Canva

Canva is an internet based design platform that offers both free and professional accounts to design almost anything you could think of. Canva was started in Sydney, Australia in 2012. Founder Melanie Perkins taught people how to use programs like Photoshop and InDesign in college, and discovered that they were complex and difficult to learn. She and cofounder Cliff Obrecht first launched Fusion books, a program aimed at yearbook creation. Knowing that more people could benefit from the technology, they partnered with former Googler Cameron Adams and created and launched Canva.

Canva is easy to use. I signed in with my google account and was working in a document within minutes. I would highly recommend watching the tutorial video as it was a great launching point and gave you the essential information to get working right away. I love that they have the option to start a project from scratch or browse templates to get a hand with your design. I can see this having unlimited potential in a school. Educators can make posters for events, lesson plans, yearbooks, invitations, planners, and more. The designs and templates are fresh and appealing without being too trendy. I can see a lot of options for things I would use. I have used Canva to make an infographic for a class before, and almost used it for this week's assignment, but I wanted to try out Venngage.

I would also use this site for students. I think it is easy enough for them to learn to use within one class period, and it would be a great tool to many different subjects. It would appeal to students who are more artistic and creative and allow them to apply learned skills in a tangible way. It would also be a useful thing for them to learn for personal design needs such as invitations, blogs, and social media posts.

I can't find a lot of downsides to Canva. It is a fairly basic program compared to the more complex applications like Photoshop, but since it is free an more accessible I don't consider this strictly a negative. However, for the student or educator who might be trained in that type of program they might find Canva to be too basic for their needs. Overall I highly recommend Canva and I plan to use it at the middle grade and high school level this coming school year.


References

Kievlan, P. M. (2019, July 14). Canva - Photo Editor & Design Review for Teachers. Retrieved July 14, 2019, from https://www.commonsense.org/education/app/canva

Our Story. (N.D.). Retrieved July 14, 2019, from https://about.canva.com/story/