RM Winter 2016 FLIP

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Reading Matters
Technology Matters
| 66| Reading Matters | Volume 16 • Winter 2016 |
Abstract —Teachers in grades K-12 can utilize infographics to
integrate content and literacy. In fact, with infographics, students
can create real-world digital projects and can share their learning
with authentic audiences. With the use of digital tools, students can
collaborate with peers within and beyond the classroom. Student-
friendly infographic sites include , Infogram, Piktochart, and
Smore. Infographics can be used as interactive presentation tools,
inclusive records of student thinking, and authentic assessments.
Ms. Billings (all names are pseudonyms) was fairly content
with her literacy instruction. In fact, any visitor to Ms. Billings’
classroom during her literacy block would note students deeply
engaged in a variety of tasks. Students might be reading in the
library corner, working on composing a reading response in their
journals, or even engaged in a book discussion about a previously
read text. While she felt certain that her students were learning
and their comprehension was deepening,
Ms. Billings wanted to provide her students
with additional opportunities to collaborate
with one another during this time as
well as a chance to utilize digital tools.
Since Ms. Billings wanted to integrate
technology, she analyzed the structure of her
book clubs and decided that the culminating
project would be a good place to begin. At
the time, students were preparing to begin
historical fiction book clubs. After they
had made their selections and been placed
in groups, Ms. Billings told the students
about their book club project. Instead of
the usual poster or oral presentation, the
students were going to create infographics.
They were going to be able to share their
infographics with parents, classmates, and
even students in other schools. With the
integration of technology, Ms. Billings’ book
clubs became even more robust and exciting.
Students continued to read and hold great
discussions and now they could also be seen
clustered around laptops, making decisions
about the layout, graphics, and links as
they worked on designing infographics
for their culminating products. DaShawn
and Hannah, students in Mrs. Billings’ class,
created their infographic on the historical
fiction novel, War Horse (see Figure 1).
DaShawn and Hannah were able to
compose a real-world digital product to
share their thinking and learning with a
multitude of interested parties. Additionally, the finished product
served as authentic evidence of their learning and Ms. Billings
was able to assess their understanding of the novel, War Horse.
The above vignette provides a sense of how“literacy practices
shape our world” (Wilber, 2012, p. 406). With new digital tools
becoming available on a regular basis, it is important to focus on
more than an exciting new tool (Wilber, 2012). In fact, teachers can
use digital tools to provide students with varied opportunities to
make their thinking visible and communicate with others (Yearta
& Stover, 2015). Students now have the opportunity to use digital
tools to create infographics and can share their thinking and
learning with wide, varied, authentic audiences. In this article, we
provide a brief literature review, discuss ways to use infographics in
the classroom, list popular student-friendly infographic sites, and
offer hints to help readers get started with infographics today.
Preparing Students
with New Tools
According to the International Literacy
Association, formerly the International
Reading Association, students need access to
and experience with the new literacies of 21st
century technologies (2009). Teachers are
certainly using technology in the classroom,
yet there continues to be much room for
growth in the area of technology and literacy
instruction (Karchmer-Klein, 2013). Students
should have multiple, varied opportunities
to engage in and become familiar with new
literacies. These new literacies are different
from traditional literacies in two significant
dimensions, in terms of technology and
ethos (Knobel & Lankshear, 2014).
Technology, the first dimension, refers
to tools such as Skype, GoogleDocs, Voki,
Mixed Ink, VoiceThread and apps such as
Educreations, Popplet, and Puppet Pals. It
is important to note that there is a constant
deluge of new technologies, and the sites and
apps that are used today may be outdated
tomorrow (Leu, Zawilinski, Forzani, & Timbrell,
2015). Therefore, the focus should not only be
on understanding the specific technologies,
but also on learning the skills and thinking
processes of new literacies (Leu et al., 2015).
The second dimension is ethos. Ethos is a
way of thinking about a topic, or the guiding
Infographics: More than Digitized Posters
Lindsay Yearta, Winthrop University
Dawn Mitchell, Spartanburg School District Six
Figure 1: Screenshot of DaShawn
and Hannah’s War HorseInfographic