Image created using infogr.am |
This week I explored the broad concept of 21st century learning. In order to demonstrate my understanding, I created an assignment for myself along with a rubric that would assess how well I communicated my understanding in the form of an infographic.
Assignment
Checklist- Read at least 6 articles from instructor's RSS feed on 21st century learning:
http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-by-barbara-schroeder
- Perform query-based research on "21st century learning" topics to understand what is shaping its development.
- Using a graphic tool of your choice, create an infographic that effectively explains 21st century learning principles to an audience of educators, administrators, or other invested parties. The graphic should cover the what, why, and how of 21st century learning and use a combination of data, explanatory text, and images to create an easy-to-follow graphic.
- Reflect on the process on your blog. What went well, what did not? What are your thoughts on using an infographic to communicate your learning versus other methods, such as writing a paper or creating a slide presentation?
Rubric
Excellent
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Good
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Developing
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Ideas
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Demonstrates an excellent, well-documented understanding of 21st century learning as a concept and practice through text and media throughout infographic.
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Demonstrates a solid understanding of 21st century learning as a concept and practice through text and media throughout infographic. Some ideas/media may lack substance or create more confusion than clarity.
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Demonstrates an emerging understanding of 21st century learning as a concept and practice through text and media throughout infographic. Many ideas/media lack substance or create more confusion than clarity.
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Purpose
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Infographic uses a combination of data and explanatory text to communicate ideas effectively to the audience
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Infographic often uses a combination of data and explanatory text to communicate ideas effectively to the audience, but has some errors or loses sense of direction/audience
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Infographic fails to use a combination of data and explanatory text to communicate ideas effectively to the audience due to false or inconsistent information, lack of audience awareness, etc.
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Design+Layout
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Both are used effectively to clearly communicate ideas to audience. Smooth, clean, and easy to follow.
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D+L are often used effectively to communicate ideas to audience, but is confusing/messy in some areas.
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D+L creates confusion and obfuscates meaning
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Final Product: Infographic
screenshot from the infographic |
Link to image
(2.5 mb)Reflection
IntroductionUsing the infographic tool Infogr.am, I created a graphic that serves as a call-to-arms for educators to consider rethinking what it means to “learn” and “know” in the 21st century.
In the graphic, I explore topics such as:
- a rapid changing economy
- the shifting definition of “literacy”
- the increasing use of mobile devices over PCs for internet access
- the need for curricula that will develop critical, evaluative, and creative learners.
infogr.am as a tool
Using infogr.am was a bit of a disaster. The tool is clearly not designed for longer infographics and is a much more suitable tool for a short, concise set of information such as a single pie chart with one accompanying image. This is the case because about halfway through the project, the site started jumbling the order of my text and graphics each time the page was refreshed for any reason. The more I added to the project, the more jumbled the order became. After rearranging the graphic for the fourth time, I decided to use screen capture software to take shots of my graphic so I could piece it together in Photoshop.
Though I was able to save snapshots of my progress using a collection of other software, in total, the project took hours longer than it should due to either my misuse of the infogr.am software or errors on their end. I’m happy enough with the result, but will not be using their service again for creating an involved, lengthy graphic.
Comparison of infographic to other forms of synthesis
Compared to writing a paper, making an infographic forced me to think about the concept of multimodality in communication. Specifically, I thought about how everything from font choice, color, image choice, image placement, sentence “chunking” and more contributed to the over all message of my work. I was surprised by the amount of time it took to create the image compared to slideshow presentations I've made in the past, but I think the result is something that is effective and engaging in a very different way. The presentation is not static - one must scroll through for it to tell the story - but it is not mobile either, like a video presentation. It is somewhere in between, and I like that.
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