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/
Showing posts with label website. Show all posts
Showing posts with label website. Show all posts
Sunday, July 14, 2019
Sunday, June 9, 2019
Goodreads
I have been navigating and exploring the website Goodreads this week to determine it's usefulness in a school library and classroom setting. Goodreads is on online literary social media, centered around reading. The main functions are to connect readers to one another, through the option of following other accounts and groups people can join, and allowing user to keep lists of books for many different purposes.
Goodreads has several main areas of the website. The main screen, or home, is an update feed, where any updates for people you follow appear. It also had a progress section for any books you are reading, a yearly reading challenge ticker that shows your progress toward your goal, selected books from you "want to read" list, and your personal "bookshelves" which are lists of books you can create such as "read," "want to read," and even specific custom shelves like "epic fantasy."
The "My Books" tab allows you to access your bookshelves and allows for quite a bit of customization for the user. I use the "want to read" bookshelf the most because I am constantly adding to it. However I do like to use the shelves to keep track of different kinds of books I want to read, so if I am in the mood for something specific I can find it easily. Once you read books you can rate them and write a review. These can be helpful for other users to decide whether of not they want to read a book.
Another helpful part of Goodreads is the browse tab. Here you can find book lists, recommendations, giveaways, new releases, and more. I particularly like the book lists for finding books similar to something I have previously enjoyed, or finding a book that fits a certain genre and age group.
The last big part of Goodreads is the community area. There are a lot of things that fall under this category, such as groups, discussions, quotes, author questions, trivia, user profiles, and more. The groups are a wonderful place to find like-minded readers and fans of books.
One of the drawbacks to Goodreads is that users need to be at least 13 years old. Because of this, it rules out a good portion of the school aged population. However I think this could be a wonderful resource for teens and educators. Having a place for teens to keep track of the books they read and interact with others can be very encouraging, however I would hesitate to mandate the use of this resource as it is a type of social media, and it is not exclusive to teens and educators. I think educators especially can benefit from this website. Having access to all the curated lists (some made by teens and younger readers) can help them give good recommendations to students. The trivia could also be a fun activity to pepper into classes. Lastly, entering the giveaways is a free way to possibly get new books for you or your students.
In closing, I feel that Goodreads can be a beneficial resource to educators, and that older teens could benefit from utilizing it with proper guidance and caution.
Goodreads has several main areas of the website. The main screen, or home, is an update feed, where any updates for people you follow appear. It also had a progress section for any books you are reading, a yearly reading challenge ticker that shows your progress toward your goal, selected books from you "want to read" list, and your personal "bookshelves" which are lists of books you can create such as "read," "want to read," and even specific custom shelves like "epic fantasy."
The "My Books" tab allows you to access your bookshelves and allows for quite a bit of customization for the user. I use the "want to read" bookshelf the most because I am constantly adding to it. However I do like to use the shelves to keep track of different kinds of books I want to read, so if I am in the mood for something specific I can find it easily. Once you read books you can rate them and write a review. These can be helpful for other users to decide whether of not they want to read a book.
Another helpful part of Goodreads is the browse tab. Here you can find book lists, recommendations, giveaways, new releases, and more. I particularly like the book lists for finding books similar to something I have previously enjoyed, or finding a book that fits a certain genre and age group.
The last big part of Goodreads is the community area. There are a lot of things that fall under this category, such as groups, discussions, quotes, author questions, trivia, user profiles, and more. The groups are a wonderful place to find like-minded readers and fans of books.
One of the drawbacks to Goodreads is that users need to be at least 13 years old. Because of this, it rules out a good portion of the school aged population. However I think this could be a wonderful resource for teens and educators. Having a place for teens to keep track of the books they read and interact with others can be very encouraging, however I would hesitate to mandate the use of this resource as it is a type of social media, and it is not exclusive to teens and educators. I think educators especially can benefit from this website. Having access to all the curated lists (some made by teens and younger readers) can help them give good recommendations to students. The trivia could also be a fun activity to pepper into classes. Lastly, entering the giveaways is a free way to possibly get new books for you or your students.
In closing, I feel that Goodreads can be a beneficial resource to educators, and that older teens could benefit from utilizing it with proper guidance and caution.
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