Canvasing the world with Canva

     I kept telling myself (and others) that my next post would be about mindfulness and how it fits in with students using technology, but truth be told, I've been spending a lot of time working on a website I'm building to help alleviate some of the burden from teachers of teaching their new students the iPad. Earlier in the 2014-2015 school year, I asked some of our faculty how they felt about student use of the iPad and some of the challenges they experienced. Many said the duality of teaching the device and content. So... I got to thinking, what if we front load the basics of the iPad during orientation and then use the iPad-specific orientation for hands-on exploration of common apps like Notability, Haiku Learning, Google Apps, and Apple apps? Well, that's what we're going to try. I'll let you know how it goes.

    But why am I telling you this, you ask? Because in an effort to make my Weebly site look pretty and engaging, I'm creating a lot of graphics/infographics/signage with the program Canva. It's a web-based (and Google/Facebook single sign on capable) program and app that allows the user to create these amazing looking graphics using drag and drop features. One of our Research Librarians introduced it to me awhile ago and honestly, it took me some time to get used to it, but it reminds me of Publisher, only with amazing templates, graphics, and totally customizable right down to the ability to use customizable dimensions. I really like the way you can export/download your creation into a JPEG or PDF file. Canva also saves your work automatically and stores your finished pieces on the site. You can share your projects, making them public or not; there are various options to choose from: Instagram post, FB Headers, Blog Poster, inforgraphic, etc. And best of all? IT'S FREE (some graphics and templates do cost $$, but hey, the majority is free)!

    If you've seen some of the "About Me" pictures on my site, you've seen some of the products you can do! You can upload your own photos, drawings, etc and spruce them up.
   Check out some of the things I've been doing with it here (albeit it can be time consuming and tedious, but you'll get the knack for it in no time!).
Example: 9 Elements of Digital Citizenship graphic (Elements created by Mike Ribble)
Info from: Nine Elements. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Nine_Elements.html

 

Graphics explaining our expectations and responsibilities when it comes to using an iPad at school.

Flyer I made for our Exploration Studio Stewardship, to be displayed on our rotating slide displaying in the Center for Teaching and Learning.

 

The possibilities are endless. Our Ed Tech Specialist created buttons for Next Page on her Haiku class with Canva! I made my mother's day card with it and am planning on making my wedding invitations using it too! 

*Special shout out to Jolina Clement (@jkclement) for an awesome session on using Canva, piktochart, and more! Brand your class, brand yourself.