The first artifact that
I chose to share from this class was my “Day in the Life of 4MB” infographic. I
chose to include this artifact because it related to the topic that I found to
be one of the most impactful during this class. During Module 5 we learned
about infographics, graphic design, and typography. This module provided some
information that was the most significant that I read in the class. It was in
this module when reading the article/infographic, “The Power of Visual
Communication” that I read the fact that people remember 10% of what they hear,
20% of what they read, and 80% of what they see and do. This statistic was very
striking to me. As an educator, I feel like how can I ignore this kind of
information? It made me really think about how I can modify some of my teaching
to improve student learning using this information. I am really excited about
finding new ways to use images and infographics in my classroom to improve my
students learning. Additionally, I noticed how my own interest and engagement
improved while looking at these documents. I can understand why I may see
similar engagement in my students using this type of multimedia.
Although I really enjoyed this topic and felt very
inspired to make some changes, I can’t say that this project was without challenges.
I think that one thing that is so important about infographics is the way that
they provide lots of information in a way that is appealing and not
overwhelming. I think because often they try to look simplistic to engage the
reader, they seem simple to make. However, as I created two different graphic design/infographic
projects for this class, I learned that it is more challenging to look
simplistic than one may anticipate. One way in which this is true is the many
decisions to be made in regards to the aesthetics of the project. The font,
color, and images used in the design are very important. Through the different
resources presented in Module 5, I learned how important these elements are and
how they can affect the way the reader perceives the information. For that
reason, it is far more challenging to choose 2 appropriately contrasting fonts,
than just picking one that looks nice. Similarly, there are design elements in
play when choosing a color scheme, including number of colors used and the
contrast desired. The design elements chosen are a very deliberate decision
that requires some trial and error and planning. Additionally, my biggest
challenge was how to incorporate enough information while not seeming to
overwhelm the overall project. The project I was creating required a lot of
information. I don’t think that this is necessarily a negative. Many
infographics provide significant information. However, it is the way that they
present this information in an aesthetically pleasing way that helps the reader
to understand it. I feel that I struggled with including the necessary
information, while still using white space, and not overcrowding the page.
I ended up creating two versions of this artifact for
class. The first version of this artifact provides more detailed sentences
explaining the daily routines in my classroom. This version was created as a
tool to help my maternity sub become more familiar with the routines of the
classroom. She had requested this information, and I felt that this was a great
opportunity to create a fun document to share our classroom routines.
Additionally, in the past I have created an entire substitute binder. This
binder held an enormous amount of information explaining routines and
expectations for our classroom. There were several different resources in this
binder. However, time and time again it would appear that the substitute did
not read through the material provided. I hope that a shorter two page
infographic would be a great resource for any substitute who is working in my
classroom, rather than the binder. Additionally, I created a second version of
this document that has just bullet points of the different elements of our day.
I think that this version could be a great visual to share with parents or
administrators at the beginning of the year to help them get a better
understand of our daily schedule.
Overall, I feel that this artifact works to show my
growth through this course. I think this shows that I have learned the
importance of using graphics and visual elements to support the understanding
of a topic. I think that this artifact was a great initial infographic that
allowed me to experiment with typography, color, and graphics to become
familiar with the various resources available. I look forward to apply the
skills I learned while creating this artifact to creating additional resources
to improve my students’ learning next year. I would also love to share this
information about infographics with my students, and allow them the opportunity
to create infographics to show their understanding and mastery of a given
topic. I feel that there are so many opportunities available in regards to this
multimedia tool and I cannot way to continue to explore them.
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