Skip to main content

Using Canva for Student Creation

Over the last year, I have seen some posts by Bill Ferriter, on using Canva as a tool for creating nice presentations and posters using Creative Commons Licensed photos from Flickr. The Canva site is free (there is also an iPad app), and is a great way to let students demonstrate what they know in creative ways, one of the goals of Digital Age Learning. By using the Creative Commons licensed photos on Flickr, you are getting pretty high quality, and most are licensed for use with attribution. Of course, if the student can use their own picture, that is the prefered option!

Here are a couple I came up with:



Recently there has been great turmoil in Yemen, and one of the leadership groups there is called Houthi. Reminded me a bit of Darius Rucker!


I created this next one during a meeting, sitting next to Doug Johnson. He had just commented on the importance of Visual Literacy, and how sometimes visuals are created that mean very little. I've tweaked it over the last few weeks, finally settling on this image that I took a month ago.

Canva has templates for posters as well as presentations, and is a quick and easy way for students to express themselves. I know that Bill has used it with his 6th graders, and has found it to be pretty intuitive and easy to use with them.

Students should know that there is free content on the site, but that some premium features do cost money. Another reason to try to use your own images if you can!

Give it a try, and let me know what you come up with!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Nos Chemins vers la paix: Award Winning Video!

Valley View Middle School French Imersion teacher, Heather Palmer created this award winning video, Nos Chemins vers la paix , for the Tel.A.Vision " Vision For America " Contest. Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com Powered by One True Media , Tel.A.Vision.tv allows students to create videos that share their vision for the future. Heather wanted to use this video to promote the Wiki she and her students created for "6 Billion Paths to Peace." On the wiki, Palmer states: Our project was inspired by the program " Six Billion Paths to Peace ", an initiative of the Shinnyo-en foundation. We like the challenge the program offers us: commit to making a difference in this moment, in this day, in this lifetime! Palmer received her award last week at the National Service Learning Conference, in Nashville, TN. Way to go, Heather! NOTE: A few weeks ago while looking at the copyright free music available on the site, I notice a cover of the "Spinal

TIES 2012: Kathryn Smith: Innovative Spaces Support 21st Century Learning

Kathryn Smith , former Bemidji State professor, presented on Innovative Spaces Support 21st Century Learning. Her presentation slides can be found here . Today, learning can happen anywhere, anytime, and on any device.  She started by using PollEverywhere to ask about the status of mobile technologies and school learning environments. She thinks that the TPACK model is a good one to use when implementing professional development around 21st Century learning. We are using this model in our BYOD professional development. Smith notes that the National Educational Technology Plan , is a great road map for change. Research has shown that the appropriate use of technology and the appropriate design of learning spaces is having a significant positive impact on learning. The learning spaces today are not that far removed from 19th Century classrooms. She showed this video from the University of Michigan on research on design of learning environment. Here are more videos fro