Page 23 - Journal 2018B FINAL

There are many free versions of platform agnostic software that can be used for the construction of infographics and visual organisers. I trialled a range before the task with the aid of my 9-year old in testing his proficiency.
The only limitations found with the free software was the ability to save files to a desired file type and the limited access to premade graphics. Students were quite happy to create or find royalty free versions of icons and were able to work with the image types available.
One of the unanticipated outcomes of the use of infographics was the extent of peer learning that occurred during the task and the hidden skillsets of students within the group. One student had real ability in photoshop, using these skills to build icons and images from the ground up. Others had used some of the software platform or could recommend others from their experience in year 8-10 or often primary school. I could honestly say that every student in the classes developed their digital literacy in some way during the task.
Whether it was the effective construction of an appropriate graph to represent data or the choice of layout and colour schemes and design that made the final product visually pleasing and drew the audience to critical information.
Example infographics can be downloaded from the Journal page on the SASTA website.
I settled on the following 3 as free, simple and effective:
• https://venngage.com/
• https://piktochart.com/
• https://www.canva.com/en_au/
Number 02 / 2018
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