Weekly-Reflection – Exploring Canva

alexiskmoore

I wanted to focus on exploring Canva as a tool for creating an educational comic for my other online class. For my weekly reflection, I wanted to focus on the process of what it was like to create an educational comic through Canva. I decided to create an infographic about “The Power of Habits”. At first, navigating through the platform was difficult as it had a bit of a learning curve but once I got the hang of it became easier. I found the platform to be accessible and it was easy to bring the vision I had for the comic to life.

Having a greater understanding gave me confidence to improve my comic and make it the best it could be. It showed me that I can use Canva for professional experiences outside of work in my career. Creating a visually appealing canva matters because being a visual learner is very common and plays a large role in the way you process information. I wanted to make sure my comic had limited text, clear visuals, and figures that not only engaged the reader but made it easier to understand. In addition, I wanted to incorporate the Dual Coding Theory as well as it stood out to me when I was initially reading the theories of multimedia from my other education class. It states that it is easier to retain information when a visual is paired with it; I made sure to add extra visual aids in my comic when possible to help support the reader. Canva allows designers to create engaging visuals without requiring advanced design skills.

Moving forward I would like to use Canva for more assignments that require visual aids. This weekly reflection allowed me to reflect on the positive experiece I had with this platform. In the future I can allow myself to be more creative with the design choices I make such as text features, colour and transparency.

Attached below is my edcuational comic that I created. I learned that when refining my drafts the least amount of words added to the comic, the better.

Benefits of using Canva:

  • Easy to use
  • Quick to learn/navigate around platform
  • Enhances creativity

Drawbacks of using Canva:

  • Requires internet
  • Design aspect takes time away from the actual content
  • You need to pay for certain designs unless you have the premium version

Practical and feasible operation

  • I feel like Canva is a very practical resource since students can learn this quickly
  • Students and teachers could easily incorporate this

Age Appropriateness

  • Grade 8 and up I feel like is appropriate
  • Ages below that might struggle understanding how to use it

Key Takeaway

  • Dual Coding Theory shaped how I built my comic (for e.g., less text, more visuals = easier to understand)

Privacy/Security

  • Data collection is involved so teachers need to check school policy on where the school and the class stands with that

Equity/Social Justice

  • Learners without access to devices and reliable internet could be left behind