Apps I Explored- Canva, Youtube, GoodReads
For this week's post on educational tech tools, I explored Canva, Youtube, and Goodreads. Canva is a design tool; Goodreads is a social network library; and Youtube is a video content platform. All 3 tools are able to be accessed via web or app. All 3 tools have the ability to curate content.
Canva: Canva is my favorite tool of the 3 because of the opportunities for collaboration and skill-building. In 2021, design is a major component of user satisfaction and successful use. However, not everyone has the time to spend hours learning and playing with Photoshop. Canva allows the user to utilize pre-built design functions, which are extremely customizable, to produce polished and eye-catching artifacts. Canva is not difficult to learn and there are a lot of different uses that you can build. I also like that you can collaborate on designs, much like Google Docs or Wikis.
Youtube: Youtube is a tool nearly everyone is already familiar with and therefore implementing it into a classroom setting would be fairly easy. I appreciate that the platform is a great way to explore educational videos. I think it would be an interesting platform to curate a portfolio on. I dislike that there isn't a built in video-editing component to the platform, meaning that students would have to learn a separate tool in order to combine audio, video, and any graphics.
Goodreads: Goodreads is my least favorite of the 3 tools for teaching purposes. I find the options somewhat limited due to the hyper-focused nature of the tool. I believe that if I invest time for students to use a learn a tool, it should have multiple functions and should be usable outside of the classroom. Though I don't think Goodreads is difficult to use, I don't think it has much use outside of maybe a 1 or 2 assignments. I've used Goodreads personally in the past and I tend to get bored with it after a few weeks since there hasn't been much change in the platform over the past 10 years or so.
For the rest of this post, I'll focus on Canva.
Affordances of Canva: The primary affordances of Canva are: collaboration, pre-built design templates, and banding resources. Canva allows for a teacher to provide feedback on a student's work or for group members to work in tandem on a project. This is extremely important for continuity of the learning process. The pre-built design templates are fantastic for teaching the essential elements of design as they affect user experience. Students who excel in this area can explore more advanced tools like Photoshop if they like. Canva also has the pre-built tools to create a brand in a lot of design areas. This could easily translate to a student assignment or group project.
The primary constraints of Canva are: lack of portfolio-building/curating options and limited assessment opportunities. I think Canva would be much improved if there was a social platform accessibility to build a student's portfolio of work. I also think that though the teacher can provide feedback, Canva should investigate opportunities to build out grading rubrics and assessment tools. This way student's can better receive feedback on their artifacts.
Using Canva for group collaboration on a design project:
Content: 2 learning objectives for using Canva to facilitate a group design project (informational poster): 1. The student will appraise the work and input of their peer group and 2. The student will modify and develop the poster design to convey the topic content.
Pedagogy: This is a collaborative approach - all learners in the group are contributing to the learning of others.
Technology: Canva allows the students to modify and provide feedback within the tool. This also allows the teacher to observe the collaborative process which is not always available in other group assignments. The students can research their assigned topic and then condense down into design chunks.
Using Canva for a solo student project building a branded portfolio on a topic:
Content: 2 learning objectives for using Canva to build a branded portfolio: 1. The student will create a mind-map of their topic content and 2. The student will compose a selection of designs that showcase their topic content.
Pedagogy: This is a constructivist approach as the student must decide how best to present their topic.
Technology: Canva allows the students to modify and curate their designs within the tool. The student can chunk their information into select designs based on what the topic and thesis is.
Creativity tools are very important as they fit into the creating level of Bloom's taxonomy. This allows the student to process information and determine how best to showcase it, deepening their learning of the topic. It is difficult attempting to reach this stage without creativity tools though examples of this type of learning prior to digital tech tools might have been a science fair or a poster presentation. Digital creativity tools allow for this type of learning to occur more rapidly and frequently.
I personally do not use a Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter account. However, I use these websites daily for my job as we use social media for marketing. Though I don't personally use them, I do see the value in having these skillsets, not only for social networking, but also for gathering information, research, and understanding marketing.
Because I like Canva so much, I've linked a quick tutorial on the tool below by Marley Jaxx. Enjoy!
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