Tech Tac Toe Web 2.0 Tools #2: Infographic

For my second Web 2.0 tool, I chose to make an infographic. I have seen a lot of infographics online over the past several years and I have almost uniformly really liked them. They’re a sleek and attention-grabbing way to transmit information, and I thought it could be useful for my unit on the birth of the Soviet Union. Compared to making an interactive image through ThingLink (see last blog post), however, making an infographic was much more difficult.

I used Piktochart which, like ThingLink, has both free and pay options. The free service was user-friendly and easy to navigate, but my problems making an infographic had nothing to do with the quality of their service. When making an infographic, you must choose exactly what information to use in a limited space, and with a topic as big as the Russian Civil War, it is difficult to decide what information is most important and what can be left out. This process of deciding what information to use made Piktochart easily the most time consuming Web 2.0 tool that I’ve used. Also, the infographics that I see all over the internet are so well made and professional looking, so I didn’t want mine to look subpar compared to those. Working out exactly what information is most important is a valuable skill, and I would definitely be interested in having students make their own infographics down the line.

For my own infographic, I attempted to lay out the origins of the civil war, what actually happened during the conflict, and the aftermath, including a breakdown of Marxism-Leninism which was instituted after the Communist victory. I think I was fairly successful in conveying this information in a concise and easy to follow manner. Ultimately though, the information in an infographic is not an end in and of itself. It is simply a primer that gives people a starting point for learning more on that particular subject. I could use this infographic on the Russian Civil War at the beginning of a unit on the topic in order to give students a basic framework to use as we go more in depth in the days following.