cards" made by some of my students using Scratch.  Scratch is a program that teaches kids how to code using blocks or puzzle pieces to string together commands to create a script.   It was developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Project at MIT.

You may have to click on the flag to start the script. But it should start by itself.






 Happy Halloween!