Final Vision Project: Where, oh where, will my info go?

Wow, this is scary!!! I have been researching infographics for three weeks, and I don’t know if I can do one!!! I am going to do my best to produce one, but I may be going “creative-low-tech”...stay tuned!! 

I feel a little bit like I am drowning in information overload, but so much of it is relevant information, I’m just realizing that I may not be equipped to construct an infographic like the ones that I get so excited about.  I naively thought that I could Google “How to create an infographic for free”, and magically, I would find a site that would supply me with a stunning template, that also miraculously had graphics that COMPLETELY synced with my topic of Top Digital Literacy Resources (don’t worry, a more delightful, attention-grabbing, and epically appropriate title will be chosen...well now, that’s kind of putting pressure on myself...), where I would just have to input my information, and Voila!! My masterpiece would be ready for the adoring masses....sooooo....it turns out that life doesn’t really work like that, as such, I am going to lead with my struggles and challenges, before I start talking about my triumphs (few that they are, or seem to be).

Struggles & Challenges:

There is no end to the amount of information about infographics, I even found a multitude of infographics ON infographics, but filtering through all of the data, trying to find something useful is very time consuming, and so far, is leaving me empty handed.  I have logged many hours attempting to learn how I can create a really impactful infographic filled with mind boggling “data viz” (Amy Balliett, Smashing Magazine, 2011), but I still haven’t found a site that will allow me to create an infographic.

I have been to sites like visual.ly, piktochart, infogr.am, and easel.ly, that claim to be free, but you can basically register to look at samples, but if you want an exciting looking infographic, you have to pay.  The site visual.ly actually charges $1000 for one of their graphic designers to create an infographic for you, based on data you send them, and with your intended theme, but there is nowhere on the site that actually allows you to create one of your own.  The other sites have either one template with a variety of coloring schemes to choose from, or a few different themes, but if you want any of the templates that might actually fit with the project you have in mind, you have to pay and upgrade to “Pro” to have access to ALL of the fabulous templates.

I also looked for tutorials, and was discouraged when these “easy” tutorials were actually a study in foreign languages for me; I felt like I needed a Technology to English translator to follow along because there was a plethora of terms that were so unique to the technological lexicon, that I was completely lost.  Alternatively, there were other tutorials with simple language, but VERY complex steps to take, and they are clearly meant for people who have had some experience with graphic design, such as the tutorial for Adobe Illustrator found here: http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/tutorials/adobe-illustrator/create-cool-infographics/ .  I think I would need more than a couple of hours to figure this out, or a couple of weeks.  I think I could do this if I had nothing else going on in my life, and I could dedicate a serious chunk of time to just this.

A friend of mine suggested I look to see if there was an app on my phone, as there seems to be an app for almost everything else, and all that I was able to find were two apps to create infographics, one tutorial app, and a really interesting app that will give me an “Infographic of the Day” (which I will have to keep, of course).  Of the two apps that allow you to create your own infographic, one is actually a data gathering app called “InFoto Free” that creates infographics based on the data of your favorite time of day to take pictures, your favorite day of the week, your busiest month of the year, etc. It is a fairly entertaining, and informative app, but not something that I can use as a tool for my Future Vision Project.  The other creating app, iVi Touch Lite, has minimal graphics available, doesn’t have a large area to create the infographic, and even if I paid the $1.03 to pay for the upgrade, it is still quite limited in it what it offers.  I may come back to it if I can’t find anything else though.  The tutorial app, Udemy, has 10 videos that total up to an hour, but doesn’t provide a tutorial about how to actually create an infographic.  The videos don’t tell me anything that I haven’t already found out in the last few weeks of researching.     

Triumphs:

            One thing I’m not struggling with is finding information about my topic!  I am excited to put together a useful tool that will allow teachers (who are not yet Digital Natives) to have a quick guide to some of the best Digital Literacy tools that will assist them in raising the bar in their teaching pedagogy in relation to technology in the classroom.  I am pleased that I have developed a new found confidence in my lack of technology skills, in that I know I am not the only one, and from my research, I have discovered that although there is a huge push to have students become digitally literate, teachers who are not digitally literate are not being addressed.  Or they are not to being addressed to such a degree that I was inundated with information about them, which makes me believe that my focus for my Future Vision Project is relevant.  I have also given some amount of thought and consideration on creating a series of Digital Literacy infographics, where each one would be focusing on one member of the school community: administrators, students, parents, and educators...but I think that I will stick with one for now, see how that goes, and maybe revisit this lofty idea at another time.  Although my triumphs seem minimal in comparison to my struggles/challenges, I am really proud of how much I have learned so far about infographics, so even if I do FAIL, I know that I am going to keep trying until I am able to create an infographic that really engages my intended audience, educates them, and inspires them to share it with others.

References:

 http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/10/14/the-dos-and-donts-of-infographic-design/