How Visual Graphic Resources Can Make a Difference in Education
By Orana
As education evolves in the digital age, classroom curricula are in a constant state of change. The use of web 2.0 tools is becoming more and more common in schools of all different styles. The added support of visual graphic resources is a seamless continuation of the same strategy, helping students and teachers use their creativity and visual skills.
Web 2.0 Tools and Education
Web 2.0 is a term applied to the internet that connects everyone in the world to each other through interactivity. It defines the difference between the web that only provides information and the web you can interact with. This is the web we use day in and day out.
The list of Web 2.0 tools is extensive, from apps created for business professionals to educational technology unique to classrooms. Any of these can be used in the classroom for different purposes. Using Web 2.0 Tools in education is a way for schools to let their students learn with the same tools they are in constant contact every day.
A lot of Web 2.0 Tools are further improved with visual graphics resources from adding background images to presentations to visualizing data with infographic widgets. Let’s take a look at some of the most practical visual graphics resources for education with Web 2.0 Tools.
Visual Graphic Resources that Enhance Web 2.0 Tools
Web 2.0 Tools are available for both organizational and educational aspects in a school. We’ll be concentrating on the ones used by the students in the classroom and at home to complete assignments. By having visual graphic resources on hand, the students can expand tap into their creativity when creating presentations, making infographic posters, or editing timelapse videos of a science experiment.
The best visual graphic resources for use with Educational Web 2.0 Tools are free or have a Creative Common License. Freepik offers many of these resources for teachers, educators, and students alike.
Typography and Lettering
Alphabets with fun designs come in different styles. Fonts that can be downloaded and used on any app, or alphabet icons that can be used in compositions. Students can choose their favorite fonts and letters to create the headers in their projects. Freepik offers a considerable number of designed alphabets to use in any way. They need only be downloaded to a vector program separated into independent icons.
Other resources for free fonts to use with Web 2.0 Tools are Google fonts, Font squirrel, Dafont, and many others.
Images and Illustrations
There are many free images available on Freepik for classrooms to use in their projects. They can be added to presentations, videos, original GIFs, reports, projects, and more. Similarly, illustrations can add visual creativity to all the students’ graphic organizers, mind maps, and anything in between.
Freepik also supplies easy to use illustrations to use in any project. Another source for free illustration is humaaans, a mix and match library of illustrated humans available for anyone to use license-free.
Icons
Icons are incredibly versatile. They can be used in any student project, from analytic book projects to comparative infographics. Icons might be the first visual resource used in Web 2.0 tools. Icons have been around since clipart, and teachers have been using them in educational printables for years.
Now students can use icons in all steps of their education, from simple visualizations to websites created to support a science fair project. Free icons are available on many sites like Flaticon. Students can even learn to make their own icons on a site like icons flow.
Infographic Widgets
Adding on to icons, students can also use infographic widgets to visualize data inside infographics, presentations, and reports. Infographic widgets can visualize things like percentages, temperature, ratios, and more. Freepik has lots of infographic widgets available in different styles and layouts.
Other infographic widgets are available inside infographic creators like Visme and Piktochart. Students, as well as educators, can quickly build creative infographics to print or share online.
Charts and Graphs
A classic way of visualizing data in the classroom is by using charts and graphs. These have long been an established visual resource for education in all topics, from math to science.
Charts and Graphs can be easily created online with Google charts, Excel, or Adobe Pages. These can be further personalized with icons, fonts, and images.
Last Thoughts
The best graphic resources for education with Web 2.0 tools are the ones that are free to use for personal and commercial use. All the resources in the free Freepik subscription are available for students and classrooms around the world. There are many other online sites to help teachers achieve a better education with Web 2.0 tools. A Google search is all you need!
