Visual Learning - INTC Stockton

There is a real power to allowing students to creatively express their knowledge and there are several very useful tools to help them with that: 

1. One is Big Huge Labs, a website that allows you to create professional looking items (posters, magazine covers, trading cards) from photos or other images you collect. http://bighugelabs.com
2. A popular visual tool in schools is Glogster, a site that allows you to make interactive web sites that look like posters or collages. Glogster has an educational arm ( http://edu.glogster.com ) that allows you as a teacher to control how students get into their glogs and keeps them from inappropriate content that is available on the commercial part of the site. Scroll down on the page to create a free account to try it out.
3. You might also use MS Office products like PowerPoint, but try to get students beyond creating slides with lots of text that they read from. Here are some ideas for that: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-creative-uses-of-powerpoint-presentations-you-havent-explored-yet/ It can also be used by you as a teacher to support special education students ( http://www.educationspace360.com/index.php/benefits-of-powerpoint-as-a-tool-for-visual-learners-8805/ )  
4. You can use Prezi or  Powtoon  as alternative tools for making presentations that go beyond just text and transitions - make sure you and your students take advantage of the visual features of the tool. View this site: http://www.bbcactive.com/BBCActiveIdeasandResources/UsingPreziInEducation.aspx then for examples check out: http://blog.prezi.com/latest/2013/8/14/expert-advice-finding-the-right-visual-metaphor-for-your-pre.html or http://blog.prezi.com/latest/2013/12/27/the-6-best-prezis-of-2013.html (especially the educational and zoom winners!)

http://prezi.com/xr9g6q9wj_x-/how-to-deliver-effective-visuals-in-teaching-and-learning/ - this is a very nice Prezi explaining the principles of visual presentation; very much worth viewing all the way through if you want to learn how to make visuals that truly enhance presentation of information and data

• http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/teaching-with-infographics-places-to-start/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0- Some great resources from the New York Times
• http://www.schrockguide.net/infographics-as-an-assessment.html- Kathy Schrock's guide to infographics with links to tools for you and your students
• http://piktochart.com/ - Piktochart is a simple tool to use to create your own infographics  
• http://www.google.com/publicdata/directory - Google's free public data visualization explorer