Infographics – what are they and how can we use them?

Introduction

The word is itself a contraction of “Information graphics” and describes a visual representation of data, information or knowledge. Wikipedia has a comprehensive article on Infographics.

Using infographics

Infographics are a great way of sharing information in a visual way that makes it easier for most people to understand than a written text. For example NCVER have produced a range of infographics about the VET Sector including this one:

This infographic from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research   www.ncver.edu.au

 

Students and courses

We can use infographics with students in a variety of ways some that I have used in the past include asking students to: explain in writing or orally parts of an infographic; compare two infographics with similar topics; find and critique infographics relating to their own interests; research information/find data and produce an illustrative infographic. For me infographics are a good way of integrating numeracy and literacy.

There are lots of online tools that you and your students can use to create infographics these include: “easelly”,  “infogram”, “Piktochart” and “visually”. Most of these need you to sign up to use them and they have both free and paid versions. However you don’t have to use one of the online tools, it is possible to make excellent infographics  using Powerpoint. Using Powerpoint makes it easy to incorporate graphs/charts created with Excel.

The two infographics below were made in easel.ly and Powerpoint for some PD I delivered a while ago.

Infographics

Participants all preferred the one on the right created using Powerpoint. They found it more engaging because of the graphics used and the greater use of colour. I also found the Powerpoint one much easier to create, this was partly because I am very familiar with Powerpoint. However I also found that consistently selecting and moving shapes to the right places more difficult with the other application.