Using Canva in FACS!

Canva use in Child Development 1

Last semester my new trial in class was using canva.com. (www.canva.com) I was introduced to canva at a general digital session this past summer during Missouri ACTE Conference in Springfield. In short, canva can be used to make several different things such as posters, ads, cards, etc... It is easy to use and has some cool graphic features. It kind of reminds me of an online version of publisher that is actually, in my opinion easier to use.

My school district recently went 1:1 with Chromebooks so I have been looking for new tools to enhance classes. Canva caught my eye and I think it might catch yours too!

How I Used Canva

First I introduced Canva to the class on the projector. I showed them how to log in using the google sign in feature that pretty much automatically sets up your account. The first page that opens is a demo page - students can play around with this but it is really just as easy to jump right in.

You can start your own poster by clicking where it says Canva in the top left corner of the screen! From there I let the students choose their own background. Students could easily do this on their own, I allowed them to work in pairs hoping by having two minds they would be able to better troubleshoot while learning the new program.

Canva allows you to search things like grids, borders, and images. It also has pre-made layouts you can use as well as graphics and fonts. It is really pretty user friendly and has lots of choices for students to make it their own.

I used Canva as kind of a reading thought organizer/summary of text - if you will. I gave them a short section that had 4 different parts. For each of the 4 parts they were to read and then write a heading with 2 statements that summarize what that particular section was about. They were to use 2-3 pages on Canva to share what they read and thought was important.

Once the students were finished they were to make their poster public by clicking "make public" and then done in the top right. Then they were to share the poster with me and classmates by going to the share option, copying the link, and then posting the link in the comments section under the assignment that was posted on Google Classroom. This seemed to be easy! However, I did have to do some "how to" copy and paste using your Chromebook tutorials!

Negatives I Experienced

- After posting the link not all posters would show up - I narrowed this down to be a network issue as some would and some wouldn't. **This wasn't too bad, by the end of the day I figured out the students that should not show their poster from the posted link could download the pdf of their poster to their chromebook and then link the pdf in Google Classroom. After this it opened up! Kind of an extra step but not a difficult one. I did have to reassure the students that even though it didn't show up from the link it was still in their canva account.

- Some students found some of the formatting to be a little irritating

- Took a little more time than maybe a hand drawn poster  

**But I think they did get to use some other skills -editing, use of colors and graphics, getting to use their chromebook (copy and paste was new for some with the 2 finger click) and mix things up a bit. I also feel like they took this more seriously than when if I were to ask them to write out the summary's.

-If you want to print - there is only a small selection of free backgrounds, fonts, etc... to use but if you want to just share digitally the options are pretty endless!

Positives

-Seemed to work well with the chrome browser. I only had 1 student out of nearly 90 that it seemed to open slowly for.

-Lots of options to make them original

-Could use for various things in class

-Almost all students I questioned had something positive to say about the experience.

-Sharing in various ways - by link, facebook, twitter, are all easy with this website!

Let me know what you think or how you are using Canva in your classroom!!!