Month: February 2025

Topic – Understanding proactive strategies to work with anxiety disorder

Focus student – Adult students in the Educational Assistant program.

Outcome– Identify a variety of strategies to support learners with physical, medical. Psychological, and behavioural needs and share a common resource.

Goal: The goal is for the students to work through an assigned proactive strategy in pairs and create an informational infographic from a template that can be used as a resource for their classroom.

Scope: Students will include the following: 

• A title that indicates the strategy they have been assigned
• a short description of the strategy
• List of materials needed for the strategy if appropriate
• The steps it takes to develop in a classroom. 
• All information should be presented in easy to read format such as bullet points for quick referencing
• Students should include images to enhance understanding on the infographic
• Students will have 1.5 hours to complete their informational infographic and when completed they will upload to the Blackboard class discussion board.

Boundaries/Timing/Submission: Students will be working in groups of two. They will be using Piktochart to create their informational infographic and they will share their informational infographic to a common discussion board on Blackboard when finished. The student will be provided with an hour and a half to create and then we will showcase them in class to discuss the proactive strategies available. Each group will need a computer, access to Blackboard for the base material, and a free account with Piktochart for this activity. 

Student links for the lesson:

Sign up for Piktochart 

Piktochart for beginners 

How to create informational infographic on Piktochart

Example of completed informational infographic

Platform: The program that I used to create my infographic was Picktochart. I found the program very easy to navigate and the templates provided were user friendly and had lots of options for customizing. 

Student Outcome: Communicate Ideas and Information – Use a combination of visual, print, and other media to effectively inform and engage the audience. I have chosen to use the same outcome. 

Design – The purpose of this infographic is to guide grade 7 students through the steps of successfully finding and embedding a sound clip into their audiobook presentations in Google Slides. To enhance clarity and engagement, I focused on using representational graphics as symbols by selecting realistic icons that align with students’ work. This approach supports independent learning by providing clear visual cues that reinforce understanding (Clark, 2009, p. 17).

In addition, I structured the information in a logical, step-by-step format, mirroring the sequence students need to follow to complete the task. This decision aligns with Clark’s concept that organizational visuals help represent the structure, process, and content of a lesson (2009, p. 19). By breaking the task into manageable steps and pairing each with a corresponding visual representation, the infographic reduces cognitive load and allows students to process information more efficiently.

What I determined while making this infographic is that the combination of realistic icons and an organized instructional flow makes the infographic an effective tool for independent self-directed learning as well as for students working in a classroom setting. Students can use it as a quick reference guide, reinforcing their understanding without relying on additional teacher support. This not only fosters independence but also helps accommodate different learning styles by integrating both visual and procedural elements.

Overall, this design approach enhances the infographic’s effectiveness by making the learning process more accessible, engaging, and intuitive for students.

Here are the samples of the two infographics I created for my lesson:

References

Clark, R. C. & Lyons, C. (2010). Three views of instructional visuals. In R. Taff (Ed.), Graphics for learning: Proven guidelines for planning, designing and evaluating visuals in training materials (2nd ed., pp. 15–28). Pfeiffer.

http://ezproxy.tru.ca/login?url=https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/trulibrary-ebooks/reader.action?docID=624441&ppg=37

Student Outcome: Communicate Ideas and Information – Use a combination of visual, print, and other media to effectively inform and engage the audience.

Student Activity: Develop a radio mystery show presented in a multimedia format that incorporates visual, audio, and interactive media elements.

Task: Students will create an image to represent a page in their book. The chosen image must align with the theme of their mystery story and adhere to licensing requirements.

Tool: Google Drawing

Process: For this process I wanted to keep with my mystery theme. I also wanted to attempt to build my own graphic from scratch as well as use a graphic from a licenced source and layer them together. 

This was the first graphic that I created. It is very basic but was simple to create in Google drawing with a call out bubble for dialogue. 

This was my second attempt where I inserted the background the  student found for their first assignment from free licencing https://morguefile.com/p/8794 . I also changed the mouth shape and the words to show fear. 

Text and Picture Comprehension – I combined text and picture comprehension to stimulate higher-order thinking (Schnotz, 2022). The use of a callout highlights key aspects of the image, drawing the reader’s attention to the background’s significance. By integrating visual elements with text, this approach enhances both reading and visual comprehension.

Context Influences the Use of Visuals – Clark and Lyons emphasize that visuals should be purposefully designed to support the learning environment and instructional goals rather than being added arbitrarily. In this case, the choice to minimize text and prioritize visuals and audio aligns with the nature of an interactive storybook, where immersion and engagement are key. Because the goal is to create a mystery-driven experience, the visuals and sound effects work together to evoke suspense, guiding the reader’s emotional and cognitive engagement. This reinforces the idea that graphics must be considered in relation to the broader instructional context, ensuring they complement rather than distract from the intended learning experience  (2010, p. 24).

References

Clark, R. C. & Lyons, C. (2010). Three views of instructional visuals. In R. Taff (Ed.), Graphics for learning: Proven guidelines for planning, designing and evaluating visuals in training materials (2nd ed., pp. 15–28). Pfeiffer.

http://ezproxy.tru.ca/login?url=https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/trulibrary-ebooks/reader.action?docID=624441&ppg=37

Schnotz, W. (2022). Integrated Model of Text and Picture Comprehension. In R.E. Mayer & L. Fiorella (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning (pp. 82-99). Cambridge University Press.

https://www-cambridge-org.ezproxy.tru.ca/core/books/cambridge-handbook-of-multimedia-learning/integrated-model-of-text-and-picture-comprehension/984E5EBEFF5D53F5DD8BDA62F6A60718

Student Outcome: Communicate Ideas and Information – Use a combination of visual, print, and other media to effectively inform and engage the audience.

Student Activity: Develop a radio mystery show presented in a multimedia format that incorporates visual, audio, and interactive media elements.

Task: Students will select an image to serve as the background for the front page of their slideshow, representing the “book cover” for their mystery novel. The chosen image must align with the theme of their mystery story and adhere to licensing requirements.

For example, I selected an image of a spooky house to align with the audio story provided to students, The Old Abandoned House. I used the image as-is for the title page without modifications. At first glance, this choice might appear to be purely decorative, added for aesthetic appeal (Clark & Lyons, 2010, p. 16). However, its purpose extends beyond aesthetics. The image is also representational, illustrating the mood and setting of the story (Clark & Lyons, 2010, p. 17). Additionally, the chosen visual supports the concept of visual rhetoric—at a glance, it communicates that the story’s purpose is to evoke a sense of fear and suspense (Purdue OWL, 2013, 1:42).

https://morguefile.com/p/8794 

The licencing agreement is as follows:

You are free:

• Remix – to adapt the work. 
• Commercial – to use this work for commercial purposes. 
• Accompany – the photos with other content. 

Under the following conditions:

• Stand alone basis – You can not sell, license, sublicense, rent, transfer or distribute this image exactly as it is without alteration,
  – OR –
  If you don’t alter the image and leave it exactly as it is, then you must credit the photographer to use it. ( Suggested credit byline: Photo by <photographer’s username> at Morguefile.com ) 

References

Clark, R. C. & Lyons, C. (2010). Three views of instructional visuals. In R. Taff (Ed.), Graphics for learning: Proven guidelines for planning, designing and evaluating visuals in training materials (2nd ed., pp. 15–28). Pfeiffer.

http://ezproxy.tru.ca/login?url=https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/trulibrary-ebooks/reader.action?docID=624441&ppg=37

Lynette. (2025). Old free stock picture. [Photograph]. https://morguefile.com/p/8794 

Purdue Owl. (2013). Visual Rhetoric.