GFCMSULinks

Six easy steps in a nice infographic for changing up your instruction.

"Define your purpose You must have a clear objective as to why you are going to create this infographic. Do you want your sales team to know the factors that affect customer loyalty? Or is it the latest trends in the stock market that you want to educate them about? Keep one solid idea per infographic to avoid confusing yourself and your audience. Identify your audience Knowing your audience from the very beginning will help you decide what level of information to put on your infographic. Are they top executives or management trainees? What is the level of background knowledge that they have about the topic? These are some of the questions that you must ask and seek clear answers to. Work on your key message This step requires you to further refine your purpose to reflect the main message that you want to convey. What is the one thing that you'd want your learners to take away from this infographic? Now you might be thinking of all the textual information you'd wish they would read; but the catch is- instead of making them read and re-read those text heavy pages without any real understanding, isn't it better to give them one key message that they will retain and apply? Present your data/findings It is a good idea to support your message with relevant data like stats and figures. This will give your learners a holistic idea about the topic. While presenting these data/findings, you can use colorful icons or graphical figures to make them appealing to the eye and easily digestible to the mind. Create your infographic Now that you're ready to go, just set about creating the infographic. It is good to use colours, but avoid using too many different colors- it will lead to a cluttered look. Instead, opt for a theme and follow it throughout your infographic from top to bottom. The text should also be legible (use readable fonts and colors, not fancy ones!)"

Screen reader for Chrome

While searching for gamification, I found this article on how Foursquare calculates its "points". It was interesting to me, so I decided to share it, then fall into a slashdot hole.

I think I need to instate "Allow second chances" for my classes this semester.

Article on Open Textbook accessibility and how to  best use the information and help students be successful using it.

Great tools for teachers. Simple table at this site but worth the  look.

Great site for web 2.0 tools. Links to other resources and annotated Bib.