Final Reflection on SHSU course Digital Technology for the School Librarian

 

 

 

Infographics

 

 

            Infographics is a method of conveying information in a concise and eye-catching way. In various incarnations, infographics can be traced as far back as the beginning of book illustrations. One such example is the illustration of “sunspots in Rosa Ursina sive Sol, an illustrated astronomical text published by Christoph Scheiner in 1626.” (Evers, 2015) Another example of infographics from the 1600’s was Galileo Galilei’s Sidereus Nuncius, published in 1610. Galilei’s work used infographics to share information about Earth’s moon, the moons of Saturn, and various constellations. Thus, it can be argued that the use of infographics is 400 years old. Some have argued that infographics goes back as far as prehistoric cave paintings or Egyptian hieroglyphs, but I prefer to limit our historical identification of the usage of infographics to the post-Gutenberg press era, from the 1400’s onward.

The term infographic comes from combining the terms “information” and “graphic.” While infographics were being created and used for centuries prior to the 1960’s, the first known use of the specific term “infographic” dates to 1962. (Curtis, 2021). Since then, infographics has become a common part of our modern vernacular associated with the internet and the world wide web. Infographics has become a major part of education and society today.

There are many services available for creating infographics. Three services that provide infographic templates are Easel.ly, Piktochart, and Infogr.am. All three of these services offer multiple levels of membership, including free membership. All three of them offer a variety of templates, and the templates are searchable by subject and type. For this assignment I chose a template that would be easy to use for a blog post. My selection decision was also determined by the Pew Research article that I chose, “The skills Americans say kids need to succeed in life.” I ended up choosing a template that used a pie chart to illustrate the information.

I used a bar graph template available at piktochart.com to create the following infographic for the information in the Pew Research article, “The skills Americans say kids need to succeed in life.” The article can be found at the website, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2015/02/19/skills-for-success/.

            The three services, Easel.ly, Piktochart, and Infogr.am, have differences and similarities. All three offer free versions, and all three offer higher level services for a fee. All three can be shared through social media, email, and via blogs. All three allow you to upload .png and .jpg images. All three offer built-in libraries from which images can be accessed for use in creating infographics. All three offer the ability to copy, paste, drag, and drop images in the infographic, with varying degrees of ease.

            There are some important differences between the three services. The premium pricing for the three service differs. Infogr.am is the most expensive of the three at $228/year; the other two are less expensive at between $36 - $40 per year. These premium features make sharing easier and offer more maps and graphs. Regarding graphs, Infogr.am offers more standard type graphs than the other two services. For instance, only Infogr.am offers the option to use a dot plot as an alternative to a bar graph. One advantage that Piktochart offers that the other two don’t, is the ability to import data from Surveymonkey.com. One advantage that Easel.ly offers that the other two don’t, is the ability to easily change the width of the infographic.

I prefer the Piktochart.com infographic service because it has very easy to use cut, paste, drag, and drop features. The price of upgrading to a subscription service with Piktochart.com is reasonable. I don’t do a lot of math-specific projects, so the graphs that Piktochart.com offers is sufficient for me. (Math teachers may prefer Infogr.am for the greater selection of graphs.) Finally, I like the ability that Piktochart.com offers to import data directly from Surveymonkey.com surveys. This option seems like something that teachers could use with students to create original surveys and explore possibilities in data collection and analysis. Teachers could have their students create surveys relevant to the subject or topic being explored in class. Students would create their surveys on Surveymonkey.com. At the end of the survey process, students would transfer the data from the survey to an infographic that they create on Piktochart.com. The entire process combines the creation and dissemination of a curriculum-related survey with the end result of a student-created infographic.  

 

References

Create infographics, reports and maps. Infogram. (n.d.). https://infogram.com/  

Curtis, J. (2021). Infographic (and infograph). Caught in the Web of Words. https://etymology.kenliss.com/blog/infographic-and-infograph/ 

Easelly. create and share visual ideas using infographics. (n.d.). https://easel.ly/dashboard  

Evers, J. (2015). Conserving a classic book on Sunspots. The Huntington. https://huntington.org/verso/conserving-classic-book-sunspots

Galilei, G. (1610). Sidereus Nuncius.

Goo, S. K. (2020). The skills Americans say kids need to succeed in life. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2015/02/19/skills-for-success/

Infographic canvas tool comparison guide. SLI. (2018). http://science-infographics.org/telling-a-visual-story/infographic-canvas-tool-comparison-guide/  

Infographic maker trusted by 11 million users. Piktochart. (n.d.). https://piktochart.com/

New World Encyclopedia. (n.d.). Information graphics. Information Graphics. https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Information_graphics

Piktochart. EDCT 5011. (n.d.). http://edct5011summer2015.weebly.com/piktochart.html  

Schein, C. (1626). Rosa Ursina sive Sol.