Colloquium Presentation at University of St. Thomas

My Prezi (image only–link below)

So I’ve completed my first invited talk, “Marry for Money: Love in Letitia Elizabeth Landon’s Letters and Fairy Tales”–yay! It was exhausting to speak for so long in addition to the prep, so today is mostly a day off. But sharing my research and seeing old professors and new students was a blast. I absolutely love the St. Thomas’s English department faculty and staff, and since I was a student there for six years for my BA and MA, I think my continuing love for the department says a lot. That the faculty and staff continue to care about me years after I graduated is equally notable. 🙂

Now that I’ve gushed over my alma mater, I’ll leave this post with the Prezi that accompanied my presentation (links below since I seem unable to get the prezi embedded) and a photo from the event.

http://prezi.com/embed/rt4acdi1szyq/?bgcolor=ffffff&lock_to_path=0&autoplay=0&autohide_ctrls=0#

http://prezi.com/rt4acdi1szyq/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Presentation Preparation & Tips

Ann Macbeth’s “The Sleeping Beauty”

I’ve been off routine for a few weeks as I recover from surgery to remove my gall bladder, but I’m slowly trying to get back into work mode and first up (you know, other than job letters and putting the finishing touches on my latest chapter) is preparing for my colloquium presentation at the University of St. Thomas in a few weeks.

I’ve been going back and forth on what format I want to use for the visual aspect of my presentation: PowerPoint or Prezi. I’ve never really been a fan of PowerPoints. They always felt a bit unwieldy and in the classroom I’ve found I far prefer using a couple wiki pages that allow for easy transitions and scrolling rather than flipping through slides to return to previous info. However, I’ve never had such a long presentation (~40 minutes of me talking) to plan for, so some kind of visual component is a must and the wiki isn’t going to work.

However, it seems more and more like PowerPoint is rather passé. I can’t guarantee that my Prezi will be anything more amazing than PowerPoint slides would be, but I figure it is still my best choice. There is at least the opportunity for more creativity and to learn more familiarity with a new visual presentation system.

So I’ll conclude this post with a Prezi offering presentation tips which I found helpful. In particular, the information regarding the number of slides (minimum and optimum) for the length of the talk was eye opening. Perhaps I’ll share my Prezi when it’s complete and/or any new Prezi tips I come across as I move through the process.

http://prezi.com/yyqttpipui4h/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

http://prezi.com/embed/1vno843ijfdz/?bgcolor=ffffff&lock_to_path=0&autoplay=0&autohide_ctrls=0&features=undefined&disabled_features=undefined

Genre Activity: 19th C. Periodicals & Dickens Journal Online

While I have incorporated fairy tales into teaching genre in a composition course, below is an excellent “genre activity” that pulls from my field of 19th century British literature. It is an actual competition, if you are interested in writing for Dickens’ Household Words, but the instructions seem to also fit a writing assignment emphasizing genre, audience, and publication format. It also encourages the use of technology and the exploration of Victorian culture and literature. Moreover, at least until Nov. 15, 2014, it is a real-world writing assignment, writing that serves a purpose outside of the classroom. I could envision using this writing assignment in a general composition course, but also in an introduction to literature or 19th c. survey course. Has anyone taught a similar assignment? If so, was it successful?

Ornate Victorian Calligraphy Clip Art: Forget Me Not

Competition Announcement–Deadline Extended!

Written by John Drew

We are delighted to announce our first LITERARY JOURNALISM COMPETITION. Write an article (reportage, sketch, exposé, informative factual account, digest, etc.), short story, instalment of serial fiction, or poem(s), suitable for publication in a weekly number of Household Words or All the Year Round. If you are not sure what to write, browse the contents of either journal, using the navigation tools above. Minimum word-length is 1,500 words/60 lines of poetry; maximum word-length is 2,000 words. No author’s name should appear on the pages of your entry: name and contact details should be supplied as a separate final sheet, to permit anonymous judging.

Send your entry to djo@buckingham.ac.uk as an e-mail attachment, by midnight on Saturday, 15 November 2014; at the same time, make the minimum donation using the ‘Charities Aid Foundation’ widget on the right of our homepage, to cover entry costs. Once your entry and your donation have been matched up, your entry will be passed to an expert panel of judges. Short-listed entrants will be informed by the end of November; winners will be announced during the Festive Season Details of prizes given on website; winning entries will be typeset in an ‘Extra Twenty-First-Century Number,’ available by Christmas. We hope you enjoy participating!

via Welcome to DJO.

Generic Intersections: The Fairy Tale & The Romance

My fascination with the fairy-tale genre should be obvious by now. It has sustained me for years, academically since 2008 and my introduction to Anne Sexton’s Transformations, but since childhood in the form of Disney (in particular The Little Mermaid) and bedtime stories from a big illustrated book of Grimms’ fairy tales. In the last couple of years, the literary annual has entered into my list of favorite genres, and today I will be adding the romance.

Labbe’s The Romantic Paradox

Jacqueline M. Labbe’s The Romantic Paradox: Love, Violence and the Uses of Romance, 1760-1830 (2000) has blown my mind. I came across Labbe’s book while researching Letitia Landon, and I definitely was not disappointed in her analysis of Landon’s work, especially given that it largely supports my own interpretation of Landon’s subversive use of the fairy tale. Without going into great detail, Labbe basically argues that Landon subverts the romance genre and in doing so expresses a profound disillusionment. Moreover, she characterizes Landon as an authorial femme fatale, symbolically ruining or killing the romance even while she utilizes it for her own purposes. (How can I not squee over such a beautiful overlap of so many of my favorite topics and themes?)

But while Labbe’s analysis of Landon was both exciting and eye-opening, her discussion of the romance genre has caused me to seriously reflect on the intersections of this genre and the fairy-tale genre that has held my interest for so long. Labbe begins her introduction as follows:

“The Romance has always had a bad press within Romanticism. As a genre, its associations with women readers and writers and assumptions of its inherent inferiority to, for instance, the epic, the ode, or even the sonnet have for many readers contained its power; as a plot-line, its fabled preoccupation with love and fantasy has limited its appeal. The romance is rule-bound, immature, feminised and predictable: readers know the outcome before the story even begins.” (Labbe 1)

Already the similarity to the fairy tale (and even the literary annual) is apparent: its a fluffy genre, appropriate for women to write and read, includes elements of romantic love and fantastic magic, and is formulaic.

Labbe then discusses what she calls “the Romantic romance,” or the romance as interpreted by Romantic poets:

“The Romantic romance contains all the necessary ingredients, although not always at the same time: a love relationship central to the plot; a hero, heroine and villain; journeys, adventure and escapes; the supernatural or magical. Importantly, however, it largely dispenses with ‘happily ever after’; lovers meet, love, are parted, but seldom are reunited, and if they are, it is seldom to good effect. Instead of celebrating their happiness, the Romantic romance utilises their distress; it finds in the elements of the romance justification for pursuing a changed romance. [. . .] The traditional romance is inherently deeply conservative in its gender constructions; indeed, many gender stereotypes about strong heroes and passive, beautiful heroines are directly traceable to its plot. The Romantic romance throws down a challenge to the romance of gender; subverting the familiar angles of plot, the Romantic romance reveals the emptiness of generic rhetoric.” (Labbe 2-3)

Romanticism has ever been a period that I’ve struggled to get into and interact with. My fascination with Landon and with the figure of the femme fatale (as seen in the poetry of Coleridge and Keats) has enabled me to find a foothold in the period, but I am now fascinated by Labbe’s Romantic romance. What she describes as the Romantic romance directly ties in with what fascinates me about the proto-feminist fairy tales I’m currently writing about: largely, the upset of the “happily ever after” and gender stereotypes.

Even more similarities can be found when Labbe later discusses the instructive nature of the romance. She writes in the first chapter,

“In many ways, the moral of the conventional romance is the preservation and strengthening of the status quo [. . .] Romance offered, even demanded, the continuation of a lifestyle where strength and goodness were rewarded, gender distinctions (mostly) upheld, men protected women, social classes were strictly observed and believed in.” (Labbe 33)

Inherent to the traditional fairy tale is the moral, an aspect of the genre that was explicit in some cases, such as the fairy tales of Perrault. Furthermore, Perrault’s fairy tales were written to educate and instruct children in their courtly gender roles. While the fairy tales of the French conteuses of the same time period were more subversive, attempting to expand women’s role in society, many fairy tales throughout the centuries are more concerned with the reification of cultural mores than with the transformation of social expectations and society in general. The classical fairy tale would therefore seem to have much in common with the “conventional romance.”

My knowledge of the romance genre, and the Romantic romance in particular, is still very basic and incomplete, but I am very pleased to have found another point of interest in the Romantic period. Perhaps more importantly, Labbe has caused me to question how much of my discussion of proto-feminist fairy tales is perhaps more a discussion of Romantic romance or proto-feminist romance. The same generic playfulness and/or subversion is present not only in Landon’s fairy tales but also in those that come later in the century. Could there be a Victorian romance waiting to be revealed? And how much do the genres of the romance and the fairy tale crossover? Is there a distinction that I’m missing? While such classic tales such as “Little Red Riding Hood” seem to share little with the romance, fairy tales such as “Cinderella” seem to share much with the romance.

Such intersections are certainly worth pondering more. But for now, I’ll leave you with a final fascinating quotation from Labbe:

“As the century progresses and the romance becomes ever more popular and widespread, it also gains the ability to engage directly with the violence it describes: texts become metaphorically blood-soaked as human relations disintegrate into an anti-fairy-tale world of dying unhappily ever after.” (Labbe 4, my emphasis)

Dissertation Break & Scheduled Relaxation: Community Watercolor Class

Source

While I am ever so slowly getting back into my chapter (and getting excited about the topic once more), the dissertation writing process frequently feels like a lonesome task. And it is lonely, particularly as I am focusing on my dissertation rather than teaching this academic year. While I certainly don’t miss the hassle of course preparation, lesson planning, and grading, interacting with students and other instructors is a method of getting away from the solo business of writing and focusing on something else; in my world (and I assume in that of many other academics), teaching can become a research break that forces me to stop thinking about my chapters.

But what do you do when you aren’t teaching? The guilt of not working on my dissertation is ridiculous, especially when I can’t claim other types of productivity. Moreover, while I’m happy to be done with coursework, I do miss being a student and the joy of learning. Enter the community center introduction to watercolors class.

My community center art class has proven to be a great method of forcing myself to relax and forget about my dissertation for at least a few hours a week. There are many reasons for this:

1. It’s fun.
2. I’m paying for the class so I’m going to attend the class because, like most grad students, I have a tight budget. But, the class is not nearly as expensive as a college course so it actually fits within my budget. Supplies were also affordable, which is why I chose watercolors over the more expensive ceramics class.
3. Nobody in the class cares about my dissertation. Unlike my friends, family, and colleagues, the instructor and other students don’t want to hear about my research, beyond the general topic being fairy tales, so while I’m in the class, I’m not talking about my progress and challenges.
4. It meets regularly in the evenings, so each week I have 2.5 hours set aside for the class without worrying about losing or wasting time. Basically, relaxation is built into my schedule. Also, evenings are usually my least productive time of day, so I’m not painting during normally productive hours.

I really enjoyed my 6 week late summer class, and this weekend I will be registering for Fall session classes. If you’re like me and find it difficult to relax but really need to get out of the house and away from your research, look into what classes are offered by your local community center. You may be surprised by the options available and find a great new hobby. Plus, my finished artwork (pictured below) made a lovely birthday present for my mother.

My Finished Watercolor (Painted from image at top of post.)

Resolving to Return to a (Work) Routine

As I begin writing this post, I can’t help but sigh heavily. To say that August has been a whirlwind of chaotic activity would be an understatement. But as it comes to a close and my special collections research ends (or at least is put on hold), I find myself struggling to get back into my old routine of writing and reading. Or rather, I need to find a new routine. Either way, productivity is down.

Part of this is simple burnout. I want and need a break. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), I have approaching deadlines that require that I continue working and accept the last two days as break enough. As Tim Gunn says, “It’s time to make it work!”

Via

So, since I’m not simply falling back into a work routine, reflection is in order to push past the feeling of being overwhelmed with “stuff” to do. What do I need to do? What is the first step(s) to getting it done? What is my priority? What can wait a while?

And to make this official, I’m sharing my “To Do” list, in prioritized order with any formal (or informal) due dates:

1. Organize desk top. (It is a mess from the move still.) [X]
2. Register for conference in Sept. [X]
3. Reserve shuttle for Nov. conference. [X]
4. Read and incorporate secondary sources into my current dissertation chapter. [in progress]
5. Polish my current dissertation chapter.
6. Submit to dissertation director before meeting on Sept. 15th. [X]
7. Condense to conference presentation and submit to graduate student presentation contest by Sept. 18th. [X]
8. Begin creating colloquium presentation (PowerPoint or Prezi) while on the topic.
9. Attend and present at conference Sept. 25th-28th. [X]
10. Finish preparing 40 minutes colloquium presentation paper/notes and visuals by Oct. 16th.
11. Jump into next chapter (already begun but put on hold last semester), in particular to prepare for Nov. conference presentation.
12. Prepare conference presentation by Nov. 5th.
13. Attend and present at conference Nov. 5th-8th.

I think at that point in November I can afford to take a week or two off to recover.

And, just as I’m about to publish this post, I realize I left all my job application materials off the official list, so . . .

*1-13* Scatter job application prep, search, and submission throughout.

HabitRPG: I (aka my avatar) Died!

Since beginning my archival research on the Victorian literary annual, I have been exhausted. Simply exhausted. The Bell Library, which houses the Wilson Library Special Collections and Rare Books, is only open from noon to five o’clock during the summer, and yet even as little as three hours of research knocks me out, and it’s not just due to the quality of the texts I’m reading (most are fascinating but there are admittedly some doozies that could easily put a reader to sleep).

Yet other than my general fatigue, my research has had a most disastrous effect on my HabitRPG success since this morning I died (gasp!).

My Avatar (dressed as a mermaid and riding a desert wolf)

I’ve been falling behind on my habits and dailies the last few weeks and my health bar has consequently been dropping. This was, however, avoidable, had I been paying attention (I could have bought a health potion to stave off death). Alas, I hadn’t realized my precarious position and failed to do so.

Dramatics aside, “death” in the game is not so bad I’m finding. I lost a level (no big deal), 1 item (in my case an arch mage hat that can easily be repurchased), and all my gold (sad but again, not a big deal).

But it was enough of a shock to (hopefully) re-motivate me to push past the exhaustion to be productive. (Although I make no guarantees…Even as I write this, I would love to go back to bed.)

Moreover, the question I had regarding what happens when your HabitRPG avatar dies has been answered. 🙂

Literary Annual Research @ U of MN

Once August hit, my summer went from relaxingly productive to complete craziness, hence my recent lack of posts. Between a full schedule and exhaustion, blogging has not been high on my list of priorities. In addition to moving, unpacking, and physical therapy, I’ve also begun my archival research at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Libraries, and this is the topic of today’s post.

A professor first mentioned the Victorian literary annual to me during my first semester in my doctoral program; in my second semester, I began researching the genre for a book history course. (I’ve written on the topic previously here and here.) Now, the literary annual is playing a major role in my dissertation as one of the genres I’m investigating (along with fairy tale collections and poetry and short story collections).

I’m fascinated by the history of the literary annual. Marketed as appropriate reading and gifts for young middle-class women, the annual featured luxurious bindings (such as red silk) and state of the art steel-plate engravings. These engravings were the real appeal of the annuals, as the poetry, short stories, and nonfiction texts were written to accompany the engravings. Moreover, the genre was increasingly “feminized,” as women increasingly edited, wrote, and read the literary annuals. Published between 1823 and 1857, at the height of their popularity more than 60 different annuals were published in a single year.

Perhaps because they were considered feminine, as well as because the engravings rather than the texts were the selling point, critics since the genre’s debut have considered the literary annual to be fluff rather than literature, and the literary annual has only become a source of scholarly interest in the last few decades. So there is plenty of work to be done with the annuals, in particular with the literary contributions that have been overlooked in favor of the genre’s intriguing history as a book-object.

I was thrilled to discover that the University of MN has an extensive collection of British (and American) literary annuals; as a side note, those interested in exploring the catalog should search under “gift books” rather than literary annuals. Holdings are available in regular collections that are loanable as well as in various special collections, including those held at the Andersen Library and Wilson/Bell Library. I’ve included my current batch of special collection annuals in the spreadsheet image below.

The literary annuals I’m currently accessing at the U of MN

Although my research has only begun, I’ve already found some literary gems although they are not quite what I’m looking for for my dissertation. Fingers crossed that my theory is proven true as I continue my research into the fascinating world of the British Victorian Literary Annual!

Optimizing My Writing Space: DIY Desk Makeover

This is the reveal of my new and improved desk!

I discussed some ideas I had for optimizing my writing space in this post, and after an at times hellish week, my desk revamp is now complete. The process of repainting and stenciling my hand-me-down laminate desk was more time and energy consuming than I originally thought it would be, but I’m very pleased with the end result, and I’ve learned *a lot* about painting (laminate) furniture.

Here is what my desk looked like when I began the project. (You can see that I tested my metallic paint on the keyboard shelf by the time I thought to take a “before” photo.)

Before

And here is the end result, after spray painting, stenciling, and sealing.

After

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Purpose:

Create an inviting and inspirational workspace to make the idea of sitting and writing for hours on end more appealing.

Materials:

1. Laminate Desk
2. Spray Paint (I used 4 cans of Krylon Fusion for Plastic in Metallic Shimmer on the base and ~1.5 cans of Krylon Dual Superbond Paint + Primer in Ivory Satin for the desk top.)
3. Stencils of choice
4. Acrylic Paint (I used three colors I had laying around from a previous project for the stenciling)
5. Foam Brushes to apply acrylic paint
6. 1 spray can of Minwax Polycrylic in Clear with Satin finish (to protect desk top)
7. 220 Sandpaper to sand between coats of polycrylic
8. Tarp to protect garage floor
9. Boxes to stand furniture on while painting
10. Internet Access for continual research

Process (actual not necessarily recommended):

1. Research via Pinterest for tips on painting laminate
2. Decide spray paint is the answer to “easy” furniture makeovers and that you want your desk to be a metallic copper
3. Run all over more than one town looking for the only spray paint that explicitly states it is made to work with laminate (Krylon Dual Superbond Paint + Primer) only to find it is unavailable at most locations and is definitely unavailable in copper
4. After being lied to by a sales associate regarding the presence of the desired paint in silver, settle on a silver paint made for plastic (because plastic and laminate are basically the same thing, right?)
5. Also purchase a can of spray polyurethane that is not the polycrylic you thought you needed only to discover you were correct and that the purchased product needs to be returned
6. Test the paint on the keyboard shelf to make sure it doesn’t simply refuse to stick
7. Talk father into helping to paint the desk he gave you
8. Run out of metallic spray paint after base is painted (desk top is still original laminate)
9. Decide the metallic paint is darker than you expected and so desk top is going to be painted ivory and stenciled (because it should be a simple process, right?)
10. Do more research regarding stenciling furniture
11. Run all over more than one town (again) looking for ivory paint made for laminates (found at 1st store, score!–along with foam brushes and sandpaper), correct spray polycrylic (found at 3rd store), and stencils (found at 6th store).
12. After spray painting desk top ivory, spend 7 hours painting the stencils in a filthy garage in 90+ degree heat, bent over the desk top and unable to sit
13. Decide the stencils can be cleaned later because your back is killing you (they are still waiting to be cleaned and I’m still in pain)
14. Due to pain, ask dad to help again by applying polycrylic to desk top and sanding between each coat (3 were recommended, 5 were applied and then the can was empty so we–he–stopped)
15. Have dad move the desk to new apartment, put it back together, and take picture of end product…1 hellish week complete!

Lessons Learned & Tips for Future Projects:

1. Plan ahead. *Way* ahead.
2. When trying a new technique (all of this was new to both me and my dad), begin with a smaller project (like a box, a frame, an end table, etc.).
3. Don’t attempt to complete entire project in 1 week.
4. Purchase all needed materials ahead of time, perhaps via the internet to avoid driving around everywhere only to find your desired materials are unavailable.
5. Painting wood furniture instead of laminate furniture would also make purchasing materials easier, as there are many more products available for painting wood.
6. Choose more temperate weather for outdoor projects (meaning not humid and 90+ degrees)
7. Hmmm, I know there are more but I’m drawing a blank, so I’ll end with have fun with it and enjoy the final product of all your hard work!

Conclusions:

Although this was a difficult and trying process, I’m extremely pleased with the end result and look forward to using my pretty new desk (once the desk top has plenty of time to dry). It was certainly worth all the work.

Now I find myself eyeing up various pieces of furniture as possible future projects. I won’t be taking them on any time soon (after all, I have some smaller crafts in the works to continue upgrading my work space) but this project definitely has not turned me off from painting and/or stenciling furniture in the future.

The possibilities seem endless…and I have this end table that would look lovely in a metallic copper!

Sources of Inspiration and Information (in no particular order):

1. “Everything I Know About Spray Paint!” and “Painting Furniture 101” by All Things Thrifty
2. “How to Spray Paint Furniture Like a Pro!” by Classy Clutter
3. “Bling for the Bedroom–A Silver Nightstand–Sold” by The Ordinary Made Extraordinary
4. “Painting Laminate Furniture” by Gluesticks
5. “Table Redo for $12–Holla! + My Best Tips on How to Spray Paint Furniture” by The House of Smiths
6. “DIY Desk Makeover” by The Chronicles of Ruthie Hart
7. “DIY Thrift Store Desk Makeover (Using Silver Leaf!)” by LiveLoveDIY
8. “Make It Nice Again” by Pinterest & the Pauper

Technology in the Classroom: Infographics

I have a love-hate relationship with technology, as some of my previous posts on the topic may suggest, but I’m trying to overcome my knee-jerk rejection of technology in the classroom, which seems to be largely caused by my frustration with trouble shooting technology problems. As usual lately, this post was inspired by my Pinterest addiction (a good indication that I am an all too frequent user of technology outside the classroom). So today I’d like to share some thoughts on how I can envision using infographics in the classroom.

via edudemic.com

Because of my Pinterest addiction, I’ll begin with an infographic entitled “Professors, Peers, & Pinterest.” 🙂

Okay, back to infographics in the classroom!

Assigning students (or groups of students) to create their own infographics seems to me to be a fun and useful assignment in an English classroom. In terms of the composition classroom, infographics are a unique form of communication, incorporating images, charts, and researched statistics or other information to educate and inform an intended audience (general or specific). Infographics thereby become a distinct genre of communication, with a specific purpose and audience.

Yet it is a genre quite different from the typical kinds of writing I usually assign in my composition classroom (think summary, analysis, and argument). Although related to summary (info graphics are, after all, a summary or even synthesis of information and research), communication in this genre occurs not through sentences and paragraphs but mainly through images. It appears to be a more obviously creative form of communication that I think might appeal to students with a creative bent, as well as an opportunity for students to consider the creation, layout, and appeal of a visual form of rhetoric.

An infographic assignment could be a welcome break from the typical written assignment and seems an ideal way to transition to a researched argument paper. It would offer students an opportunity to practice their researching skills, including the evaluation and citation of sources, and it could even accompany (or replace) an annotated bibliography.

An infographic assignment is a bit more difficult to incorporate into a literature classroom, but I think there are still some available options. I’m intrigued by the idea of using infographics to present reader-response information following each text. For instance, groups of students would be responsible for creating a survey for their classmates to complete after reading each assigned text; survey results then would be transformed into infographics to be presented to the class and/or uploaded to the course wiki or blog. Surveys could ask questions regarding the speed of reading (such as whether students read only assigned pages or read ahead–and even why they read at that speed) and/or students’ enjoyment of, comprehension of , completion of, or agreement with the text. Whether students are reading a bound or digital copy of the text would also be interesting to know.

via

If someday reading speed could be calculated as it was for this “How We Read Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice” infographic, it would be an amazing tool. But as an instructor, I think it could be helpful to receive such anonymous feedback concerning my student’s interaction with specific texts. For instance, a text that is more appealing to female readers, as the infographic suggests Pride & Prejudice is, would preferably be balanced by a text more appealing to male readers. Moreover, knowing whether students finished reading or understood the text is equally important, and I think students would be more likely to admit such information to their peers in an anonymous survey than to me in anonymous feedback submitted to the instructor.

Or infographics could be created to provide background information on literary texts before or while reading. Such an assignment in the literature classroom would practice many of the same researching and citing skills discussed previously concerning infographics in the composition classroom, as well as provide fellow students with important contextual information on assigned texts.

Finally, infographics could be used in the classroom not as an assignment but as a way for the instructor to review information and skills. In this way, instructor-produced infographics would become a quick reference for students in the course. Although the last method to be discussed in this post, this is probably where I would begin incorporating infographics into my classroom practices, if only because it would require that I become familiar with the creation of infographics, thereby allowing me to help my students create their own as well as more effectively evaluate and assess their final products.

“10 Free Tools for Creating Infographics” seems to be a good place to begin playing with the creation of infographics.

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions and/or reviews of infographic creating applications (preferably free and user friendly). I’d also love to hear from anyone who has used infographic assignments in their classrooms.

Note: I have not checked the veracity of the infographics included in this post.

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