Digital Flyers (Blog Post 3)
Attention Social Studies Teachers!
There’s a great new tech tool that your students will love – the digital flyer. Not only is this a resource for you as a teacher, but it is also something that students will enjoy creating in and outside of the classroom. Sometimes these are described as infographics, but I prefer the term ‘digital flyer’ because it sounds less intimidating and is more obvious about what it is you are creating. You can see some great examples at The Adventures of Library Girl – and she describes how to create a digital flyer. You can use products as simple as Microsoft Word, but there are many great tools online – Library Girl mentions ComicLife and Canva, and I recently created an infographic for using Easelly. I created a very simple digital flyer (below) using Canva, and you can see that spending a few minutes to create something colorful and eye catching is lot more engaging than reading this block of text.
Using digital flyers is fun for students because they get to engage with the curriculum standards in creative ways, and get to use digital technology to do so (I would use an app rather than Microsoft Word for that reason – I think teens will be unimpressed by the use of Microsoft Word). We know that children and teens are drawn to graphic novels and comic books (check out Publisher’s Weekly article here), and this allows them to use technology to create their own form. This tool lends itself to students that are creative and/or artistic, and for students that don’t excel in those areas (like me!), it gives them a chance to practice those skills while engaging with the standards.
In regard to education, “policy makers’ attention has been directed toward using research to connect technology with educational professional practices” (Smith, 2010, p. 620). Not only can using a tool like digital flyers align your classroom assessments with educational professional practices, but it can help students to use creativity and digital tools to learn to succeed in professional environments as adults. We are in an increasingly digital world, and a professional world that prizes creativity and flexibility more than the ability to generate assigned work quickly and without question. Check out this Forbes article that discusses what is needed to succeed in 2020 and the four types of work. As educators, our ultimate goal is to help students become successful in their adult professional and personal life, and the digital flyer can be a fun and easy way to integrate digital content and creativity into your classrooms.
References
Smith, D. (2010). Making the case for the leadership role of school librarians in technology integration. Library High Tech, 28(4). Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/07378831011096277
Hi Libby,
ReplyDeleteI love the digital flyer idea. Since I am currently teaching enrichment classes for third through fourth grade gifted and talented students, I often incorporate math and ELA skills into science and social studies units. While I have had students create Google Slides presentations and even brochures as part of the units, I feel that having students create digital flyers to showcase their learning would be met with enthusiasm as many of my students love to use technology. Since my students all have their own Chromebooks, students could easily create digital flyers to engage with curriculum standards in multiple areas. Thank you for sharing this creative and easy to implement technology idea. I look forward to having my students create digital flyers as part of future units.
Best,
Shanon Ashley
Hi Shanon! Great to hear from you, as always. I think the digital flyers are a great idea for students because they are really easy to use. The one I created above was free and took about 3 minutes to throw together - really just as an example. But think about how much easier and more fun it is to look at than reading my big blocks of text!
DeleteLibby,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great blog post. As an English Language Arts teacher I love this idea of the digital flyer. The digital flyer could be used in any classroom from elementary to single subjects in higher grade levels. My wonder if is these posters could be printed. I guess it would depend on the app and something I'd have to play with. Displaying student work is really important to me because students take so much pride with seeing their work on the walls. Though not that I'm thinking about it, students could always post their final work to our Google Classroom.
Thanks for linking the Forbes article. It was a great additional read.
Sincerely,
Rachelle Swearingen
Dear Libby,
DeleteI was curious as well about printing the Canva flyers. According to their website, "Canva Print now makes it easier for you to print your flyers and brochures for a minimum order of 25 pieces. Bulk orders start at 50 up to 2,500 pieces." I'd have to dig deeper to learn of the cost, though.
Michelle Grabiec
Rachelle and Michelle, you make a great point about printing the flyers - that would be a huge benefit. One thing I'll point out is that after I created my infographic, I had to download it to my computer in order to add it to this post - since I was able to download it, I think that it probably wouldn't be that hard to figure out a way to print it! I think printing is a fun idea and add a lot of color and interest to your classrooms!
DeleteDear Libby,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing your very professional blog post. Your enthusiasm for using digital flyers as a learning tool in the classroom was evident. While in the SLIS program I have kept a list of useful resources I have come across and have added Canva to it, thanks to you. One of my sons recently ran for student council (and won!) and I could see how creating promotional flyers this way would be great. Thanks again for sharing!
Michelle Grabiec
Michelle - I *love* your point about student council elections! I had not considered something like that, but I think that would be an amazing way to use infographics - or also for something like spirit week, drumming up interest in band concerts, etc. Those are all opportunities for students to create fun infographics in something they are actually interested in but is an easy way to create a professional looking result.
DeleteI love the idea of a digital flyer. I have created infographics for my own classes, but I'm not sure why it never occurred to me to actually have the kids create one. This is a great way that students can show what they know! I will definitely check out Canva and ComicLife. Thanks for your post!
ReplyDeleteI know - I feel like there are so many things we use for ourselves but don't think about using with the students. Infographics are a great option because they really are so easy to use and create and students that are really creative sometimes don't always shine academically. Something like this helps students that are creative or really visual to excel in a different format.
Delete