Tools and Resources for Remarkable Explanations Sometimes, words are not enough. To grab an audience’s attention and make an explanation remarkable, explainers need ways to stand-out, to be interesting. Thankfully there are a growing number of resources that can help explainers turn their ideas into experiences that captivate audiences. I've listed a few below. (Note: I am not affiliated with the services below and receive no compensation from them). While you're thinking about these resources, consider this... Dan Roam is known for a series of books that focus on the use of simple drawings to understand and solve problems. Nancy Duarte and her company, Duarte Design, is known around the world for designing amazing and effective presentations. Design is one of Duarte’s core skills and the company recently created a new "visualization system" that gives anyone the ability to browse, purchase and download awesome looking graphs and diagrams for US$0.99 a piece. You may have seen an Xtranormal animation.
9 Data Visualization Tools for Librarians and Educators Data visualization and infographics tools are a great way to keep students and readers engaged. Here are ten free applications which will enable you to create your own infographics, maps, graphs, charts, and diagrams: Creately The free version of Creately enables users to design and store 5 diagrams which can include Venn diagrams, UI & Web mockups, Flowcharts, Organizational charts, UML diagrams, Mind maps, Network plans, SWOT analysis, Value stream maps, TQM diagrams and more. Stat Planet Used by the UN, NASA, and many Fortune 500 companies, Stat Planet will let you create customizable, interactive maps or graphs with data you import. Gunn Map 2 Gunn Map 2 is a completely online application which also lets you create customizable maps with your own data. Many Eyes Gliffy Wordle - Create beautiful and fully customizable word clouds with this free tool. Instantly create a word cloud for your blog or website by entering the RSS feed!
CoSketch.com - Online Whiteboard Collaboration Great Infographic Making Tools for Teachers 1- Visual.ly This is my favorite tool. It helps you easily create awesome infographics using pre-designed templates. It also lets you create an infographic out of any Twitter Hashtag provided you are signed in which you can do using your Twitter account. 2-Easel.ly This is another great web tool to create infographics. 3-PiktoChart I love PiktoChart and I have used it a couple of times and found it really great. 4- Infogr.am Infogr.am is an easy to use online service that lets you create, share, and discover infographics and online charts.It is also very easy to use, you can select a pre-designed template, add charts, videos and maps and within a few clicks your template is ready to go viral. Other infographic creation tools you might want to try :
bubbl.us | brainstorm and mind map online How to Get Started With Infographics Media and publishing professionals know that infographics are hugely popular, and are more likely to be shared via social media than a standard blog post or article. By combining images with data, infographics get much more mileage than text or graphics alone. You can use them for news, presentations, or press releases on your company blog or website to attract publicity and show off your expertise. Companies without a graphic designer on board or on budget couldn't easily take advantage of infographics in the past. Choose Your Graphics and Data Wisely Every business holds expertise in something, and that specialized knowledge can make for an interesting piece. You'll want to plan out your infographic much like you would plan out a website, using wireframes or another method to map out exactly what it's going to look like and how the information will be presented. Data from Google Looking for ideas about the types of data you want to detail in an infographic? Templates and Icons
Tagxedo - Word Cloud with Styles 40+ Tools to Create Infographics with Your Students Here is a comprehensive list of some very good tools for making infographics. The list features more than 40 applications so you have a wide variety of options to choose from.While some of these tools are pretty basic and you can use them without any complications, others do require some advanced tech knowledge and design know-how. As a teacher and educator, my favourite infographic making tools are Google Draw and Pictochart. Also bear in mind that most of these tools require a sign-up and some of them are fremium: they have, besides the basic free version, a pro version that offers more advanced features. Cool Infographics - Blog Eight Free tools for Teachers to Make Awesome Infographics 1- Easel.ly This is a great tool that allows users to create visually rich infographics from pre-designed themes. It is very easy to use and only drag and drop. It actually supports Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. 2- Stat Planet This one here allows users to create amazing visualisations and share them with others. It can be used either within your browser or download the software for free. 3- Hohli This is an awesome chart maker. 4- Creately This is also a great tool in creating diagrams and flow charts. 5- Many Eyes This is one of the easiest of them all. 6- Wordle This is a text based visualisation tool. 7- Tableau This works just on Windows. 8- Inkspace This is also a free infographic creation tool.
Beautiful Word Clouds textorizer Textorizer allows you to make pictures formed with text. It is best described by the sample images below. Although there are many versions around, the only one that is continuing to supported is this one. Excoffizer takes a picture and produces a vector rendition of the picture, made of parallel lines of varying thickness. It is inspired by Roger Excoffon's pictograms for the 1968 Grenoble Winter Olympics. The previous version of Textorizer came as a downloadable application. Right now, textorizer/excoffizer works in Firefox, Chrome and Opera. Some browsers will however struggle with larger output images. Choose a mode examples Here are a few pictures produced with textorizer/excoffizer (click to see the text) There is even a Textorized Group on Flickr, with many more examples. Documentation Click on textorizer, textorizer2 or excoffizer Select a picture on your computer Play with the controls or enter new text, and press preview Source & Licensing The source can be browsed on github. Support
Quote Makers, Engage! - TechNotes Blog - TCEA Leaders, looking for an easy app to use to spice up important quotes that you include in your staff missives, parent newsletters, or student projects? How about a simple way to highlight key ideas in assigned student text? Typorama may fit the bill for iOS device users! Quote Makers, Create! I love collecting quotes, often snapping a photo of my favorite quotes at Buc-ee’s while I’m traveling or jotting them down in my handy notepad. The best part of being out on the road is encountering truisms, as well as listening to K-12 and adult learners share their stories. Just last month, I spent some time in Edinburg facilitating Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) professional learning. Don’t you think this is more engaging than words on a slide? Scan this image with Aurasma to listen to the audio introduction from Dr. Quote Makers, Adhere to Copyright! Note: Don’t have an iOS device? Not satisfied with the pictures that come with Typorama? Learning Connections a work of art. Quote Makers, Share!
The Top 20 Data Visualization Tools By Brian Suda Originally published: Aug 14, 2013 Article originally published at .net Magazine on September 17, 2012. One of the most common questions I get asked is how to get started with data visualizations. Entry-level tools At the entry level, we'll be looking at unexpected uses for familiar tools. 1. It isn't graphically flexible, but Excel is a good way to explore data: for example, by creating 'heat maps' like this one You can actually do some pretty complex things with Excel, from 'heat maps' of cells to scatter plots. Excel comes as part of the commercial Microsoft Office suite, so if you don't have access to it, Google's spreadsheets – part of Google Docs and Google Drive – can do many of the same things. CSV (Comma-Separated Values) and JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) aren't actual visualization tools, but they are common formats for data. Online visualizations 3. 4. Flot is a great library for line graphs and bar charts. 5. 7. Interactive GUI controls 8. 9. Mapping 10. 11. 12.