Oxford Australia Blog

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Using infographics in the classroom

Ever wondered if book designers have a favourite colour they like to use? Or a particular font or style of typography? So did Regine, one of our Senior Concept Designers! So she analysed the covers of every textbook that Oxford published across its four divisions in 2013 (204 altogether) and constructed an infographic to show her findings. When completed it was printed out and displayed in our office for everyone to see.  Regine’s project on cover analysis was helpful because it provided data on book design that was easy for everyone to understand; it also generated a lot of discussion about design approaches and trends among non-designers too.

infographic
© 2013 Oxford covers infographic: Colour and Style Trends

 

Infographics are a great way to communicate a large amount of data in an interesting and visually engaging way, which makes them ideal for use in the classroom.

There are many infographics available for use by teachers, but how to know whether an infographic is suitable for a class lesson? To be useful, infographics need to:

  • have a verifiable source, be a reliable source of data, not distort the data for visual purposes
  • provide context but not be the whole solution; the infographic needs to allow the students to draw their own conclusions
  • be visually engaging and well-executed.

Not sure where to start looking for suitable infographics? Sometimes its as simple as using a phrase in a search engine such as ‘digital classroom infographic’ (select the ‘Images’ option in your search engine for optimum results). Pinterest is another great source; teachers are using many social media channels to share ideas for resources, including infographics, and Pinterest is a particular favourite. Publishers are increasingly using infographics in their textbooks and sometimes supply these digitally too, so you can display on your whiteboard/projection screen for use in class discussion.

Have you used infographics in the classroom? Where did you find them? How did you use them? Share your ideas here, replying to this post.

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