tech tool thursday: free visual tools online workshop
DESCRIPTION
FTLC workshop on visual tools like infographics/easelly, jing and pixlr as well as colors and fonts and their relation to Universal Design for Learning.TRANSCRIPT
Tech Tool Thursday: Quick and free visual tools
Presented by Amy Harris, Michelle Folkman, & Beth Filar Williams
October 31 2013
POLL
What do you think of when you hear “visual” tools?
Please type thoughts in the chat box.
AGENDA
• UDL overview • Infographics (easel.ly) • Jing • Pixlr • Color & fonts & UDL • Questions
Universal Design for Learning is an instructional design philosophy with a
focus on accessibility for students with learning differences.
UDL has 3 main principles:
● Multiple means of representation
● Multiple means of expression
● Multiple means of engagement
UDL
● Provide information in a variety of formats
● Online tutorials give students the opportunity to replay as needed (but
please caption them!)
● Illustrations and graphical representations (like infographics) can better
illustrate concepts than text
Multiple Means of Representation
● Providing students with the option to work in a variety of media
● Focus on composition, not just writing
● Does the media or the message matter more?
Multiple Means of Engagement
Have you created an infographic?
A. Yes using photoshop or from “scratch” B. Yes using a free online tool C. Not yet! D. I don’t even know what an infographic is?!
POLL
A graphical method for visually representing information, data or knowledge, with goal of showing complex information quickly & clearly.
More info & free tool options in our toolkit: http://bit.ly/1dtTCqK
Infographics
• • Register/log in to wordpress to be able to create. • Set of templates called Vthemes. • Add objects, backgrounds, shapes, text or upload images. • Share: download as jpg; a weblink to image, or embed code. • Your visual can be set to private (default) or public.
easelly
http://vimeo.com/37781587
http://www.easel.ly/
Let’s demo!
easelly
Jing
• FREE download - sits on your computer desktop • Must create account with Screencast.com • Use to capture what you see (a screenshot) • Allows basic markup on screenshot (text, arrows, highlight, colors) • Can also record video up to 5 min • Save on desktop OR on screencast.com (2 GB storage) • Share: email, weblink, embed, download
http://www.techsmith.com/jing-features.html
Let’s demo!
Jing
• FREE cloud based, image creator and editor tool.
• Flash based • Mobile app (iOS or Android) • Screen-grabbing tool (for FF or
Chrome) Pixlr Grabber • Share via imm.io is (a one-click
easy image sharer)
Pixlr
Three applications: http://pixlr.com/ ● Pixlr Editor - most used, like photoshop-lite, “photo editor” ● Pixlr Express - for quick adjustments, effects, fun overlaps, “image express” ● Pixlr-o-matic - vintage image effects, connects to FB, more most fun
Let’s demo!
Pixlr
Color Scheme Designer - http://colorschemedesigner.com/ create sets of color Google Fonts - http://www.google.com/fonts hundreds of open source fonts
Color and fonts
Color Scheme Designer
Google Fonts
Google Fonts
Font Book (Mac) Control Panel - Fonts (Windows)
Consider students with low vision, colorblindness, and other vision
difficulties when choosing colors for videos or presentations.
● White or light yellow text on a dark background is the most visible
● Also consider space between lines (should be 25-30% of the font size)
If lines are too close together, it is difficult to find the beginning of a new
line
For more information, visit
http://www.lighthouse.org/accessibility/design/accessible-print-
design/making-text-legible/
UDL & Font
Questions?
By Tsahi Levent-Levi (CC by 2.0) http://www.flickr.com/photos/86979666@N00/7623744452/