Education Standards
"Putting Environmental Infographics Center Stage: The Role of Visuals at the Elaboration Likelihood Model's Critical Point of Persuasion" by Allison Lazard and Lucy Atkinson.
"A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures" by New London Group.
A combined model of information inquiry
"Annotate Your Way into Academic Discourse" by Ellen C. Carillo (WAC Clearinghouse OER)
Bringing Heat (Purpose Statement)
Chart Maker - BEAM
Circle of Viewpoints
Common Visualization Errors
Comparison of Displays: Coca-Cola Sizes, Sugar and Calories (example using Google Sheets and Chart Maker)
Comparison of Displays: Sugar (example using Venngage BEAM Chart Maker)
Creating Data Literate Students
Documenting my inquiry (matrix)
Documenting My Inquiry (matrix)
Do Your Worst! (Zombie Fallacies activity)
"Elements of Information Inquiry, Evolution of Models & Measured Reflection" by Daniel Callison and Katie Baker.
Evaluate "Fit"
Flipgrid (Click on the first panel on the left to add your clip)
Flowcharts, Org charts | Drawing, Slides, Sheets | The Apps Show
Google Drawing
Google Sheets and Chart Maker
How to Teach Expository Text Structure to Facilitate Reading Comprehension
Imagining a Metaphor: Tracing the Food Chain From Farm to Table"
Information Search Process and Guided Inquiry Design Process
Inquiry Question Matrix (make a copy)
Literacy Rates Continue to Rise from One Generation to the Next (UNESCO Fact Sheet No. 45 September 2017 FS/2017/LIT/45)
Lucidchart
Nobel: No Degrees (Purpose Statement)
Nutrition: Sugar
Nutrition: Sugars (WHO)
Sales Fall Again in Mexicos Second Year of Taxing Soda (NY Times article)
Sugar and Sweeteners Yearbook Tables
Taxing Sugar Instead of Soda Prompts Healthier Food Purchases (Journalist's Resource)
Teaching Data Contexts: An Instructional Lens
Test Your Understanding of Infographic Structures (Multiple Choice Test)
The Truth About T-Rex (Purpose Statement)
Venngage BEAM Chart Maker
Visual Rough Draft of My Infographic
What a Fastball Looks Like (Purpose Statement)
What is Data Literacy (diagram)
What is the Difference between Data and Statistics?
Teaching Infographics as Multiliteracy Arguments
Overview
From "The Spectrum of Apple Flavors" to "We are all Zebras: How Rare Disease is Shaping the Future of Healthcare," we find colorful visual displays of information and data used to persuade, inform and delight their audience-readers. Most infographic assignments result in loose collections of related facts and numbers, essentially a collage or poster. Student create displays of unrelated factoids and spurious data correlations and they "ooh" and "ahhh" at beautiful nothings. However, the visual and textual elements of an infographic can culminate in a coherent multimodal argument which prompts inquiry in the creator and the audience.
In order to teach infographics as a claim expressed through visual metaphor, supported by reasoning with evidence in multiple modes, instructors employ a sequence of interventions to invoke the relevant skills and strategies at appropriate moments. Composing and critiquing infographics can enhance understanding of both the content and rhetoric, since people analyze, elaborate and critique information more deeply when visual and textal modes are combined (Lazard and Atkinson 2014).
This pedagogy of reading and writing multiple literacies can be adapted to other multimodal products. For an overview, refer to "Recipe for an Infographic" (Abilock and Williams 2014) which is also listed in the references for this module. We recommend that you experience this process yourself as you teach it to students.
Understanding Inquiry in an Infographic
This task explores how inquiry emerges from reading. First students read and annotate an article about inquiry research, then reflect on their own cognitive processes. Their annotations are most easily done on print copies of the text. Then students can copy and use the matrix provided to record and reflect on their evolving understanding of inquiry research.
In the article from Knowledge Quest, the journal of the American Association of School Librarians, the authors propose five common elements (reworded here as verbs) which interact during any information inquiry process:
- Questioning which becomes more "focused, relevant and insightful" during an inquiry process.
- Exploring resources and ideas driven by one's need to satisfy curiosity or answer questions.
- Assimilating and reconciling new and conflicting information and ideas with one's prior knowledge, beliefs and assumptions.
- Inferencing from information in order to build one's case with evidence for conclusions
- Self-reflecting to both enable flexible shifts during the inquiry process (formative) and to surface insights from one's choices and decisions that might apply to a future inquiry process (summative).
As you read the article "Elements of Information Inquiry, Evolution of Models & Measured Reflection," annotate the text (see note) when you notice that you are engaging in any of these core cognitive functions. Then explain what you were doing and why - either in the journaling space specified by your instructor or on a copy of the "Documenting My Inquiry" matrix provided.
Note: If you need a refresher on annotating a text, read "Annotate Your Way into Academic Discourse" by Ellen C. Carillo," a chapter from A Writer's Guide to Mindful Reading, one of the 80+ open-access books on writing across the curriculum from the WAC Clearinghouse at Colorado State University.
Comprehending an infographic involves orchestrating multiple literacies including visual, news media and information literacy, yet these are not always parsed or explicated in the classroom. By repeating this reading and annotation process with a visual, one notices that analogous reading and writing processes are used in service of comprehension.
Again, either provide journaling instructions or have students use the matrix to record and reflect on their own evolving understanding of inquiry reading and visual arguments.
From Apples to Zebras, we find colorful visual displays of information and data used to persuade, inform and delight their audience-readers. These infographics (information graphics) make a claim to an audience by arranging text and data in an interesting, economical and easily-navigable visual design that communicates ideas and reveals patterns in data.
For the creator and the audience, this can be lively and thoughtful process:
- When an author feels genuine curiosity about an idea or problem and creates an infographic to express that fresh understanding to oneself and an audience who has reason to care, then the writer-creater experiences an inquiry research process.
- When an audience arrives at a fresh understanding of a question or problem while "reading an infographic," then the reader-viewer experiences an inquiry learning process.
As you "read" and annotate the visual comparison of "Information Search Process and Guided Inquiry Design Process," notice when you engage in the inquiry processes you learned about in Callison and Baker (2014):
- Questioning which becomes more "focused, relevant and insightful" during an inquiry process.
- Exploring resources and ideas driven by one's need to satisfy curiosity or answer questions.
- Assimilating and reconciling new and conflicting information and ideas with one's prior knowledge, beliefs and assumptions.
- Inferencing from information in order to build one's case with evidence for conclusions
- Self-reflecting to both enable flexible shifts during the inquiry process (formative) and to surface insights from one's choices and decisions that might apply to a future inquiry process (summative).
Now use your journaling space or your matrix to explain when and how you noticed yourself engaging in these core inquiry processes.
Infographic visualizations are best learned incrementally. This step asks students to experiment communicating data and reflecting on visual communication and inquiry using one tool. By asking students to visualize data in various formats to determine what design best conveys the content, it targets the misconception that one creates an infographic by gathering interesting data bits into an attractive display rather than selectively visualizing data in order to build evidence for an argument.
Read through the UN Fact Sheet on global literacy and extract some statistics in order to make a single claim about literacy. Experiment with the best way (pie, bar or line graph) to visualize your data using BEAM's Chart Maker. When you're satisfied that the visualization best conveys your claim, share it with the class.
Notice and record in your journaling space or matrix what inquiry processes you used and why you selected one visualization over the others to present your selected data.
Shifting from Question to Reasoned Argument
Infographics are often used in social media communication as forms of advertising. A creator begins with a predetermined conclusion, then selects and shapes evidence in order to persuade a targeted audience of a claim.
However, if we are asking students to engage in inquiry, we want them to be open-minded during early exploration as they assimilate background information. An open mind welcomes alternative viewpoints and expects to reason through multiple sources of evidence to arrive at a reasoned argument or thesis.
Initially students briefly evaluate sources for relevance. Later they shift to selecting the most compelling logic and evidence. Their thinking evolves inductively until they arrive at a focus. In our inquiry model this "Formulation" stage, according to Carol Kuhlthau, is a critical zone for teaching intervention. For an overview of the Information Search Process see this OER module by Carol Gordon.
Students represent their understanding of this process using a graphical organizer called a flowchart which shows a sequence of steps and decisions.
Popular infographics are advertisements targeted to particular audiences. It is unlikely that the author-designer has experienced genuine curiosity or engaged in an inquiry process. Indeed authors tends to omit or distort evidence if it undermines their preconceived claim.
In contrast, inquiry research for an infographic begins with an open mind. The researcher-creator welcomes diverse and even conflicting information because s/he know that this early exploration and initial gathering of information is an inquiry process from which a valid claim will emerge.
Brainstorming guides early wonderings and wanderings. In the diagram of the combined models of the Information Search Process and Guided Inquiry Design Process, this exploratory stage is shown in green.
Once you have a better grasp of the topic, you'll want to "play your hunches" and shift your thinking toward a tentative focus. You'll continue to refine this into a working claim which will be refined until it can be stated in unambiguous language. In the diagram of the combined models of the Information Search Process and Guided Inquiry Design Process, the focus stage is shown in blue.
Eventually you'll arrive at a thesis statement that can guide both the design and content of your infographic. A thesis is a clear, logical and specific statement of the author's position. Unlike a science hypothesis which predicts a relationship that is tested through observation and experimentation, a thesis states what you intend to conclude about selected evidence.
Use Google Drawing (see note) or Lucidchart to represent the process of shifting from questions (green) to a claim (blue) as a sequence of steps.
Use a flowchart to graphically represent the sequence using shapes and lines.
Use an oval to start and end the process.
Use a rectangle for main steps in the process.
Use a diamond to show a decision point in the process.
Use arrows to show the direction of the process between shapes.
Note: How to use Google Drawing is explained in the video clip "Flowcharts, Org charts | Drawing, Slides, Sheets | The Apps Show."
Students brainstorm questions or wonders individually, then continue to reflect and refine their opinions and attitudes by explaining (central route processing) and evaluating (slow thinking) their ideas within a group.
The process is modeled with the topic sugar but you can substitute another topic using following types of sources:
An overview source that contains both data and facts
Two sources with conflicting arguments about one aspect of the topic.
Require individual brainstorming to encourage initial buy-in and to provide you with a basis for accountability. As students share and organize clusters together, they will notice that many versions of inquiry research can be imagined within the same topic.
You are going to learn about "sugar" from three sources: a World Health Organization overview article on sugar and two views of sugar taxation policies: a resource for journalists and a newspaper article on the effectiveness of Mexico's soda tax.
Individual brainstorming
Read these resources quickly to identify their scope and claim. Select something that interests you and reread the relevant section(s) of the sources more thoroughly. Brainstorm individually for 5 minutes silently, writing each wonder statement ("I wonder...") or question on separate physical or digital (e.g., Padlet) sticky notes.
Group sharing
Read your questions aloud to the group. Post your notes on a table, a wall or in a communal digital space so that everyone in your group (or class) has access to them. Discuss everyone’s ideas and work together to organize them into possible clusters.
The Circle of Viewpoints is a thinking routine that invites students to step into another's shoes, to recognize that their ideas and questions are both unique and shared. That paradox forms the basis for empathy, a powerful tool for understanding history, culture and society.
Using the skeleton script provided in this routine, students imagine and record several options for the Inquiry Matrix. After selecting one from their matrix, it becomes a plan for their infographic in which:
The student/creator takes the perspective of a particular stakeholder/reader
To communicate various credible, reasonable and even inspirational solutions
To an audience who is expected to wrestle with their options
It's time to claim a cluster and shape your inquiry. Review one or more clusters that intrigue you and select and rework your wonderings and questions until you feel like you have settled on one you care about.
It is likely that there are others who share your questions, who wonder about this problem:
Who is affected?
Who is involved?
Who might care?
By seeking relevance and putting yourself in other's shoes, you're likely to become more deeply engaged in this inquiry. Use the Circle of Viewpoints thinking routine to brainstorm who, besides yourself, would be interested in finding answers or solutions to these questions.
Now test several of your ideas in the Inquiry Matrix by filling in answers for several perspectives and audiences you've brainstormed:
You are both the creator of the infographic and a particular stakeholder with reason to care about the answers to these questions. Who will you be? What perspective will you take? Why do you care?
Your infographic communicates to an audience. Who is that audience and why do they care?
What options or possible solutions might be acceptable to you and to your audience? (Don't try to force-fit one solution - everyone needs a range of choices.)
Role-playing, in the form of a first-person monologue, builds embodied authenticity, helping your students empathize with how their intended audience might react.
As a rehearsal for the role you will adopt in the infographic, speak to your intended audience, outlining their choices and trade-offs. You may use these sentence starters:
I am a stakeholder because [your role]...
I have been thinking about [the question/problem]...
From your view [as the audience]...
I think that you might consider some options like...
And other solutions like...
But these choices have trade-offs such as...
My hunch is that [our better options] might be...
Of course, a question I have...
or revise them to develop your own monologue in Flipgrid.
A Thesis Statement for an Infographic
This task addresses the misconception that data and facts are neutral “truths” rather than selective, contextual evidence for a claim. See "How Do I Teach Students to Think of Numbers as Evidence Rather than Answers." One hones, deletes and narrows to select information that best “fits” the claim. The selection process initially mirrors the “editing out” process used in curriculum curation. However, it goes further, because one must synthesize evidence, make inferences and negotiate conflicting ideas to craft a reasoned argument that also "fits" the audience.
Scholarship is a conversation
The less one knows, the simpler a topic seems. When you started researching your topic, chances are that you assumed you'd be able to find the single answer from the best authority. You expected facts to be neutral information which could be used in only one way. However, the more you learned, the less you looked for a single right answer or authority. You begin to read around the evidence to see how it's being used by the author. No one expert has all the right answers. Rather, each authority brings a valuable perspective to the problem. General information, used previously for develop background and identify possible options to investigate, recedes in value as your focus becomes clearer. You are becoming an expert among experts, learning to enter the scholarly conversation about this issue.
An infographic reasons to an audience
Novices think that infographic are dolled-up digital posters - eye-candy displays of loosely related bits, directed to everyone - or no one. They usually let their own preferences determine which evidence to use - a personal story or a statistic, a photograph or a chart. However you have been thinking about your audience for some time and have probably realized that they may have different preferences about formats they learn from best and strongly held beliefs about what evidence is convincing.
What counts as strong evidence depends on your audience and claim
An infographic is an economical, condensed communication. You will carefully weigh each piece of evidence - a statistic, a quote, an image - for "best fit" with your audience and the claim you're advancing. There is no room for extraneous visual decorations, marginally relevant data, and catchy but vague captions in oddball fonts. As a stakeholder-author, you want to select what your audience will find credible and important. You hope to surprise them with new insights - a fresh understanding - of their options and opportunities. Use the handout "Evaluate the fit of your evidence to the claim" to assess the evidence you choose.
A thesis is a clear, logical and specific statement of what you intend to conclude about selected evidence. It serves as your roadmap for the infographic's design and content. A thesis is not a statement of opinion, summary of the facts or description of the paper’s purpose. Ask students to play with non-examples using Fletcher's "Zombie Fallacies." Then have them use a sentence stem to craft a working thesis statement. Once they've revised their working thesis statement, make a copy of this padlet to begin class posting and commenting.
A thesis is not a statement of opinion, summary of the facts or description of the paper’s purpose. To help you craft a statement that will provide a roadmap for creating an infographic as reasoned argument, you will do a series of revision activities.
First you're going do an activity called "Zombie Fallacies" to create the worst thesis statements with vague or extreme language and indefensible assertions that would be difficult to support. By "Doing Your Worst," you may gain insights on how to revise your own work claim/thesis and help others rework theirs.
Use "Do Your Worst!" handout to write examples of Zombie Fallacies on your topic.
Then fill in the sentence stem to restate your argument fully.
Revise your thesis to eliminate extreme language, vague generalizations and unsupported opinions
Post your revised thesis anonymously in Padlet (get URL from your instructor) so the class can discuss and provide feedback.
Finally return to the "Evaluate the Fit" handout from Step 1 and add or subtract evidence based on your revised thesis.
Data Literacy
Since this module uses a compressed simulation of inquiry research to teach the thinking process of creating a multimodal argument, data selection has been limited to the three sugar resources from Task 2. Of course you can use a curated set matched to your curriculum.
This task provides a brief introduction to data literacy evaluation. For a more in-depth understanding of data literacy, access these OER resources (webinars, scroll down for archive, and books) which were created as part of an IMLS grant to support teachers and librarians in combining data literacy skills with information literacy instruction. One webinar available for playback that directly relates to this topic is "Infographics: An Instructional Lens: Rationale and Framework for Teaching Infographics, Parts I & II.
"Every designer makes moral and intellectual choices
in the creation of an infographic."
(from Edward R. Tufte, Beautiful Evidence. Cheshire, Conn.: Graphics Press, 2006.)
Almost all infographics use numerical information. An infographic designer selects statistics and visualizes data to create what Tufte calls "beautiful evidence." Comparing, evaluating and interpreting data as evidence is an important part of inquiry research, so you'll need to learn some data literacy skills to become a thoughtful designer.
For a quick definition of data literacy, please refer to the diagram "What is Data Literacy." To clarify the difference, please read "What is the Difference between Data and Statistics?"
For more substantive background, consult chapters in Creating Data Literate Students, an OER ebook created to support teachers and librarians in adding data literacy skills to information literacy instruction.
Finding, Evaluating and Visualizing Data
Data, the raw input for statistical analysis and visualization, is growing exponentially. There is no single source of OER data sets but we've suggested to students how to locate the type of data that they need. For infographics, novices will be using either curated sets or "data in the wild," that is, statistics found embedded in everyday communication and publications.
Context questions ( e.g., Who collected the data? How was it collected? For what purpose?) can help students assess the quality of the data they find and how truthfully it reflects the "world" it represents.
Finally, after students experiment with different visualizations of the same data, they are asked to reflect in the journaling space on what they're discovering about data visualization.
“The numbers have no way of speaking for themselves. We speak for them. We imbue them with meaning.”
(from Nate Silver.The Signal and the Noise: Why so Many Predictions Fail--but Some Don't. Penguin Press, 2012.
Finding Data
Since data collection and dissemination is expensive and time consuming, it is often carried out by large entities like the United States, the United Nations, intergovernmental agencies and private non-governmental agencies with the budget and need for the information. Many OER data sets are in the public domain or licensed for free use, adaptation, and distribution.
To help students find OER datasets, many college and university libraries have LibGuide portals (e.g., University of Nevada, Northwestern). Tip: Search for specific subjects or topics with the phrase [data and statistics]. Peruse reference books and articles that describe free data sets around the globe.
Evaluating Data
While large data sets may, in fact, be truthful reflections of the real world, the purpose and method of gathering this data is always "touched" by people who are making choices. Be aware that all data sets are a slice of life – a certain time, a certain section, a certain group. And all visualizations of data communicate a perspective on those statistics. To think about various contexts and their impact, read "Teaching Data Contexts: An Instructional Lens."
Using Data
There are always choices in how to present the data visually. Before you begin using data in a visualization, view "Common Visualization Errors."
- Use a simple chart maker like BEAM or Google Sheets to experiment with visualizations of the same data from "Nutrition: Sugar." (See two examples called "Comparison of Displays" using BEAM and Google Sheets).
- Or, use a spreadsheet like Excel to download a data set from "Sugar and Sweeteners Yearbook Tables" and create a visualization with a subset of this data.
Share your visualization within the common class workspace and use the journaling space your instructor has provided to reflect on what you're discovering about visualizing statistics.
Storyboarding the Structure of your Infographic
Arguments contain one or more rhetorical structures. Identifying the structure or structures being used facilitates reading comprehension. For an infographic, plotting the rhetorical structure in a storyboard results in clear and effective communication.
Argument Structure
Literacy researchers identify recurring patterns that organize reading and writing. These expository text structures assist clear thinking and communicating:
- Compare-Contrast Evaluation - Similarities and differences, strengths and weaknesses
- Cause-Effect Analysis - Causal relationship between an specific event, idea, or concept and what follows from it
- Describe, Define - Detailed description, definition, parts, types
- Problem-Solution Structure - Problem or issue, explains the solution, then discusses the consequences
- Sequence Structure - Chronology, timeline, steps, order of importance, A-Z
Read "How to Teach Expository Text Structure to Facilitate Reading Comprehension" and then check your understanding of these structures using the multiple choice test "Test Your Understanding of Infographic Structures."
- Check your infographic thesis statement to see if it reflects the structure of your argument.
- Then make a visual plan* of the order of the images that reflects your rhetorical structure.
*A visual plan, called a storyboard, is used by creators to plot the order of elements for a video, photo shoot, multimedia news story, puppet show or other type of storytelling. You may use Google Drawing ("Structure of My Argument") or sticky notes on paper connected by lines, arrows, circles, etc. to storyboard the structure of your argument.
An Infographic Storyframe combines storyboarding and wireframing to plot the design of the argument both rhetorically and visually. The "Information Design Matrix" can help students practice relating the argument's structure to the visual design of their infographic (Abilock and Williams 52).
Visual Structure
An Infographic Storyframe uses a combination of storyboarding and wireframing to plan or sketch out the graphic design of the final visual argument. You have already used a storyboard to plot the order of the images. Now you will wireframe that order to display the metaphorical relationship among elements.
Examine the infographic,"Tracing the Food Chain From Farm to Table," which shows the order (a sequence) within the outlines of a cow (a visual metaphor). Practice brainstorming infographic metaphors for rhetorical arguments using the "Information Design Matrix" handout.
Ask Yourself: What visual metaphor could shape my argument in a way that would would enlighten and suprise my audience?
[An infographic is] “…the combination of creating a beautiful piece of design that attracts viewers --- with the ability to deliver some insights or knowledge along with it.”*
*Quote from Christopher Cannon. "Bloomberg Visual Data." Infographic Designers' Sketchbooks. By Steven Heller and Rick Landers. Princeton Architectural, 2014. 52.
Infographic Creation and Artist's Statement
A variety of digital options from Google or PowerPoint slide to infographic-specific tools (these are listed for the student) can be used to create the final product.
- If you hope students will develop a metaphor to contain the structure, hand drawn visuals are the best option.
- If students' infographic arguments contain more than one claim and a variety of rhetorical structures, the "Information Design Matrix" will help them think through the design.
An "Artist's Statement" is a potent and relevant way for students to self-assess their understanding of infographic inquiry and visualized auguments. Schedule a gallery walk for students to view the infographics and read the creator's purpose statement.
Summative assessments you can use to evaluate their infographics include:
Creat Your Infographic
If you use a digital infographic creator, some current options are listed below. Note that others emerge regularly and features change, so you should evaluate them yourself based on your needs:
PiktoChart (www.piktochart.com): Free tools with simple and advanced features and a variety of templates with more "canned" options that some others.
InfoGram (www.infogr.am): Simple no cost tool for designing both information and data visualizations with interactive content. Has the usual charts and visualizations you expect and also some less commonly used ones like Treemap, Bubble, Hierarchy. Big bonus: Pictorial
Easelly (www.easel.ly): Free tool for designing infographics from pre-designed templates. Easier learning curve than other infographic tools.
Venngage (www.venngage.com): A great infographic design that captures audience analytics.
Canva (https://www.canva.com) Has large number of templates and graphical elements but not pictorials.
Visually (www.visual.ly): A professional design marketplace with examples of infographics in all subjects.
Visible (iPhone/iPad) and Tableau Public (https://public.tableau.com): Free versions of powerful visualization software.
Google Drawing (https://docs.google.com/drawings): Instructions for using basic drawing techniques to draw infographics
Self-Assessment: Your Purpose Statement
One form of self-assessment is an artist's purpose statement. It is a public reflection that unpacks your thinking, clarifies your intentions, describes your process and acknowledges your inspirations. Examples are given below. Attach your purpose statement to your infographic.
Your instructor will determine any additional summative evaluation.