Visme: Online creation tool

I have been working with Visme.co, an online free suite of tools to help you "visualize your ideas". Once you create an account, you have the option to create a presentation, a banner ad, an infographic, start with a blank canvas, and (soon) create a product demo. 

Dashboard of Visme

With the Visme Free account, you can create up to three projects, which are branded with the Visme logo, and have a full set of features to use in your design; there are images, icons, and banners included, you can upload your own images, animate the elements in your project, and publish the finished project online or download it as a JPEG. There are two upgrade options that allow more projects, more storage space, more elements to use in the projects and other useful options. You can find out more about Visme Standard and Visme Complete here. Some new features that are coming soon are a Microsoft PowerPoint import into the presentation project as well as a number of new templates.

I chose to create an infographic, since I have been learning and teaching about them for the past few years. I have used some of the other online infographic-making sites, but I like Visme since there are other types of visual products to create in addition to the infographic. The interfaces are all similar, so it makes it easy to move from type to type for any project I want to create.

I admit that I am an infographic purist. With all of my reading on the topic, I have come to follow the ideas put forth by Eric K. Meyer in his 1977 book Designing Infographics. Meyer states a good infographic should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. He likens the visual elements in an infographic to those in a new story’s headlines and lead.

In addition, he goes on to state that most readers skim both text and images rather than reading them, so a well-crafted visual image at the top of the infographic may just be the hook the viewer needs to stop and take the time to read and look at the information in the infographic. He talks about the way people read an infographic as an inverted pyramid style with the main point at the top and secondary point and supporting details down the page. Meyer also suggests any text in the title of the graphic should communicate facts rather than just label the information. Following is a sample that follows his guidelines.

Sample of inverted pyramid style of infographic

I view lots of infographics and many are just "infographic-like posters" with no weight to the visual information to help the reader understand what the creator thinks is the most important. However, with Visme, I could easily edit the themes to reflect the ideas from Eric Meyer that I wanted to utilize.

The first thing you see in the infographics area of Visme are the themes to pick from to create your infographic. They are colorful and include traditional infographic elements like icons, graphs, and other visual elements that are easy to add, edit, color, resize, and rotate.

Theme choices for an infographic

I chose a template I knew I could easily work with to showcase the data I was presenting which was the overview data from the Pew Internet Research report (March 2013) on what devices students used to access the Internet.

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Template default

I first came up with a catch phrase for in the top banner and a text title that was meaningful, but also left the viewer wanting more information. I played around with animating some of the elements, but decided, since I wanted to share this infographic in print form, I would not use this option. Animations would probably be better suited for banner ads, presentations, and product demos. 
 

 Beginning the infographic

I took a look at the the Web icons that were included in Visme, and then decided to resize one of them to make it the focal point of the infographic. This area included the primary information from the Pew Report.

Focal point of infographic

I liked the graphics that were at the top of the original template and wanted to use them. One great feature was I could CNTRL-CLICK on each part of the graphics and highlight the entire section and then use the arrow keys to move it down the template to the area where I wanted to use the graphic elements.

It is also very easy to add drop-shadows, layer your objects, and take advantage of many other editing features in Visme.

Secondary details of infographic

The Visme projects include a chart maker that allows you to import data, pick a visualization, and add it to your infographic. I did not use the graph engine for this project since I already had the compiled data, but here is what it looks like.

I decided to use one of the other infograph widgets to call out the percentages on each line of the secondary data on the infographic.

And, at the bottom of the infographic I was able to insert my own image to personalize the project, include a text overview of the project, as well as the URL to the full Pew Internet Research report.

Here is the completed infographic project. You can view it online at the Visme site at http://my.visme.co/projects/5eb122

Give Visme a try, whether for an infographic, a presentation, or a custom project and share the URLs of your projects with me!

"Whacking" the Web with Keep Everything

Way back in 1996, a small company, Forefront, contacted me and traded their new software, WebWhacker 1.0, for a small click-thorough to their site on my Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators page. It was the neatest piece of software. It allowed the me to download a Web page or series of Web pages to the computer desktop and the text and images were able to be accessed locally! 

To put things in perspective, this software was for Windows 3.1 and Mac OS 7.x with a beta version for Win 95. Those were the days when many of us were still writing HTML by hand to post our pages. It was nice to be able to download someone else's site to my computer to showcase it a workshop, since there was often not an network connection in workshop rooms. I would bring the "WebWhacked" sites on a diskette since, of course, we were all working on desktops.

Nowadays, the ability to save Web page text and images to the the desktop is built right into the Web browsers. In Firefox, simply pick FILE-SAVE PAGE. In Chrome, pick SAVE PAGE AS - WEBPAGE, COMPLETE. In Safari,it is FILE - SAVE AS - WEB ARCHIVE. Don't forget to copy the original page's URL for your citation!

However, the Web now has more types of information available than just Web pages that we want to archive or read locally when there is no Internet available. As students collect assets for a project, they are interested in Web pages, tweets, and videos. If students can download their assets to read and view when they do not have access to the Net, they can work on their projects anywhere. In addition, if educators require students to hand in their downloaded assets with their papers or projects, it can also be a deterrent to student plagiarism.

Keep Everything

There is a new software app for Mac computers and iPads created by groosoft that is called Keep Everything. It allows the user to locally archive Web pages, Tweets, videos, and more to the local computer or iPad. Users can simply drag the URL or Tweet to the Keep Eveything window and the archived pages are saved both locally and to a Dropbox folder and can be synced between all the user's Apple devices. Through Keep Everything, you can also get back to the original source page through a link icon. Another useful feature of Keep Everything is the choice available when downloading an article. The user can have the entire page archived or just simpler-looking page that includes the text of the article.

 


The app is available for both the Mac and the iPad. Here is a introduction to how it works.



I also made a short video on the Mac of how I saved a tweet with Keep Everything.


Personalize content for an audience

Technology allows educators to easily personalize content for a specific audience, whether it be colleagues, students, parents, or the community. By simply changing the context of a piece of work, it can be meaningful to a different audience. Consider a how-to tutorial for students. Most likely, you are teaching them face-to-face, and the how-to is available to students for reference during and after the fact. However, if you are disseminating that same information to parents, you will have to include a video or written explanation of the “teacher talk” you used while working with the students.

Much of the literature about personalizing content for a specific audience comes from the marketing world. For example, here is a sample audience analysis for a new product that is created before the marketing campaign begins. In an article about communication and mobile devices on Rob De Lorenzo’s blog, The Mobile Learner,  he sums it up nicely when he writes:

“Know Your Audience: This is an indispensable job skill today. Communicating ideas that are relevant to the target audience is not a new concept – businesses and the marketing industry have done this for generations. The difference today is that being able to access anyone and everyone on the globe through communication technologies now means that we must all now frame our communication to an audience. In order to communicate to our target audience, we must know something about them and that is where mobile devices come in. One can use online tools such as Google Forms to poll one’s audience or use Twitter to engage in conversation with them. The better one knows an audience, the better one can frame communication for them.”

The Common Core State Standards include, in the ELA Anchor Standards in Writing, a standard stating a student needs learn how to produce “clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.” In an Edutopia blog post by Rebecca Alber, she provides some ideas, by grade level, for writing projects to target specific audiences. For instance, one for seventh and eighth graders includes having them brainstorm things they would like to do to improve their school and then writing persuasive letters to the administration with their ideas.

Another type of persuasive project that can help students learn to create media for a specific audience is the public service announcement. When planning for a PSA, students should first outline these elements for their production:

• An overview of the target audience
• A single main point
• The specific action to be taken by the viewer
• How to grab the viewer’s attention
• What visual and audio elements to use
• And how to keep the PSA short (under one minute in length)

Here is a public service announcement that is an oldie but a goodie. It is meant to educate the audience to the risks of listening to loud music via headphones: Hearing Loss and Headphones. Another organization well-known for its persuasive works is the AD Council. Their content dates back to the War Bonds campaign of the early 1940’s. Here is a current PSA trying to convince viewers to consider teaching as a career: Teach- Think You Know. If you decide you want to try using public service announcements as a student assessment, an educator has compiled is a list of some PSA ideas for public service announcements you can use as a starting point and I have an page in support of an older presentation that might be useful, too.

I have been creating a little different type of personalized content lately. For two of my recent speaking engagements, the AAIM (AR) Conference and the TIE (SD) Conference, I created short videos as part of a digital storytelling presentation that might be used to introduce a state history unit.

Using the Audience Analysis idea from above, here is an outline of my thoughts:

1. Analysis: the target audience is PreK-12 educators with an interest in technology

2. Understanding: the audience is knowledgeable about the history of their state

3. Demographics: the audience is college-educated, education majors

4. Interest: the audience wants to learn more about technology in support of teaching and learning

5. Environment: the video will be shown as part of a digital storytelling presentation

6. Needs: the audience needs to learn the process of creating a multimedia product to introduce a unit

7. Customization: information to be covered in the presentation are the use of Creative Commons and the use of movie-editing software to create a video from still images

8. Expectations: the audience will learn how to find, utilize, and cite images they can use, how to put them into video-editing software, and add a soundtrack to be used to introduce a unit

My main goal was to showcase how, with the use of Creative Commons-licensed images and a song that I had permission to use, I could create a short video about a state. Creative Commons licensing allows creators of content to give explicit instructions on how their content may be used without you having to ask permission to use. The creator of content, in this instance, photographs, can apply up to four components to their permission to use their item.

• Attribution
• Commercial/non-commercial use
• Modification
• Share alike

Creative Commons-licensed images are what I am usually searching for. Both the advanced search page of Google Images and Flickr have ways to limit your search results to CC-licensed images and also those that meet your need for use (commercial vs. non-commercial, editing, etc.)

Here are links to the two personalized state videos I created.

Welcome to Arkansas

Welcome to South Dakota

Celebrations and events

It always amazes me to me to see the list of celebrations that are available for every day of the year.

For example, on this date, April 1, you can celebrate, learn about, or teach about these events!

National Sourdough Bread Day
Fun at Work Day
Reading is Funny Day
Batman Day
April Fools’ Day
International Tatting Day
Anniversary of the first smelling TV screen
Anniversary of the founding of Apple Computer
Anniversary of the first Canadian lighthouse lighting

And, as you can see from this sample homeschooling page about incorporating a celebration across the curriculum, you can creatively embed any celebration or event and still ensure you are working on those content standards!

In April, you can also celebrate these monthly observances (found on http://www.emotionscards.com/locations.html). Think of the all the curriculum tie-ins across the content areas!

National Poetry Month, Guitar Month, Humor Month, Autism Awareness Month, Animal Cruelty Prevention Month, Autism Awareness Month, Books to Brighten Young Minds Months, Community Spirit Month, Confederate History Month, International Customer Loyalty Month, International Guitar Month, International Legacy Month, Keep America Beautiful Month, Lawn and Garden Month, Mathematics Education Month, National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Month, National Humor Month, National Pet First Aid Awareness Month, National Poetry Month, National Self-Publishing Month, National Smile Month, National Youth Sports Safety Month, Occupational Therapy Month, Pets Are Wonderful Month, School Library Month, Spring Break Month, Straw Hat Month, World Habitat Awareness Month

There are any number of sites that include this type of information. Make sure to check out the lists before turning students loose on these sites. One never knows what type of “interesting” holiday might be included!

• Days of the Year bills itself as a site with funny days, weird holidays, and celebrations. A few of these for each day of the year are included.
• Teacher Vision includes calendars for the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Try using another country’s calendar and looking at the linked activities.
• Emotions Greeting Cards includes daily and monthly calendars and observances on their site. I love this one!
• The NOBLE Library Network (MA) includes  more traditional holidays and celebrations and Web links to support each one.
• FactMonster includes a calendar of important yearly events from 1900 to the present.Great for history buffs!
• Enchanted Learning includes an activity calendar for each month of the year. Here is the April 2014 entry.
• Education World has a page of holidays and celebrations with educational resources links for each one.
• Holiday Smart includes holiday, events, and celebrations from around the world. Also includes a US list of links to state events.
• Yahoo has an extensive directory of holidays and observances, too.
• History Orb includes historical events that happened on each day through recorded. Here is their April 1 entry.
• Infoplease has both a year-by-year (1900-present) overview of headlines, award winners, and more, as well as a holidays features page.
• Need some bulletin board ideas? Check out these Flickr , Pinterest or Google Image searches on the topic “holiday bulletin boards”

One unique celebration we have in the schools is the “100th day of school”. Although this is not celebrated in April, I wanted to leave you with some resources for this special day/

• Celebrate the 100th day in 100 ways
• Pinterest search: 100th day of school
• Celebrate the 100th day of school
• 100th day of school math activities
• 100th day of school/math
• Time Magazine top 100 issues

Red is the new black!

Black technology cases don't show the dirt, but I love red cases for my technology! I was recently forwarded two new red tech cases for review and love both of them!

The Snugg Red Leather Macbook Pro 13" Wallet Case

I like to carry my laptops in wallet cases-- I don't need extreme padding since, when I travel, the laptops are always in a padded section of a computer case or backpack. The Snugg Red Leather MacbookPro 13" Wallet Case has a magnetic flap which makes it easy to open and close and avoids that noisy velcro sound! The back of the case, as you can see above, contains a full-width pocket for papers, file folders, or that new issue of MacLife or MacWorld! (This case is also available for the MacbookAir 13" and MacbookPro 15". And, maybe if we ask politely, Snugg will create the case for the MacbookAir 11", too!)

Snugg has put some other thoughtful touches into this MBP 13" Wallet Case, too. Under the flap, you have a place to store business cards (or flash drives) as well as a cut-out in the case that allows you to charge your computer while it is in the case. And you can see the inside is lined with a soft material that keeps your Macbook scratch-free!

Note the cut-out on the left that allows you to charge your computer while in the case!

Now, if you are not a lover of red cases, the Snugg Leather MacbookAir and MacbookPro  Wallet Cases are also available in black, brown, candy pink, orange, gray, baby blue, electric blue, hot pink and white leather, too! You can order the item from Snugg's site or on Amazon. The price at this writing is $35.99 on either site. 

This case provides protection for your computer as well as being slim and stylish! (And I still like the red color the best!)


Case Logic Griffith Park Backpack

Case Logic makes a lot of backpacks for all different purposes, but I was drawn to the Griffith Park Backpack in red. This backpack also comes in black and gray.

I am very particular about my backpacks. I only carry an 11" or 13" laptop when I travel, but I also have an iPad Air, my Google Glass and its case, and, of course, the chargers, cords, and dongles that are needed for presentations.

The Griffith Park backpack has two main zippered sections. The back section has a padded pocket for the laptop and an additional pocket for a full-size iPad (or any 10.1" tablet). This section also has room for files, newspapers, or magazines.

The second zippered section has a large pocket with two sections and another full-width pocket with a zippered, mesh pocket on the front of it with a key fob. This section has about a 2.5" width bottom. This is where I will carry my cable case, my Google Glass, or a light jacket for the plane.

There are also other interesting pockets on the Griffith Park backpack. There is a felt-line zippered pocket at the top of the backback which is perfect protection for reading glasses, sunglasses, a point-and-shoot digital camera, or your phone. 

There is an open pocket on the front of the backpack with a quick-release clip where you can put those items you have to get to quickly like snacks, your boarding pass, or your paperback book. There are also two side pockets that can be used for storage and these are also designed to hold a water bottle.

The most interesting pocket is one that is on the very bottom of the backpack. It is decent-sized, but not too deep. I might use this one for my toiletry quart-sized bag or even my small pocketbook, since it is easy to get to. You could also store cables or unbreakable items in this bottom pocket, too. I bet I can even pack my airplane pillow in it if I squish it down enough!

Specs
Size:  12" x 10" x 17.3"
Fits laptops up to : 9.8"x 1.1"x 14.3" 


I like the fact the backpack is not wide and will fit nicely under a plane seat and, of course, I will stand out in a crowd with the cool red color! The Griffith Park backpack is available from the Case Logic site for $79.99) and from Amazon.


Neon image courtesy of http://linkus.flamingtext.com

Web-ulous tools

I have gotten so caught up in all the wonderful mobile learning apps, I have been neglecting the new crop of Web tools. Here are some of my current favorites. (Some of these also have apps that can be used with them, too, but for this post, I will be concentrating on the Web-based version of the tool.)

Google Docs Story Builder (http://docsstorybuilder.appspot.com)

Google Docs Story Builder is brilliant! Users simply log-in to the site, chose their characters and type a dialog between/among the characters. It is a great way for students to collaborate and conduct a question and answer session, an online interview, or a debate. Users can put music behind the story and the entire thing is recorded and can be played back in real-time!  You cannot download the finished product, but, if you need to capture it, you can use Screen-cast-o-matic, SnagIt, or Seencastify or any of the screencasting apps here.)

It is much easier to understand how it works by watching a Google Docs Story. Deb has created a Google Story about Google Docs Story Builder!

• Deb’s Google Docs Story
• Google Docs Story Builder Tutorial
• Tell Me a Story: Why You Should Heart Docs Story Builder

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Magisto (http://magisto.com)

Magisto is an online movie creation tool that is similar to Animoto. However, the no-cost version allows students to create clips up to 15 minutes in length.. Students log-in with a Google, Facebook, or email address. The movies live on the Magisto site unless students pay to subscribe, in which case they get unlimited download privileges. There is a Chrome plug-in as well as both an iOS and Android app, too.

Magisto analyzes the uploaded videos and images and picks various components and puts it all together in an engaging video based on the theme the student selects. This would not be the tool to use if students need to have items appear in a certain order, but it does create a compelling visual story!

Here is a cute overview of Magisto created by the company.

• Magisto Educational Prezi Presentation
• Ways to use Magisto in Your Classoom

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Pixiclip (http://pixiclip.com)

Pixiclip is an online interactive whiteboard that allows students or teachers to record their voice and/or video, import images and mark them up, or simply draw or type on the blank screen.  Each item added to the board can be moved or deleted easily. The entire clip is recorded and hosted on the Pixiclip site with the option to embed anywhere.

Larry Ferlazzo has a sample project (below) he created as an exemplar of what he might expect his English Language Learners to create. The students were studying the theme of “home”.

• Inside the Classroom…Outside the Box!
• PixiClip: A Tool for Demonstrating Learning

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Thinglink (http://thinglink.com)

Thinglink is a tool that allows students and teachers to upload an image and then add “hotspots” to make the image interactive. The images can be uploaded from the computer or imported from the Web, Flickr, or Facebook. The hotspot links can lead to almost every site imaginable– from commerce sites like Ebay and Etsy, to video sites such as YouTube and Vimeo, social sites like Twitter, audio sites such as Spotify,  and other useful sites like Google Maps and Slideshare. Thinglink has been gracious enough to provide a no-cost ThinglinkEDU account teachers can sign up for.

The completed Thinglink presentations are hosted on their site, and other users can add comments, share, and edit (if permitted) and remix the presentations. Below is a sample of an old photo in which I tagged the people and added some Oktoberfest music from Soundcloud. (This was taken at the Rock Oak Lodge, in Sparta, NJ, sometime in the 1970’s or early 80’s.)

Made with

LEARN MORE

Teachers and students are doing amazing things with Thinglink, and here are some links.

• Ways to Use Thinglink in Your Classroom
• Thinglink Tutorial
• 27 Ways to Use Thinglink in the Classroom
• 75 Ways to Use Thinglink in the Classroom

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Narrable (http://narrable.com)

Narrable is an easy-to-use, digital online digital storytelling tool. Students upload photos from their computer or Facebook account, resize them, change their order, and then record audio for each image. The audio can be added via phone, uploaded audio files, or recording with the microphone.

The completed narrables are hosted on the Narrable site and may be viewed by those that have the unique link. In addition, the narrable can be shared via FB, Twitter, Pinterest, email, or embedded or not even shared at all.

If a narrable is upgraded to a group narrable (for a fee), users can invite anyone via email to add a narration to a single photo without seeing the entire narrable.