Digital Graphic Organizers for the Classroom

Popplet Website

Typically, my first thought regarding graphic organizers is one in which a student uses it to organize
his or her own thoughts or information. Creating and using digital graphic organizers for presentation purposes opened up a whole new world of possibilities for me. The software mentioned in this post may be used to convey information, systems, and processes (among other possibilities) - as well as the ability to create custom graphic organizers when none exists for a teacher's purposes. There are thousands available online, but the idea of a custom one is, in my opinion, a valuable targeted tool.

In addition, this is a fabulous way for students to present and organize information in a way that they wish to, rather than a premade and classroom-wide handout.

Custom graphic organizers are good for specific lessons, as well as for individual students (particularly special needs) or group work. My own creation of a custom (and easily printable) graphic organizer was created with Google Draw. I created a page for identifying elements of a story, finding the program easy to use, and liked that it is easily printable. It was probably closest to Microsoft Word or Google Docs as far as familiarity and usability.

I created another graphic organizer to display literary genres (and sub-genres(. I had a lot of fun with this one, due to both the topic and the easy, cute, and colorful application. Popplet was used to create this one, and it was my favorite of the three programs I tried. My only disappointment was that there was less customization as I would have liked regarding different shapes, as well as the absence of the ability of an option for transparency overlay (and therefore overlap, as in a Venn diagram). Otherwise, it was beautifully developed, and a pleasure to use. I also loved that one could use it on an iPad - a device often used classroom-wide (in fact, I've worked in a classroom where each 2nd grader had their own individual iPad with a drop-proof protective case.)

The third graphic organizer was created using software by Inspiration. I did not like the graphics, nor the interface, as much at this site as it seemed outdated - however, I did love how customizable it was. One could use images from the Inspiration library for icons, as well as choose from a variety of shapes and colors and sizes, as opposed to the preset shape on Popplet and it's single-shape option (unless I missed an option). I created one about the sciences, and there was plenty of science-related images to choose from - which made it worth it for that kind of presentation for me (I would even use it again.)

I honestly can't think of any concerns regarding digital graphic organizers, though classmates may be able to observe something I haven't thought of. Perhaps the only potential downside would be lack of information on which ones exist, as well as which would be best for a student's purpose. This is easily remedied, however, with experience - and teachers in the know would easily be able to guide students to the best one suited for the task