Infograph Site Comparison

If there is a poster with information, I will read it.  It doesn't matter where I am or what the content is, I am automatically drawn to these posters.  I blame this on my love of random fact gathering.  I love learning new things, but I will admit that the thought of sitting down with a tome about the Vietnam War, post-Depression era politics or Victorian fashion faux pas makes me cringe. I like gathering my facts quick, and if there is an intriguing graphic to go with it, that's a total bonus.  

It is only recently that I have learned that these posters that I like so much are known as infographs.  As a teacher, I have unwittingly had my students create many of these as review projects.  They have toiled manually over them but I am now aware of at least three different sites that will facilitate their work.  Not only are the sites easy to use, people who are creatively "challenged," *cough* like me* cough*cough,* can use a myriad of pre-generated graphics to liven up their work.  The three sites I visited and experimented with were Easel.ly, Inforgr.am and Piktochart.com. These sites are all user-friendly and each one allows users to connect to the site via their Facebook and Google accounts. (I am all for less username and password memorization, so I love when I am given the option to connect with my Google account.)

Piktochart
This site was user-friendly and offered 10 free templates BUT if one signs up for the PRO version of the site, they will have over 600 templates available to them. I can be a bit of a Scrooge, so the thought of forking over $15 or $29 a month for a something I will only use once or twice a month is not appealing.

Infogr.am
This is another site that was easy to navigate.  What I liked about this site was that it immediately let me know what I would be able to have access to. Not going to lie, I got a chuckle at the sight of my picture under the word BASIC and a large checkmark. I am pretty basic, especially in fall when I get a pumpkin spice latte and don my Han Solo apparel. =)

What I didn't get a chuckle from was the pricing plan or the limited templates. If one goes the basic route, they'll only have three templates to choose from. 

Easel.ly 
As trite as it may sound, the third time really is the charm.  Not only was Easelly really really easy to use, it has over six million visuals (a.k.a. templates) available for FREE use.  There is, of course, added benefits if you pay the monthly fee of- drumroll, please- $3 a month.  

Needless to say, but this was my favorite site and one that I'll be sharing with my current students and one that I foresee myself using when I become a librarian.  Below is my first attempt at a digital infograph.  I used information gathered from The Pew Research Center: Internet & Technology page.  This site has a plethora of articles on varying subject matters.  I chose to read the March 29, 2017 report entitled, "THE FUTURE OF FREE SPEECH, TROLLS, ANONYMITY AND FAKE NEWS ONLINE."  The report was an extensive look what the future of the internet as a social forum will look like.  The report is a beast of a read that covers four distinct themes that has over 35 professionals from varying backgrounds weighing in on the issue.  This is definitely a report that would benefit from an inforgraph-or five. The themes are as follows, and my infograph is what winds up this post.

RESOURCES:

Create and share visual ideas using infographics. (n.d.). Retrieved October 21, 2017, from
      https://www.easel.ly/

Create Easy Infographics, Reports, Presentations | Piktochart. (n.d.). Retrieved October 21, 2017, f
     from https://piktochart.com/

Create Infographics, Charts and Maps. (n.d.). Retrieved October 21, 2017, from
      https://infogram.com/

Rainie, L., Anderson, J., & Albright, J. (2017, March 29). Shareable quotes from experts on the
     future of online public discourse. Retrieved October 21, 2017, from
     http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/03/29/shareable-quotes-from-experts-on-the-future-of-online-
     public-discourse/

Rainie, L., Anderson, J., & Albright, J. (2017, March 29). The Future of Free Speech, Trolls,
      Anonymity and Fake News Online. Retrieved October 21, 2017, from
       http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/03/29/the-future-of-free-speech-trolls-anonymity-and-fake-
       news-online/