Revealing Data Graphically When You're Not an Artist
Today’s tip comes from Molly Baker, Ph.D., Director of the Instructional Technology Department at Sauk Valley Community College.
"Infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present complex information quickly and clearly. They can improve cognition by utilizing graphics to enhance the human visual system’s ability to see patterns and trends. The process of creating infographics can be referred to as data visualization, information design, or information architecture." (Wikipedia,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infographic)
Have you had the opportunity to see some wonderful infographics, perhaps in the slides provided to you by your textbook publishers, in your disciplinary publications or even popular publications? You may have also heard about the value of using the “assertion-evidence” method for creating effective slides to accompany your presentations, which depends on using relevant infographics. Wouldn't it be great if you could create infographics yourself for your classes? “Yes,” you say, “but I am not an artist or particularly talented at thinking of visualizations.” Fortunately, there are a number of amazing, free Web 2.0 tools on the Internet
these days to help us out!
1. Many of them have templates that you can type in or import your data so that visual
infographics are created for you! (and can then be linked to from your PowerPoint slides or
downloaded for importing into slides or your Learning Management System (LMS) or ...)
2. Others provide creation tools and templates that make it relatively easy to select and build
your own, without much visual talent or experience. And if you have more ideas than you know what to do with, these tools can save you time by providing efficient tools for creating them, as well. Take a look at the sites below for some great tools and ideas!
• https://www.seomoz.org/blog/10-tools-for-creating-infographics-visualizations
• https://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/page/Visualization_Options.html
• https://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html
Submitted by:
Molly Baker, Ph.D.
Director, Instructional Technology Department
Sauk Valley Community College
Julie Damerell
Transitional Studies
03/25/2014 |