August 1, 2023 • 40 mins
In this episode, we are talking all about an amazing, and easy-to-use tool called Canva. We will be diving into the how-tos, ideas for using Canva with your students, features within Canva, and the differences between the types of accounts (free, pro, and education).
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News and Updates
Featured Content
- Canva is a great and easy-to-use graphic design tool
- Canva website
- Canva for Education account sign up - a bit intense! For K-12 teachers only
- Canva Pricing Chart - gives you some idea about features in each type of account
- Getting Started with Canva Tutorials
- Canva for Education Tutorials - setting up classes and using Canva with students
- Canva Templates
- Font Combinations Tool from Canva
- Canva Colour Palette Generator
- MOOC's (Massive Open Online Courses) - Coursera, edX and many more
- Canva Design Types - so many options available!
- SVG file types + Cricut/Silhouette - for classroom decorations, manipulatives, etc
- Canva Distance Education Resources
- Ways to use it in the classroom:
- Design lesson plans, worksheets, etc for your classroom
- App smash with Google Tools like Slides or Jamboard
- Bitmoji Classroom Templates
- Classroom Kits Templates
- Flashcard Templates
- Customize your LMS - headers, navigation bar icons
- Newsletters to communicate with home/parents
- Resume templates
- Social Media accounts linked to your school
- Infographic Templates for Education
Connect with EduGals:
- Twitter @EduGals
- Rachel @dr_r_johnson
- Katie @KatieAttwell
- EduGals Website
- Support the show
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Rachel (00:26):
Welcome to the Edge U Gals podcast.
We are your co-host RachelJohnson
Katie (00:31):
and Katie Atwell.
We are here to bring you tipsand tricks to help you integrate
technology into your classroom.
Rachel (00:41):
In this episode, Katie and I are gonna be talking all
about Canva.
So we're gonna go over some ofthe how-tos to get started with
Canva, as well as some ideas foryou to use Canva with your
students.
Katie (00:54):
We will also go over the differences between the personal
account and the educationaccount and go over all of the
different features that you canuse within both.
Let's get
Rachel (01:03):
started.
We are gonna start off with somenews and updates from the
Twitterverse and beyond.
Katie (01:16):
So for this week, we first wanna say Happy New Year.
We hope that you had a greatwinter break if you had one.
Um, and that 2021 brings yougood health and lots of
happiness.
Rachel (01:27):
And so with that being said, what we wanted to do
instead of bringing you ourtypical news from Twitter is we
wanted to talk about a blog postthat we put out recently about
our Top 10 podcast episodes from2020.
So we're pretty excited aboutthis because we started our
(01:48):
podcast back in April of 2020,so it's.
What, eight months old?
Yeah,
Katie (01:54):
just over eight months, which is totally
Rachel (01:56):
crazy.
And it was really kind of fun togo back and look at some of our
analytics and see which of ourpodcast episodes were the most
popular.
Yeah, it's
Katie (02:06):
been, it's been really neat kind of going through and,
and kind of reminding myself ofall of the episodes that we have
done and how they were receivedby our audience.
Rachel (02:18):
And just really nice to be able to reflect on our year
as well and how much we'veaccomplished.
So yeah, we wanted to celebratethat in a blog post.
And also, if you haven't had achance to listen to all of our
podcast episodes yet, I thinkthis is a really good place for
you to start because these havebeen our most popular episodes.
Katie (02:40):
Definitely.
So check it out.
We will be sure to put the linkin our show notes so that you
can check out this blog post.
Our show notes can befound@edugals.com slash 32.
That's edu G A ls.com/ 32.
And now onto our featuredcontent.
Rachel (03:04):
This.
Week, Katie and I are gonna betalking all about Canva and how
you can use it for yourself as ateacher, an educator, as well as
with your students.
Yeah,
Katie (03:15):
so for those who have never used it, Canva is a pretty
great, I don't know, creativetool that's easy to use, that
really makes things look alittle more visually and
aesthetically pleasing.
So like we've used it to createsome posters to create some of
the visuals for Well or Edge Gspodcast.
And then I also used it in acouple of my courses as
(03:36):
assignments.
Like I created assignments withit.
So yeah, no, it's, it's a prettyversatile
Rachel (03:40):
tool.
It's definitely my go-towhenever I need to create some
kind of image or some kind ofgraphics.
So like Katie said, we do all ofour visuals for our podcast on
here.
I'll do things like even socialmedia posts, and one thing I
really like doing with Canva iswhenever I wanna create like a.
Custom icon for differentwebsites that I'm building.
(04:03):
So in Google sites or somethinglike that, Canva is my go-to as
well.
Yeah,
Katie (04:07):
I have never found a tool that offers such a range of
options in terms of visuals andediting tools that ends up with
the same type of product.
So to me, the fact that it'seasy to use as well is a bonus
because sometimes I'm not themost patient when I'm putting
together visuals.
So, um, I really enjoy how kindof simple it is.
So I guess we get into like howto access it.
(04:28):
And so it depends on if you'reusing it for a personal counter
education account.
So the basic, if you're using itfor a personal, you get
it@canva.com.
Um, and then if you wanna do itfor an education account, you go
through canva.com/education.
Now, one thing to note, if youare doing it for an education
account, They ask for a lot ofinformation and you really do
(04:49):
have to prove that you're aneducator.
So it's hard to kind of cheatyour way into an education
account.
Rachel (04:55):
It really is an intense application process.
I was kind of a little, a littletaken aback when I first.
Went onto that Canva educationpage.
It asks for things like awebsite address for your school
that you're working at.
It asks for proof of yourteaching certification, and then
(05:16):
it also asks for proof that youactually work at a school and
they'll only grant educationaccounts for.
K to 12 teachers.
So really important that youprovide all of that information
and that it is very accurate orelse your application won't get
approved.
And it does take a little bit oftime too.
So just to be aware that whenyou submit that application, I
(05:40):
think mine took a few daysbefore I got the word that I got
accepted into
Katie (05:46):
it.
Yes.
And one thing to note is thatonce you do have an education
account, it is actually free forstudents as well.
So it's free for educators andstudents, but please make sure
that it's an approved tool inyour board or district, because
not all boards are going toapprove every single tool.
Like for us, we can't actuallyuse it with our students, but we
(06:09):
can use it for
Rachel (06:09):
ourselves.
There are some advantages too,of getting an education account
versus just going the freepersonal Canva account.
It does give you access to someof the pro features.
It's not everything.
It's basically like a watereddown version of what their pro
accounts are that you would payfor.
It does give you access to someof those.
(06:32):
Different fonts and images andelements that you can add into
your designs, though for free.
So that's kind of handy.
I've, I've found a lot of thingsas I've kind of been putting
together different visuals formyself in that education account
that you wouldn't find in.
One of the free Canva accounts.
And then what's also really niceabout the education accounts is,
(06:54):
and I haven't played with thismuch, I'll be honest, because
like Katie said, this isn't atool we're allowed to use with
our students.
But you can set up classes andyou can set up templates and
folders and assignments.
And so you can do a lot ofthings within Canva and use it
as a hub for your classroom.
(07:14):
And
Katie (07:14):
I just wanna say like I've only looked through their
education templates and whatnotbecause I don't yet have an
education account, but it, it'sactually, I like it and I wish
we could use it.
There are so many differenttemplates that you can use and
then tweak.
There's, well, Rachel's going tolike this part.
There's over 3000 differentfonts that you can use, so
(07:36):
that's pretty amazing in and ofitself.
And then it also actually, it,it goes well with Google Drive,
Dropbox folders, et cetera.
So it, it is kind of linked into different, um, l m S systems
like Google Classroom orMicrosoft Teams Remind, et
cetera.
Like there, there is a lot ofinteraction.
So
Rachel (07:55):
what we're gonna do is we're gonna start off with a
little bit of a tour aroundCanva, just in case you haven't
used Canva before, to give youan idea of what you can do with
it, and then we'll dive intosome of the ideas and how you
can use it as an educator, bothfor yourself and with your
students in your
Katie (08:15):
classroom.
Yeah, so when you first log inright away, you're kind of taken
to a homepage where you havesome recommended types of
templates or at the very top,you can just click on create a
design, and then there'sdifferent options as well, so
you can do based on dimensions.
You can do based on an imagethat you wanna start with.
And then it also suggests abunch of different types of
(08:38):
posts or
Rachel (08:39):
media as well.
What I really like about this iswhen you click on that create a
design, it gives you a search.
So if you know you want tocreate, for example, uh, visual
for Twitter, if you just starttyping in the word Twitter, you
get.
All of the different dimensionsthat are already set up for you
for the different types ofTwitter things.
(09:00):
So you can do a Twitter ad, aheader, a post, like it just
goes on and on in terms of howmany different things there are
for that particular tool.
And what I really, really likeis if you search for classroom,
you get a Google Classroomheader.
So you can come in here andcreate a custom Google Classroom
header for your class.
(09:20):
So there's a ton of different.
Options, and you're not evenstuck to just the ones that are
listed in that section.
Use the search tool and look forwhatever that kind of keyword is
and guaranteed you're gonna comeup with a ton of different
options
Katie (09:37):
here.
And you know that students lovesocial media, so even having
them create.
Some sort of assignment thatcould use, like Instagram type
thing, Instagram posts andstories.
They all, they have templatesfor all of those, so really play
around with it, see what theyhave, take a look at all the
different features andtemplates.
It, it's actually.
A pretty intense and robust
Rachel (09:58):
tool.
You can also browse throughtemplates up at the top toolbar.
So you've got your Canva, yougot home, and then if you hover
over the templates, they do giveyou a bunch of different ones in
there as well.
So you got social media and theygive you some suggestions,
personal business, marketing,education, and trending.
(10:19):
So you can go take a lookthrough there as well if you
kind of wanna browse a littlebit
Katie (10:23):
more.
I like the education one rightthere because they give you
really easy ideas like lessonplans or worksheets or
certificates if you wanna createthem.
So we're talking about likecreating badges and some sort of
system for PD last week.
So you know, why not createcertificates as well for your
students as they kind of gothrough?
I don't know, there's, there'slots that
Rachel (10:44):
can be done.
So once you find one that youlike and you click on it, it's
going to open up the Canvaeditor.
And from there, there's a ton ofoptions in here.
I think the first one we shouldreally kind of highlight though,
is it opens up on the sidepanel, the templates.
So not only does it open up theright dimensions for you, but it
(11:06):
gives you a whole bunch ofstarting points where you can
start with a template.
So, And then you can also searchin here.
So if you're looking for aspecific keyword, say maybe, I
don't know, something foodrelated, you can type in that
search term and then it'll bringup everything that's related to
that particular search.
So you can narrow down thetemplates because there's so
(11:27):
many in there into even.
I don't know, basically smallerkind of keywords, right, that
you're looking for.
And then you can click on one ofthose templates and it's
automatically gonna bringeverything into your design for
you.
And then from there you canstart editing it.
So it's a really sort of nice,quick way to create visuals is
(11:48):
to start from a template itself.
I find it overwhelming to startwith just a blank canvas.
So I like going and finding someof those.
Templates and then tweaking themto what I want it to look like.
No,
Katie (12:01):
I agree wholeheartedly.
There's so many things therethat you
Rachel (12:05):
really do have to narrow it down a little bit, and then
everything within there isclickable.
You can edit to basically yourheart's content.
Katie (12:13):
So you can click on any text or images that are there,
and then you're gonna see alongthat left hand panel all of the
different options and like waysthat you can customize.
So if you have photos that youwant to, of your own that you
want to include, you can uploadphotos, you can access photos
that are kind of built in withinCanva and available for use.
Um, and then there's a bunch ofdifferent elements as well.
(12:35):
So there's different shapes,frames, so how to frame an
image.
Stickers like so much, I, Ican't even tell you how many
items there are because it seems
Rachel (12:45):
endless.
It really is.
The next option down is thetext.
So you know, I think it's kindof fitting that I talk about it
in here.
You can add any kind of text boxto your design, so you can add a
heading, subheading, a littlebit of body text.
They actually give you somedifferent font combinations and
(13:05):
suggestions.
So if you're not good at pairingfonts, this is kind of a good
place to start.
But then you can also search inhere.
And again, there's.
So many options in terms oftext, it's, it's actually
pretty, pretty overwhelming.
Katie (13:21):
But this is good for me.
Like I think that I'm not verygood at pairing text and kind of
seeing the graphic design end ofit.
So to me, this is fantasticbecause I don't have to think
about that.
They've already kind of pairedthem and designed them.
In such a way that makes
Rachel (13:36):
sense.
Now, as you're kind ofnavigating through this, it
depends on the kind of accountyou have.
If you have just a personalaccount, you gotta be really
aware of any kind of font orelement or anything like that
that has the little crown besideit, because that means that you
do have to pay extra for thatparticular thing.
(13:56):
So as I'm scrolling through thefonts, like there's a bunch of
fonts that have the little crownbeside it.
Now, if you're an educationuser, Then all of those are
free.
Katie (14:06):
Now to be honest, there are like a lot of free ones.
Like the first while for me isall free.
So, but just keep that in mindas you're kind of scrolling
through because you know we payfor so much as educators, you
really do wanna try to takeadvantage of things that you
don't have to pay
Rachel (14:20):
for.
I think it is a really greatreason though to go and get that
Canva for Education accountbecause it does open up even
more.
Possibilities for fonts andelements and photos and all of
that sort of stuff.
And yeah, it's, it's a lot offun.
So the next
Katie (14:36):
one down is music, which I think is great.
I, I don't know how I would useit.
I mean, I guess you could use itif you're putting together a
presentation or like a, anInstagram story or one of those.
So something that's animated.
I'm apparently not very good atdoing animated.
But yeah, so there are variousdifferent, uh, music clips that
you can include.
(14:57):
A lot of them are locked foreducation, at least on my end,
but there are quite a few thatare free as well.
Now I
Rachel (15:03):
kind of think it's interesting to note because when
I'm looking at my side panel, Ididn't have music in there as
the next one down.
I ended up having to go into mymore, and then it was at the
very top with a few differentoptions.
Now that I've clicked on it, itis in my side panel, so I think.
Maybe just if you're not seeingwhat we're talking about as we,
(15:25):
we go through some of thesedifferent tools in Canva, then
go click on your more, the threedots at the very bottom.
And if you click on those there,they should be in there and then
they should get added to yourside panel.
So when I did that, I not onlyfound music, I also found a tab
called Styles, which has.
(15:45):
You can actually add in textstyles along with a color
palette.
So that's kind of cool.
And then I also found charts inthere as well.
And so I clicked on that one andthat's now being added to my
side panel as well.
And you can add in differentcharts with pretty colors in
there.
I also
Katie (16:03):
really like how they do like the font and color
combinations under style becausethen I don't have to think about
it because I'm not good atknowing colors and what.
Match Well, and essentially it'sa good thing that I didn't ever
contemplate graphic design.
I'm glad there's somebody to dothat thinking For me,
Rachel (16:23):
I've actually always wanted to learn more about
graphic design and yeah, it's,it's something that I don't
really know a whole lot about,but I think it'd be really cool
to learn
Katie (16:34):
more.
You have a good eye for colorsand stuff and fond.
Rachel (16:37):
Yeah, so that's why I've always kind of wanted to learn
and dive in a little bit more.
I've actually gone, and we'regoing off on a tangent here,
which is okay cuz we always do,right?
But I've gone onto some ofthose, what do they call'em?
MOOCs, and done some of thosekind of courses, you know, the
massive online courses.
And done a few of the graphicdesign ones.
(16:59):
I don't know what you're talkingabout.
What's a mooc?
Katie (17:00):
You don't
Rachel (17:01):
know what a MOOC is?
No.
It's all of those courses thatyou can sign up for free.
So things like edX, how do Ispell mooc?
M O O C.
It stands for a massive openonline course, and so you can go
sign up for these.
They're free.
Sometimes you can pay to getlike an extra certification
(17:22):
certificate or PD credit orwhatever.
And I think that's probably moreimportant than in the States
than it is here in Canada.
But there's a bunch of differentsort of organizations and a lot
of the really big universitiesoffer these courses for free.
So you can take a course fromHarvard, m i t, like all kinds
of places.
And I've gone through a coupleof, like Corsair is another one.
(17:46):
Okay, and I've gone through acouple of these, or at least
started them.
I, I never really finished thecourses, but you do learn a lot
from it.
And so there's a ton out thereon graphic design.
If you ever wanted to learn alittle bit more about graphic
design, you have just blown mymind.
Well, maybe we need to do awhole episode on
MOOCs
Katie (18:05):
because I had no idea.
They're pretty cool.
I'm just a sucker who keepspaying for all my courses.
Rachel (18:14):
Coursera's another big one too.
I've done a few throughCoursera.
So what we'll do
Katie (18:18):
is we'll make sure that we actually share in those links
to MOOC and Coursera, uh, incase anybody else had no idea
what those were and want tocheck them out.
And so you'll be able to findthose in our show
notes@edgygals.com slash 32.
That's EDU G A ls.com/
Rachel (18:36):
32.
There's a few other options too.
If we, if we go back to Canvanow, there's things like videos,
so you can add videos to yourdesign.
You can also change thebackground and you can search
for a whole bunch of stuff inthere in terms of what you wanna
set as your background.
You can do charts, which I, Imentioned previously.
(18:59):
And, um, the one I really,really like is I like clicking
on the more button because thereare so many different apps and
integrations with Canva.
So you can, and my favorite oneis linking my Bitmoji.
Understandably, yeah, butthere's so many integrations in
here.
So things like Pexels and PixaBay, those are all free images
(19:21):
that you can use and searchthrough.
So if you can't find what youwant in the photos, Which I'm, I
can't believe if you can't findwhat you want in the photos, but
you can go and search thereinstead.
You can also do embeds.
You can do different GIF fromgfi.
You can integrate your Googledrive.
So many options in here.
(19:43):
So it's really worth kind ofpoking around in that more tab
because there really is a lotmore you can do.
That's
Katie (19:49):
amazing.
Even Pixton.
Like Pixton is a really neatcomic book tool that, uh, you
can use for education.
And you can integrate pixton tooand add the comic
Rachel (19:59):
characters.
Yeah.
So when you click on differentelements within your design, you
get different kinds of editingoptions depending on what you've
clicked on.
So if you click on yourbackground, you can, they,
they've got a little color boxat the top so you can go change
the color of your background.
You can animate things, which iskind of neat.
(20:20):
So depending on what the thingis, again, you can do some
different sort of effects there.
Now, I haven't really playedaround with the animate stuff,
but when I click on that andclick on some of the different
things, it does animatedifferent sort of pieces within
your design.
So you can get it to, I don'tknow, the text to kind of fly in
(20:41):
or pan in or rise or tumble.
Like there's a whole bunch ofdifferent sort of options there,
I think.
Then yes, if you download itfrom there, it will download it
then as a video, so you can thengo embed that in.
Wherever you want.
So it's kind of a neat, kind ofquick way to create an animated
video, or even if you cycle thatvideo, then like an animated
Katie (21:04):
gif.
And another thing to consider isthat share button at the, at the
top of the screen besidedownload.
So you can actually share thiswith someone and then they can
edit it.
So you can share a link to edit.
Share a link to use it as atemplate, which is an additional
paid feature, or you can share alink for people to be able to
view it.
So I think that's kind of, Idon't know.
(21:26):
It's fun.
I like it because then you don'thave to do it on your own.
If it's a group project, you canget a few people in on it.
Yeah,
Rachel (21:32):
it's kind of neat.
Now, if you have a Canva forEducation account, instead of
clicking on the share button,it's either the, it depends on
the design that you're in, butif you look for the three dots
in the very top right handcorner and click on that, then
you can save things as atemplate in here, and it
actually gives you a whole bunchof other options and ways that
(21:54):
you can download your design.
You can also send it directly toyour Google classroom.
You can share a link, you canpresent it, but then there's
usually another three dots menu,and if you click on that, it
gives you even more ways thatyou can use it.
And one of those options issaving it as a template.
(22:14):
So if you have classes set up inyour Canva account, your Canva
for Education account, you cansave templates to folders and
create assignments basically foryour students to use so they can
take your template and then editthat template and create their
own designs from it.
Katie (22:31):
And there's lots of options for the record, for the
sharing.
Like it's like, it's an intensenumber of options, so pretty
much anything you're ever goingto want to find is in there.
I think that's
Rachel (22:42):
kind of the whole theme of Canva, right?
Yes.
Is there are so many options andevery single button you click
on, the number of options isactually pretty overwhelming.
Katie (22:52):
Y yes.
So really think you have toreally know what you want out of
the tool before you go in.
So if it's something that youwant to be able to save as a
template, like go in knowingthat you're gonna do it as a
template.
If it's something, maybe youwanna design a poster for an
event, know that that's what youwanna do, because I think that
helps you wrap around the numberof options and really focus in
on what you wanna do with
Rachel (23:13):
it.
Yeah, it even gives you options.
And these are like paid options,but you can print t-shirts and
all kinds of stuff too.
Katie (23:20):
Yeah.
I thought that was really fun.
So once you're done kind ofsetting it up, designing it, and
you're like, okay, it's good togo.
I'm gonna share it or print itor download it.
There are different options.
So you can download as A P N G,which is a high quality image as
a JPEG pdf.
There's two different options.
So one is a smaller file size,whereas one is uh, obviously a
(23:42):
larger one and it's more highquality.
From there.
There's an S V G, which I'venever used,
Rachel (23:47):
have you?
Yeah, so the svg, it does have alittle crown beside it.
It has that on your personalaccount, right?
Yep.
That means that that's a premiumfeature.
So if you're using a personalaccount, you're gonna have to
pay if you wanna downloadsomething as an svg.
But with education accounts, youcan do that for free.
The cool thing about v g files,Is if you have a dye cutter, so
(24:12):
something like a cricket or asilhouette, then you can take
these s v g files and then youcan go cut them out with your
machine.
So you could, um, cut it out invinyl or paper or whatever
you're doing with your cricket.
And so that's kind of cool.
That is neat.
You could create all kinds ofclassroom decorations or
(24:33):
different things that you wannacut out.
Maybe it's even manipulativesthat you're creating for your
class.
Like there's a lot of optionsyou could do there.
And then it makes it easy to cutout with those files and with
one of those machines.
Katie (24:46):
I like it.
I've never used one.
Not shocking.
I'm sure.
And then the last two optionsthere on the download list are
mp4 video, uh, and then a gif.
Or a gif, however you wanna
Rachel (24:58):
say it.
I think we're both GIF in theGIF camp,
Katie (25:00):
right?
Yeah.
I say GIF all the time, but I'veheard it mentioned as a gif.
So putting that out there,
Rachel (25:07):
you do get some other options in terms of it, whatever
sort of.
Type of file that you choose todownload.
So depending on what you'vepicked, some of them will allow
you to pick the size so you canchange the size perspective as
well.
And for a paid account or withan education account, you can
download it with a transparentbackground, which is so
(25:30):
important if you're gonna goembed it on any kind of website.
And you don't want that uglywhite.
Backgrounds or whatever coloredbackground to show up there.
And then you might also be ableto compress the file.
So giving you a smaller filesize, it is a bit lower quality,
but it can, for example, ifyou're sticking it on a website,
it, it will load quicker if it'scompressed.
(25:53):
Yeah.
So there's lots of
Katie (25:54):
different options there.
Rachel (25:55):
And then if you wanna title your design, maybe we
should say where you title it,because that's not always super
intuitive if you go up to rightbeside your share box.
It'll say untitled design, blah,blah, blah.
If you just click on that, thenyou can start typing a title in
there.
Katie (26:11):
And it's probably worth mentioning that within there you
also have some different, um,things that can show up to help
you with your editing, likerulers, guides, margins, ets
cetera.
So I mean, it's worth kind ofchecking it out.
And then the one thing I like isversion history.
So if I go back in the next dayand I'm like, oh, I don't like
what I did yesterday, you canactually go back and, and change
(26:32):
the
Rachel (26:32):
version.
So those are all in the fileoption.
You can also change the namethere as well.
Yeah.
Now you can also resize designsif you're in a personal account.
Again, this is a paid feature,but if you have a Canva for
Education account, this isanother great reason for getting
that kind of account.
Because you can resize them forfree.
(26:52):
Yes.
And so you can, if you'vedesigned something and you,
you're like, oh no, it's thewrong dimensions.
You can come in here and createnew dimensions for whatever you
Katie (27:02):
need.
And now I think it's worthtalking about, you know, not
just how to use it in terms ofputting things together and
stylizing, et cetera, but howcan we practically use this in
the
Rachel (27:13):
classroom?
Like we've kind of mentioned,there's some really great
templates for you to create asan educator.
So maybe it's, you're not evengetting students to log in here.
Maybe this is just your placewhere you're designing different
things for your students to use.
So you can do things like lessonplans, worksheets, certificates,
(27:35):
storyboards, class schedules.
There's a whole bunch of reallygreat kind of.
Education templates in therethat you can start from, so
you're not starting from scratch
Katie (27:46):
and there's so many different options in terms of
worksheets, et cetera.
Like it's actually kind ofamazing and they're actually
look like they look nicer.
I hate handing out handoutswhere they're just black and
white text and not really muchto them.
So like some of these templateslike.
I might already use somethingthat's similar, but it kind of
gives it a little more of a, anappeal to actually doing it.
Like there's a little moreeffort put into it and it's just
(28:09):
more exciting,
Rachel (28:09):
especially since everything's online now and most
people are switching to doingdigital work as you could come
in here and create some kind ofworksheet that is very colorful
and visually engaging.
And then maybe you are appsmashing that with Google Slides
and creating the different textboxes and such that your
(28:30):
students can then go and fill inall the different options for,
Katie (28:34):
no, there's lots of possibilities here, so it's
definitely worth, you know, ifyou're not sure, just go to
camba.com/education.
Check out that page.
They have so many differentexamples and templates that you
can see.
And then decide if you wanna gothrough the whole getting the
Rachel (28:50):
account.
Now, if you wanna create aBitmoji classroom, they actually
have some templates for virtualclassrooms already made for you.
So it's already got thedifferent backgrounds.
All you have to do is click onone.
You can change the colors and doa whole bunch of different
things.
So this is a very, very quickway.
Especially if you then link toyour Bitmoji account to create
(29:13):
one of those Bitmoji classrooms.
Yes,
Katie (29:15):
and I actually like the look of these virtual
Rachel (29:18):
classrooms.
They are, they're very visuallypleasing and you gotta kinda
look at them as, okay, I likethe design, but maybe I don't
like the color or some of theelements that are in there.
That's okay because it gives youa really great starting place to
create a Bitmoji classroom very,very quickly.
Yes.
And I think anything that savestime this year is gonna, it's so
(29:41):
important because with the kindsof, um, like frameworks and
stuff that we're using in termsof our teaching, so a lot of us
are teaching hybrid or virtual.
Time is so precious.
Katie (29:54):
I don't like, you don't really have time to create your
own virtual classroom at thispoint.
So having something that I canjust plug in my own kind of
personality into, but it'salready there.
Uh, it's great.
And what I
Rachel (30:05):
like about some of these virtual classrooms too is that
they have things such as anagenda for the day.
So maybe you're even creatingthis as your agenda slide.
You can add links to any ofthis.
So, Your students can click onthe different links.
It could be that landing pagethat you're using to help keep
your class organized for theentire learning block.
(30:29):
Especially because learningblocks are huge now, for, at
least for us, we have either twoor three hour learning blocks.
So being able to keep thatorganized and to have a, like a
one-stop shop for your students,I think is really important.
Yes.
Definitely the other kind oftemplates I like.
So they have classroom kits, soyou could create a whole bunch
(30:51):
of different visuals that allkind of have the same theme.
So if you wanted to makeeverything sort of cohesive and
look really.
Pretty together.
Then they have that.
They also have lots of reallygreat presentation templates as
well that go along with that.
And then one that I find reallyinteresting is the flashcards.
(31:12):
They have flashcard templates.
It's one of the suggested kindof templates that pop up when
I'm on my homepage.
But I think if you just searchfor the templates and search for
flashcard, it'll bring up allthe flashcard templates.
This is awesome.
It is awesome.
Right.
So I can see Katie using thiswith her ELLs for sure.
(31:34):
Uhhuh?
I
Katie (31:34):
was going to say that.
Yeah.
Especially the ELDs, right?
Because then it gives you avisual to go along with the
word, which when you arestarting from nothing and, and
no literacy in any language.
These are great.
I wish I knew about this lastyear, especially after the
closures, right?
Because I actually put togethermy own flashcards and I was like
using my paper cutter.
I was cutting the ball up,sending them to my students.
(31:56):
This would've made my life somuch easier.
Rachel (32:00):
It really would've saved you a lot of time.
Yeah, and again, you just kindalook for the layout that you
want for a set of flashcards.
If it's not the right words ornot the right kind of thing, you
can go in and change all of it.
So really neat.
It'd be fun to make somechemistry related ones.
Yes.
No, that would be great.
(32:20):
So I guess for those usingBrightspace, We're kind of
probably speaking to justOntario educators right now, but
you can really customize yourBrightspace core shell or any
LMS really.
You could, you could customizeand create some visuals in here.
So that's what I've done interms of my Brightspace core
shell is I've come in andcreated my own personalized
(32:43):
header in here, which isactually really quick to do.
But then if you wanted to takeit further, even your navigation
bar at the top, you could createcustom icons for all of your
different things that you haveon there.
So you can really, I don't know,create a, a really sort of
custom feel and make it yourown.
Katie (33:06):
Yeah.
It's more personal that wayinstead of just.
The defaults.
I will be honest, I haven'tchanged my nav bar at all.
Mostly because time, if thatmakes sense.
Like I feel like I have so manyother things to worry about.
But, um, I think now that I havea prep, you know, I'll have a
bit more time as we get settledinto Quad two, and that could be
something that I actually spendsome time doing, making it look
(33:26):
a little
Rachel (33:26):
bit prettier.
You could even then, OnBrightspace, you can create
custom widgets.
So maybe you are creating avirtual classroom with all of
your contact information there,and then you're posting that on
your front homepage as well, soyour students know where they
can get in touch with you.
And you could put things likeyour email address on there,
(33:46):
links to booking appointmentswith you, and a whole bunch of
different information.
So I think it really justpersonalizes that experience a
little bit more.
And I know some of this stuff isa little superficial, but I feel
like creating that kind ofwelcoming environment, when
students first log in, they geta little bit more comfortable
(34:08):
with the space itself.
Katie (34:09):
And you may say it's, it's superficial, but if you
think about it, like when theylog in, everything looks the
same.
How can you identify whichcourse it is?
How do you know where you'resupposed to be going?
When it all just blends in,because that's the reality right
now.
Everything kind of looks thesame.
So yes, superficial, but it'sstill student comfort and, and
(34:30):
you know, giving them a bit morecomfort with the tool and
knowing, okay, I know where I'mat this Miss Atwell's class.
Rachel (34:36):
Yeah, you could do even do things like if you're
creating presentations or videosor gifts or whatever from here,
you can embed all of that sortof stuff in your newsfeed posts
too.
So, or into your content sectionas well in your l m s.
So as long as you can find aplace for an embed code, you can
pop those in there.
(34:57):
You could also create reallynice newsletters that you sent
Katie (35:01):
home.
I did see that.
I saw that there were a few forthat.
And I kinda
Rachel (35:05):
like those, anything that can save you a bit of time
right?
And gives you a template, astarting place to work from, and
then you can personalize it foryourself.
I think really, uh, it's justsuch a huge time saver.
They even
Katie (35:18):
have, uh, resume templates and I'm teaching
careers right now, so it's kindof a neat conversation as to,
you know, how to make yourresume stand out, things to do,
things not to do.
So, yeah.
Lots of different things thatyou can do with
Rachel (35:31):
Canva.
Yeah, it just keeps going on andon for sure.
Now, if you do wanna use theeducation features and you wanna
create classes, you can do thatand you can create different
assignments.
And like I said, I haven'treally played with this feature,
so I don't know a whole lotabout it.
But I think what we'll do isthere's a bunch of resources on
(35:53):
Canvas education page, so we'llmake sure that we link out to
those resources for you to takea look at about how to set up a
class and how to shareassignments with your students
because I think there's a lot ofpower and getting students
Katie (36:07):
creating Yes.
I think that's the good thingabout Canva, like getting
students on here and actuallyputting things together.
I think that's the power in it.
Yes, it, it's good for me cuz Ican make things look nicer and
make my lessons better, but Ithink there's a lot of power in
the kids using it.
I
Rachel (36:23):
think another sort of great way to use Canva as an
educator is if you are runningany kind of Instagram account or
any others.
Social media type account.
I think of, for example, ourschool library account.
We have an Instagram account,and so you can create some
(36:44):
really nice visuals to advertisedifferent events that are going
on or different tips that mighthelp students or I think the
possibilities are endless thereand creating something very sort
of visually appealing.
Does.
Help to improve engagement inthose kinds of posts.
(37:05):
So one
Katie (37:06):
other way that we can get students creating on here is,
um, infographics.
So they actually have a categorycalled an education
infographics.
And so they can choose from atemplate and, and maybe they're
doing a little bit of a researchproject or putting together, you
know, some instructions on like,like safety in the classroom, or
maybe it's even safety in thetech classroom.
(37:27):
They can actually create theseinfographic posters.
I think it's really good.
It gives them kind of a chanceto put together their learning
and find ways to communicateconcisely and effectively
Rachel (37:38):
for other people.
I definitely feel likeinfographics are definitely an
underutilized tool.
It's such a powerful way toconvey a message, and I've seen
some really neat projects evenin the school I was previously
at, I say previously at now,because I'm starting to feel
like I'm no longer there.
But they would create postersabout history events, and then
(38:04):
they would actually print thoseout and onto a magnetic
background and then they wouldput them all up on the lockers
throughout the hallway.
Katie (38:13):
Yeah.
We did that for history and sowe, I did that with my ESL
history class.
And then all of the historyclasses were doing that.
And it's great.
They had so much fun and thenknowing they could put it up on
their locker and then peoplewould go around and see what
they've done.
There was a lot of, uh, therewas a lot of
Rachel (38:30):
pride in their work.
Yeah.
Having that public audience.
Right.
Katie (38:34):
It also made them buy in, right, because then they're
actually gonna put the effortinto the images, really make
sure that their text makessense, especially from an ESL
lens.
Like we did peer editing andthat was the first time in a
long time, if ever, that thesekids actually bought into peer
editing.
So it was a good learning
Rachel (38:52):
opportunity.
I love those projects.
I love walking around thehallway and taking a look at all
the different ones.
They were great.
Yeah, they, I was so impressed.
So hopefully that gives you someideas and different ways that
you can use Canva with yourstudents, not only for yourself
as an educator, but also gettingyour students creating with this
(39:13):
tool, because this tool isabsolutely amazing and it's
very, very user-friendly,especially for the beginner.
With graphic design,
Katie (39:21):
and if you use Canva and you want to share maybe an
assignment that you do or adifferent way that you use it
that we haven't mentioned, we'dlove to hear from you.
So feel free to check out ourFlipgrid and leave a response
there at edu.
gals.com/flipgrid.
Or if you have a comment on ourwebsite@edugals.com
Rachel (39:38):
and we'll be sure to include all the links and
resources that we have talkedabout today in our show notes.
You can access our shownotes@edugs.com slash 32.
That's edu G a ls.com/
32.
Katie (39:54):
And if you like what you heard today, make sure you share
it with a colleague or a friend.
We'd love to help out andsupport more
Rachel (39:59):
educators.
And if you haven't yet, makesure you subscribe to our
podcast on your favoritepodcasting app.
Thanks
Katie (40:06):
for listening and see you next week.
Thanks for listening to thisepisode of our edu Gals podcast.
Show notes for this episode areavailable@edugals.com.
That's E D U G A L s.com.
(40:28):
We'd also love to hear yourfeedback, so leave us a message
on our website and
Rachel (40:32):
if you enjoyed what you heard, please subscribe and
consider leaving a rating orreview on your favorite podcast
app.
Until next time, keep beingawesome and try something new.
Welcome to the Edge U Gals podcast.
We are your co-host RachelJohnson
Katie (00:31):
and Katie Atwell.
We are here to bring you tipsand tricks to help you integrate
technology into your classroom.
Rachel (00:41):
In this episode, Katie and I are gonna be talking all
about Canva.
So we're gonna go over some ofthe how-tos to get started with
Canva, as well as some ideas foryou to use Canva with your
students.
Katie (00:54):
We will also go over the differences between the personal
account and the educationaccount and go over all of the
different features that you canuse within both.
Let's get
Rachel (01:03):
started.
We are gonna start off with somenews and updates from the
Twitterverse and beyond.
Katie (01:16):
So for this week, we first wanna say Happy New Year.
We hope that you had a greatwinter break if you had one.
Um, and that 2021 brings yougood health and lots of
happiness.
Rachel (01:27):
And so with that being said, what we wanted to do
instead of bringing you ourtypical news from Twitter is we
wanted to talk about a blog postthat we put out recently about
our Top 10 podcast episodes from2020.
So we're pretty excited aboutthis because we started our
(01:48):
podcast back in April of 2020,so it's.
What, eight months old?
Yeah,
Katie (01:54):
just over eight months, which is totally
Rachel (01:56):
crazy.
And it was really kind of fun togo back and look at some of our
analytics and see which of ourpodcast episodes were the most
popular.
Yeah, it's
Katie (02:06):
been, it's been really neat kind of going through and,
and kind of reminding myself ofall of the episodes that we have
done and how they were receivedby our audience.
Rachel (02:18):
And just really nice to be able to reflect on our year
as well and how much we'veaccomplished.
So yeah, we wanted to celebratethat in a blog post.
And also, if you haven't had achance to listen to all of our
podcast episodes yet, I thinkthis is a really good place for
you to start because these havebeen our most popular episodes.
Katie (02:40):
Definitely.
So check it out.
We will be sure to put the linkin our show notes so that you
can check out this blog post.
Our show notes can befound@edugals.com slash 32.
That's edu G A ls.com/ 32.
And now onto our featuredcontent.
Rachel (03:04):
This.
Week, Katie and I are gonna betalking all about Canva and how
you can use it for yourself as ateacher, an educator, as well as
with your students.
Yeah,
Katie (03:15):
so for those who have never used it, Canva is a pretty
great, I don't know, creativetool that's easy to use, that
really makes things look alittle more visually and
aesthetically pleasing.
So like we've used it to createsome posters to create some of
the visuals for Well or Edge Gspodcast.
And then I also used it in acouple of my courses as
(03:36):
assignments.
Like I created assignments withit.
So yeah, no, it's, it's a prettyversatile
Rachel (03:40):
tool.
It's definitely my go-towhenever I need to create some
kind of image or some kind ofgraphics.
So like Katie said, we do all ofour visuals for our podcast on
here.
I'll do things like even socialmedia posts, and one thing I
really like doing with Canva iswhenever I wanna create like a.
Custom icon for differentwebsites that I'm building.
(04:03):
So in Google sites or somethinglike that, Canva is my go-to as
well.
Yeah,
Katie (04:07):
I have never found a tool that offers such a range of
options in terms of visuals andediting tools that ends up with
the same type of product.
So to me, the fact that it'seasy to use as well is a bonus
because sometimes I'm not themost patient when I'm putting
together visuals.
So, um, I really enjoy how kindof simple it is.
So I guess we get into like howto access it.
(04:28):
And so it depends on if you'reusing it for a personal counter
education account.
So the basic, if you're using itfor a personal, you get
it@canva.com.
Um, and then if you wanna do itfor an education account, you go
through canva.com/education.
Now, one thing to note, if youare doing it for an education
account, They ask for a lot ofinformation and you really do
(04:49):
have to prove that you're aneducator.
So it's hard to kind of cheatyour way into an education
account.
Rachel (04:55):
It really is an intense application process.
I was kind of a little, a littletaken aback when I first.
Went onto that Canva educationpage.
It asks for things like awebsite address for your school
that you're working at.
It asks for proof of yourteaching certification, and then
(05:16):
it also asks for proof that youactually work at a school and
they'll only grant educationaccounts for.
K to 12 teachers.
So really important that youprovide all of that information
and that it is very accurate orelse your application won't get
approved.
And it does take a little bit oftime too.
So just to be aware that whenyou submit that application, I
(05:40):
think mine took a few daysbefore I got the word that I got
accepted into
Katie (05:46):
it.
Yes.
And one thing to note is thatonce you do have an education
account, it is actually free forstudents as well.
So it's free for educators andstudents, but please make sure
that it's an approved tool inyour board or district, because
not all boards are going toapprove every single tool.
Like for us, we can't actuallyuse it with our students, but we
(06:09):
can use it for
Rachel (06:09):
ourselves.
There are some advantages too,of getting an education account
versus just going the freepersonal Canva account.
It does give you access to someof the pro features.
It's not everything.
It's basically like a watereddown version of what their pro
accounts are that you would payfor.
It does give you access to someof those.
(06:32):
Different fonts and images andelements that you can add into
your designs, though for free.
So that's kind of handy.
I've, I've found a lot of thingsas I've kind of been putting
together different visuals formyself in that education account
that you wouldn't find in.
One of the free Canva accounts.
And then what's also really niceabout the education accounts is,
(06:54):
and I haven't played with thismuch, I'll be honest, because
like Katie said, this isn't atool we're allowed to use with
our students.
But you can set up classes andyou can set up templates and
folders and assignments.
And so you can do a lot ofthings within Canva and use it
as a hub for your classroom.
(07:14):
And
Katie (07:14):
I just wanna say like I've only looked through their
education templates and whatnotbecause I don't yet have an
education account, but it, it'sactually, I like it and I wish
we could use it.
There are so many differenttemplates that you can use and
then tweak.
There's, well, Rachel's going tolike this part.
There's over 3000 differentfonts that you can use, so
(07:36):
that's pretty amazing in and ofitself.
And then it also actually, it,it goes well with Google Drive,
Dropbox folders, et cetera.
So it, it is kind of linked into different, um, l m S systems
like Google Classroom orMicrosoft Teams Remind, et
cetera.
Like there, there is a lot ofinteraction.
So
Rachel (07:55):
what we're gonna do is we're gonna start off with a
little bit of a tour aroundCanva, just in case you haven't
used Canva before, to give youan idea of what you can do with
it, and then we'll dive intosome of the ideas and how you
can use it as an educator, bothfor yourself and with your
students in your
Katie (08:15):
classroom.
Yeah, so when you first log inright away, you're kind of taken
to a homepage where you havesome recommended types of
templates or at the very top,you can just click on create a
design, and then there'sdifferent options as well, so
you can do based on dimensions.
You can do based on an imagethat you wanna start with.
And then it also suggests abunch of different types of
(08:38):
posts or
Rachel (08:39):
media as well.
What I really like about this iswhen you click on that create a
design, it gives you a search.
So if you know you want tocreate, for example, uh, visual
for Twitter, if you just starttyping in the word Twitter, you
get.
All of the different dimensionsthat are already set up for you
for the different types ofTwitter things.
(09:00):
So you can do a Twitter ad, aheader, a post, like it just
goes on and on in terms of howmany different things there are
for that particular tool.
And what I really, really likeis if you search for classroom,
you get a Google Classroomheader.
So you can come in here andcreate a custom Google Classroom
header for your class.
(09:20):
So there's a ton of different.
Options, and you're not evenstuck to just the ones that are
listed in that section.
Use the search tool and look forwhatever that kind of keyword is
and guaranteed you're gonna comeup with a ton of different
options
Katie (09:37):
here.
And you know that students lovesocial media, so even having
them create.
Some sort of assignment thatcould use, like Instagram type
thing, Instagram posts andstories.
They all, they have templatesfor all of those, so really play
around with it, see what theyhave, take a look at all the
different features andtemplates.
It, it's actually.
A pretty intense and robust
Rachel (09:58):
tool.
You can also browse throughtemplates up at the top toolbar.
So you've got your Canva, yougot home, and then if you hover
over the templates, they do giveyou a bunch of different ones in
there as well.
So you got social media and theygive you some suggestions,
personal business, marketing,education, and trending.
(10:19):
So you can go take a lookthrough there as well if you
kind of wanna browse a littlebit
Katie (10:23):
more.
I like the education one rightthere because they give you
really easy ideas like lessonplans or worksheets or
certificates if you wanna createthem.
So we're talking about likecreating badges and some sort of
system for PD last week.
So you know, why not createcertificates as well for your
students as they kind of gothrough?
I don't know, there's, there'slots that
Rachel (10:44):
can be done.
So once you find one that youlike and you click on it, it's
going to open up the Canvaeditor.
And from there, there's a ton ofoptions in here.
I think the first one we shouldreally kind of highlight though,
is it opens up on the sidepanel, the templates.
So not only does it open up theright dimensions for you, but it
(11:06):
gives you a whole bunch ofstarting points where you can
start with a template.
So, And then you can also searchin here.
So if you're looking for aspecific keyword, say maybe, I
don't know, something foodrelated, you can type in that
search term and then it'll bringup everything that's related to
that particular search.
So you can narrow down thetemplates because there's so
(11:27):
many in there into even.
I don't know, basically smallerkind of keywords, right, that
you're looking for.
And then you can click on one ofthose templates and it's
automatically gonna bringeverything into your design for
you.
And then from there you canstart editing it.
So it's a really sort of nice,quick way to create visuals is
(11:48):
to start from a template itself.
I find it overwhelming to startwith just a blank canvas.
So I like going and finding someof those.
Templates and then tweaking themto what I want it to look like.
No,
Katie (12:01):
I agree wholeheartedly.
There's so many things therethat you
Rachel (12:05):
really do have to narrow it down a little bit, and then
everything within there isclickable.
You can edit to basically yourheart's content.
Katie (12:13):
So you can click on any text or images that are there,
and then you're gonna see alongthat left hand panel all of the
different options and like waysthat you can customize.
So if you have photos that youwant to, of your own that you
want to include, you can uploadphotos, you can access photos
that are kind of built in withinCanva and available for use.
Um, and then there's a bunch ofdifferent elements as well.
(12:35):
So there's different shapes,frames, so how to frame an
image.
Stickers like so much, I, Ican't even tell you how many
items there are because it seems
Rachel (12:45):
endless.
It really is.
The next option down is thetext.
So you know, I think it's kindof fitting that I talk about it
in here.
You can add any kind of text boxto your design, so you can add a
heading, subheading, a littlebit of body text.
They actually give you somedifferent font combinations and
(13:05):
suggestions.
So if you're not good at pairingfonts, this is kind of a good
place to start.
But then you can also search inhere.
And again, there's.
So many options in terms oftext, it's, it's actually
pretty, pretty overwhelming.
Katie (13:21):
But this is good for me.
Like I think that I'm not verygood at pairing text and kind of
seeing the graphic design end ofit.
So to me, this is fantasticbecause I don't have to think
about that.
They've already kind of pairedthem and designed them.
In such a way that makes
Rachel (13:36):
sense.
Now, as you're kind ofnavigating through this, it
depends on the kind of accountyou have.
If you have just a personalaccount, you gotta be really
aware of any kind of font orelement or anything like that
that has the little crown besideit, because that means that you
do have to pay extra for thatparticular thing.
(13:56):
So as I'm scrolling through thefonts, like there's a bunch of
fonts that have the little crownbeside it.
Now, if you're an educationuser, Then all of those are
free.
Katie (14:06):
Now to be honest, there are like a lot of free ones.
Like the first while for me isall free.
So, but just keep that in mindas you're kind of scrolling
through because you know we payfor so much as educators, you
really do wanna try to takeadvantage of things that you
don't have to pay
Rachel (14:20):
for.
I think it is a really greatreason though to go and get that
Canva for Education accountbecause it does open up even
more.
Possibilities for fonts andelements and photos and all of
that sort of stuff.
And yeah, it's, it's a lot offun.
So the next
Katie (14:36):
one down is music, which I think is great.
I, I don't know how I would useit.
I mean, I guess you could use itif you're putting together a
presentation or like a, anInstagram story or one of those.
So something that's animated.
I'm apparently not very good atdoing animated.
But yeah, so there are variousdifferent, uh, music clips that
you can include.
(14:57):
A lot of them are locked foreducation, at least on my end,
but there are quite a few thatare free as well.
Now I
Rachel (15:03):
kind of think it's interesting to note because when
I'm looking at my side panel, Ididn't have music in there as
the next one down.
I ended up having to go into mymore, and then it was at the
very top with a few differentoptions.
Now that I've clicked on it, itis in my side panel, so I think.
Maybe just if you're not seeingwhat we're talking about as we,
(15:25):
we go through some of thesedifferent tools in Canva, then
go click on your more, the threedots at the very bottom.
And if you click on those there,they should be in there and then
they should get added to yourside panel.
So when I did that, I not onlyfound music, I also found a tab
called Styles, which has.
(15:45):
You can actually add in textstyles along with a color
palette.
So that's kind of cool.
And then I also found charts inthere as well.
And so I clicked on that one andthat's now being added to my
side panel as well.
And you can add in differentcharts with pretty colors in
there.
I also
Katie (16:03):
really like how they do like the font and color
combinations under style becausethen I don't have to think about
it because I'm not good atknowing colors and what.
Match Well, and essentially it'sa good thing that I didn't ever
contemplate graphic design.
I'm glad there's somebody to dothat thinking For me,
Rachel (16:23):
I've actually always wanted to learn more about
graphic design and yeah, it's,it's something that I don't
really know a whole lot about,but I think it'd be really cool
to learn
Katie (16:34):
more.
You have a good eye for colorsand stuff and fond.
Rachel (16:37):
Yeah, so that's why I've always kind of wanted to learn
and dive in a little bit more.
I've actually gone, and we'regoing off on a tangent here,
which is okay cuz we always do,right?
But I've gone onto some ofthose, what do they call'em?
MOOCs, and done some of thosekind of courses, you know, the
massive online courses.
And done a few of the graphicdesign ones.
(16:59):
I don't know what you're talkingabout.
What's a mooc?
Katie (17:00):
You don't
Rachel (17:01):
know what a MOOC is?
No.
It's all of those courses thatyou can sign up for free.
So things like edX, how do Ispell mooc?
M O O C.
It stands for a massive openonline course, and so you can go
sign up for these.
They're free.
Sometimes you can pay to getlike an extra certification
(17:22):
certificate or PD credit orwhatever.
And I think that's probably moreimportant than in the States
than it is here in Canada.
But there's a bunch of differentsort of organizations and a lot
of the really big universitiesoffer these courses for free.
So you can take a course fromHarvard, m i t, like all kinds
of places.
And I've gone through a coupleof, like Corsair is another one.
(17:46):
Okay, and I've gone through acouple of these, or at least
started them.
I, I never really finished thecourses, but you do learn a lot
from it.
And so there's a ton out thereon graphic design.
If you ever wanted to learn alittle bit more about graphic
design, you have just blown mymind.
Well, maybe we need to do awhole episode on
MOOCs
Katie (18:05):
because I had no idea.
They're pretty cool.
I'm just a sucker who keepspaying for all my courses.
Rachel (18:14):
Coursera's another big one too.
I've done a few throughCoursera.
So what we'll do
Katie (18:18):
is we'll make sure that we actually share in those links
to MOOC and Coursera, uh, incase anybody else had no idea
what those were and want tocheck them out.
And so you'll be able to findthose in our show
notes@edgygals.com slash 32.
That's EDU G A ls.com/
Rachel (18:36):
32.
There's a few other options too.
If we, if we go back to Canvanow, there's things like videos,
so you can add videos to yourdesign.
You can also change thebackground and you can search
for a whole bunch of stuff inthere in terms of what you wanna
set as your background.
You can do charts, which I, Imentioned previously.
(18:59):
And, um, the one I really,really like is I like clicking
on the more button because thereare so many different apps and
integrations with Canva.
So you can, and my favorite oneis linking my Bitmoji.
Understandably, yeah, butthere's so many integrations in
here.
So things like Pexels and PixaBay, those are all free images
(19:21):
that you can use and searchthrough.
So if you can't find what youwant in the photos, Which I'm, I
can't believe if you can't findwhat you want in the photos, but
you can go and search thereinstead.
You can also do embeds.
You can do different GIF fromgfi.
You can integrate your Googledrive.
So many options in here.
(19:43):
So it's really worth kind ofpoking around in that more tab
because there really is a lotmore you can do.
That's
Katie (19:49):
amazing.
Even Pixton.
Like Pixton is a really neatcomic book tool that, uh, you
can use for education.
And you can integrate pixton tooand add the comic
Rachel (19:59):
characters.
Yeah.
So when you click on differentelements within your design, you
get different kinds of editingoptions depending on what you've
clicked on.
So if you click on yourbackground, you can, they,
they've got a little color boxat the top so you can go change
the color of your background.
You can animate things, which iskind of neat.
(20:20):
So depending on what the thingis, again, you can do some
different sort of effects there.
Now, I haven't really playedaround with the animate stuff,
but when I click on that andclick on some of the different
things, it does animatedifferent sort of pieces within
your design.
So you can get it to, I don'tknow, the text to kind of fly in
(20:41):
or pan in or rise or tumble.
Like there's a whole bunch ofdifferent sort of options there,
I think.
Then yes, if you download itfrom there, it will download it
then as a video, so you can thengo embed that in.
Wherever you want.
So it's kind of a neat, kind ofquick way to create an animated
video, or even if you cycle thatvideo, then like an animated
Katie (21:04):
gif.
And another thing to consider isthat share button at the, at the
top of the screen besidedownload.
So you can actually share thiswith someone and then they can
edit it.
So you can share a link to edit.
Share a link to use it as atemplate, which is an additional
paid feature, or you can share alink for people to be able to
view it.
So I think that's kind of, Idon't know.
(21:26):
It's fun.
I like it because then you don'thave to do it on your own.
If it's a group project, you canget a few people in on it.
Yeah,
Rachel (21:32):
it's kind of neat.
Now, if you have a Canva forEducation account, instead of
clicking on the share button,it's either the, it depends on
the design that you're in, butif you look for the three dots
in the very top right handcorner and click on that, then
you can save things as atemplate in here, and it
actually gives you a whole bunchof other options and ways that
(21:54):
you can download your design.
You can also send it directly toyour Google classroom.
You can share a link, you canpresent it, but then there's
usually another three dots menu,and if you click on that, it
gives you even more ways thatyou can use it.
And one of those options issaving it as a template.
(22:14):
So if you have classes set up inyour Canva account, your Canva
for Education account, you cansave templates to folders and
create assignments basically foryour students to use so they can
take your template and then editthat template and create their
own designs from it.
Katie (22:31):
And there's lots of options for the record, for the
sharing.
Like it's like, it's an intensenumber of options, so pretty
much anything you're ever goingto want to find is in there.
I think that's
Rachel (22:42):
kind of the whole theme of Canva, right?
Yes.
Is there are so many options andevery single button you click
on, the number of options isactually pretty overwhelming.
Katie (22:52):
Y yes.
So really think you have toreally know what you want out of
the tool before you go in.
So if it's something that youwant to be able to save as a
template, like go in knowingthat you're gonna do it as a
template.
If it's something, maybe youwanna design a poster for an
event, know that that's what youwanna do, because I think that
helps you wrap around the numberof options and really focus in
on what you wanna do with
Rachel (23:13):
it.
Yeah, it even gives you options.
And these are like paid options,but you can print t-shirts and
all kinds of stuff too.
Katie (23:20):
Yeah.
I thought that was really fun.
So once you're done kind ofsetting it up, designing it, and
you're like, okay, it's good togo.
I'm gonna share it or print itor download it.
There are different options.
So you can download as A P N G,which is a high quality image as
a JPEG pdf.
There's two different options.
So one is a smaller file size,whereas one is uh, obviously a
(23:42):
larger one and it's more highquality.
From there.
There's an S V G, which I'venever used,
Rachel (23:47):
have you?
Yeah, so the svg, it does have alittle crown beside it.
It has that on your personalaccount, right?
Yep.
That means that that's a premiumfeature.
So if you're using a personalaccount, you're gonna have to
pay if you wanna downloadsomething as an svg.
But with education accounts, youcan do that for free.
The cool thing about v g files,Is if you have a dye cutter, so
(24:12):
something like a cricket or asilhouette, then you can take
these s v g files and then youcan go cut them out with your
machine.
So you could, um, cut it out invinyl or paper or whatever
you're doing with your cricket.
And so that's kind of cool.
That is neat.
You could create all kinds ofclassroom decorations or
(24:33):
different things that you wannacut out.
Maybe it's even manipulativesthat you're creating for your
class.
Like there's a lot of optionsyou could do there.
And then it makes it easy to cutout with those files and with
one of those machines.
Katie (24:46):
I like it.
I've never used one.
Not shocking.
I'm sure.
And then the last two optionsthere on the download list are
mp4 video, uh, and then a gif.
Or a gif, however you wanna
Rachel (24:58):
say it.
I think we're both GIF in theGIF camp,
Katie (25:00):
right?
Yeah.
I say GIF all the time, but I'veheard it mentioned as a gif.
So putting that out there,
Rachel (25:07):
you do get some other options in terms of it, whatever
sort of.
Type of file that you choose todownload.
So depending on what you'vepicked, some of them will allow
you to pick the size so you canchange the size perspective as
well.
And for a paid account or withan education account, you can
download it with a transparentbackground, which is so
(25:30):
important if you're gonna goembed it on any kind of website.
And you don't want that uglywhite.
Backgrounds or whatever coloredbackground to show up there.
And then you might also be ableto compress the file.
So giving you a smaller filesize, it is a bit lower quality,
but it can, for example, ifyou're sticking it on a website,
it, it will load quicker if it'scompressed.
(25:53):
Yeah.
So there's lots of
Katie (25:54):
different options there.
Rachel (25:55):
And then if you wanna title your design, maybe we
should say where you title it,because that's not always super
intuitive if you go up to rightbeside your share box.
It'll say untitled design, blah,blah, blah.
If you just click on that, thenyou can start typing a title in
there.
Katie (26:11):
And it's probably worth mentioning that within there you
also have some different, um,things that can show up to help
you with your editing, likerulers, guides, margins, ets
cetera.
So I mean, it's worth kind ofchecking it out.
And then the one thing I like isversion history.
So if I go back in the next dayand I'm like, oh, I don't like
what I did yesterday, you canactually go back and, and change
(26:32):
the
Rachel (26:32):
version.
So those are all in the fileoption.
You can also change the namethere as well.
Yeah.
Now you can also resize designsif you're in a personal account.
Again, this is a paid feature,but if you have a Canva for
Education account, this isanother great reason for getting
that kind of account.
Because you can resize them forfree.
(26:52):
Yes.
And so you can, if you'vedesigned something and you,
you're like, oh no, it's thewrong dimensions.
You can come in here and createnew dimensions for whatever you
Katie (27:02):
need.
And now I think it's worthtalking about, you know, not
just how to use it in terms ofputting things together and
stylizing, et cetera, but howcan we practically use this in
the
Rachel (27:13):
classroom?
Like we've kind of mentioned,there's some really great
templates for you to create asan educator.
So maybe it's, you're not evengetting students to log in here.
Maybe this is just your placewhere you're designing different
things for your students to use.
So you can do things like lessonplans, worksheets, certificates,
(27:35):
storyboards, class schedules.
There's a whole bunch of reallygreat kind of.
Education templates in therethat you can start from, so
you're not starting from scratch
Katie (27:46):
and there's so many different options in terms of
worksheets, et cetera.
Like it's actually kind ofamazing and they're actually
look like they look nicer.
I hate handing out handoutswhere they're just black and
white text and not really muchto them.
So like some of these templateslike.
I might already use somethingthat's similar, but it kind of
gives it a little more of a, anappeal to actually doing it.
Like there's a little moreeffort put into it and it's just
(28:09):
more exciting,
Rachel (28:09):
especially since everything's online now and most
people are switching to doingdigital work as you could come
in here and create some kind ofworksheet that is very colorful
and visually engaging.
And then maybe you are appsmashing that with Google Slides
and creating the different textboxes and such that your
(28:30):
students can then go and fill inall the different options for,
Katie (28:34):
no, there's lots of possibilities here, so it's
definitely worth, you know, ifyou're not sure, just go to
camba.com/education.
Check out that page.
They have so many differentexamples and templates that you
can see.
And then decide if you wanna gothrough the whole getting the
Rachel (28:50):
account.
Now, if you wanna create aBitmoji classroom, they actually
have some templates for virtualclassrooms already made for you.
So it's already got thedifferent backgrounds.
All you have to do is click onone.
You can change the colors and doa whole bunch of different
things.
So this is a very, very quickway.
Especially if you then link toyour Bitmoji account to create
(29:13):
one of those Bitmoji classrooms.
Yes,
Katie (29:15):
and I actually like the look of these virtual
Rachel (29:18):
classrooms.
They are, they're very visuallypleasing and you gotta kinda
look at them as, okay, I likethe design, but maybe I don't
like the color or some of theelements that are in there.
That's okay because it gives youa really great starting place to
create a Bitmoji classroom very,very quickly.
Yes.
And I think anything that savestime this year is gonna, it's so
(29:41):
important because with the kindsof, um, like frameworks and
stuff that we're using in termsof our teaching, so a lot of us
are teaching hybrid or virtual.
Time is so precious.
Katie (29:54):
I don't like, you don't really have time to create your
own virtual classroom at thispoint.
So having something that I canjust plug in my own kind of
personality into, but it'salready there.
Uh, it's great.
And what I
Rachel (30:05):
like about some of these virtual classrooms too is that
they have things such as anagenda for the day.
So maybe you're even creatingthis as your agenda slide.
You can add links to any ofthis.
So, Your students can click onthe different links.
It could be that landing pagethat you're using to help keep
your class organized for theentire learning block.
(30:29):
Especially because learningblocks are huge now, for, at
least for us, we have either twoor three hour learning blocks.
So being able to keep thatorganized and to have a, like a
one-stop shop for your students,I think is really important.
Yes.
Definitely the other kind oftemplates I like.
So they have classroom kits, soyou could create a whole bunch
(30:51):
of different visuals that allkind of have the same theme.
So if you wanted to makeeverything sort of cohesive and
look really.
Pretty together.
Then they have that.
They also have lots of reallygreat presentation templates as
well that go along with that.
And then one that I find reallyinteresting is the flashcards.
(31:12):
They have flashcard templates.
It's one of the suggested kindof templates that pop up when
I'm on my homepage.
But I think if you just searchfor the templates and search for
flashcard, it'll bring up allthe flashcard templates.
This is awesome.
It is awesome.
Right.
So I can see Katie using thiswith her ELLs for sure.
(31:34):
Uhhuh?
I
Katie (31:34):
was going to say that.
Yeah.
Especially the ELDs, right?
Because then it gives you avisual to go along with the
word, which when you arestarting from nothing and, and
no literacy in any language.
These are great.
I wish I knew about this lastyear, especially after the
closures, right?
Because I actually put togethermy own flashcards and I was like
using my paper cutter.
I was cutting the ball up,sending them to my students.
(31:56):
This would've made my life somuch easier.
Rachel (32:00):
It really would've saved you a lot of time.
Yeah, and again, you just kindalook for the layout that you
want for a set of flashcards.
If it's not the right words ornot the right kind of thing, you
can go in and change all of it.
So really neat.
It'd be fun to make somechemistry related ones.
Yes.
No, that would be great.
(32:20):
So I guess for those usingBrightspace, We're kind of
probably speaking to justOntario educators right now, but
you can really customize yourBrightspace core shell or any
LMS really.
You could, you could customizeand create some visuals in here.
So that's what I've done interms of my Brightspace core
shell is I've come in andcreated my own personalized
(32:43):
header in here, which isactually really quick to do.
But then if you wanted to takeit further, even your navigation
bar at the top, you could createcustom icons for all of your
different things that you haveon there.
So you can really, I don't know,create a, a really sort of
custom feel and make it yourown.
Katie (33:06):
Yeah.
It's more personal that wayinstead of just.
The defaults.
I will be honest, I haven'tchanged my nav bar at all.
Mostly because time, if thatmakes sense.
Like I feel like I have so manyother things to worry about.
But, um, I think now that I havea prep, you know, I'll have a
bit more time as we get settledinto Quad two, and that could be
something that I actually spendsome time doing, making it look
(33:26):
a little
Rachel (33:26):
bit prettier.
You could even then, OnBrightspace, you can create
custom widgets.
So maybe you are creating avirtual classroom with all of
your contact information there,and then you're posting that on
your front homepage as well, soyour students know where they
can get in touch with you.
And you could put things likeyour email address on there,
(33:46):
links to booking appointmentswith you, and a whole bunch of
different information.
So I think it really justpersonalizes that experience a
little bit more.
And I know some of this stuff isa little superficial, but I feel
like creating that kind ofwelcoming environment, when
students first log in, they geta little bit more comfortable
(34:08):
with the space itself.
Katie (34:09):
And you may say it's, it's superficial, but if you
think about it, like when theylog in, everything looks the
same.
How can you identify whichcourse it is?
How do you know where you'resupposed to be going?
When it all just blends in,because that's the reality right
now.
Everything kind of looks thesame.
So yes, superficial, but it'sstill student comfort and, and
(34:30):
you know, giving them a bit morecomfort with the tool and
knowing, okay, I know where I'mat this Miss Atwell's class.
Rachel (34:36):
Yeah, you could do even do things like if you're
creating presentations or videosor gifts or whatever from here,
you can embed all of that sortof stuff in your newsfeed posts
too.
So, or into your content sectionas well in your l m s.
So as long as you can find aplace for an embed code, you can
pop those in there.
(34:57):
You could also create reallynice newsletters that you sent
Katie (35:01):
home.
I did see that.
I saw that there were a few forthat.
And I kinda
Rachel (35:05):
like those, anything that can save you a bit of time
right?
And gives you a template, astarting place to work from, and
then you can personalize it foryourself.
I think really, uh, it's justsuch a huge time saver.
They even
Katie (35:18):
have, uh, resume templates and I'm teaching
careers right now, so it's kindof a neat conversation as to,
you know, how to make yourresume stand out, things to do,
things not to do.
So, yeah.
Lots of different things thatyou can do with
Rachel (35:31):
Canva.
Yeah, it just keeps going on andon for sure.
Now, if you do wanna use theeducation features and you wanna
create classes, you can do thatand you can create different
assignments.
And like I said, I haven'treally played with this feature,
so I don't know a whole lotabout it.
But I think what we'll do isthere's a bunch of resources on
(35:53):
Canvas education page, so we'llmake sure that we link out to
those resources for you to takea look at about how to set up a
class and how to shareassignments with your students
because I think there's a lot ofpower and getting students
Katie (36:07):
creating Yes.
I think that's the good thingabout Canva, like getting
students on here and actuallyputting things together.
I think that's the power in it.
Yes, it, it's good for me cuz Ican make things look nicer and
make my lessons better, but Ithink there's a lot of power in
the kids using it.
I
Rachel (36:23):
think another sort of great way to use Canva as an
educator is if you are runningany kind of Instagram account or
any others.
Social media type account.
I think of, for example, ourschool library account.
We have an Instagram account,and so you can create some
(36:44):
really nice visuals to advertisedifferent events that are going
on or different tips that mighthelp students or I think the
possibilities are endless thereand creating something very sort
of visually appealing.
Does.
Help to improve engagement inthose kinds of posts.
(37:05):
So one
Katie (37:06):
other way that we can get students creating on here is,
um, infographics.
So they actually have a categorycalled an education
infographics.
And so they can choose from atemplate and, and maybe they're
doing a little bit of a researchproject or putting together, you
know, some instructions on like,like safety in the classroom, or
maybe it's even safety in thetech classroom.
(37:27):
They can actually create theseinfographic posters.
I think it's really good.
It gives them kind of a chanceto put together their learning
and find ways to communicateconcisely and effectively
Rachel (37:38):
for other people.
I definitely feel likeinfographics are definitely an
underutilized tool.
It's such a powerful way toconvey a message, and I've seen
some really neat projects evenin the school I was previously
at, I say previously at now,because I'm starting to feel
like I'm no longer there.
But they would create postersabout history events, and then
(38:04):
they would actually print thoseout and onto a magnetic
background and then they wouldput them all up on the lockers
throughout the hallway.
Katie (38:13):
Yeah.
We did that for history and sowe, I did that with my ESL
history class.
And then all of the historyclasses were doing that.
And it's great.
They had so much fun and thenknowing they could put it up on
their locker and then peoplewould go around and see what
they've done.
There was a lot of, uh, therewas a lot of
Rachel (38:30):
pride in their work.
Yeah.
Having that public audience.
Right.
Katie (38:34):
It also made them buy in, right, because then they're
actually gonna put the effortinto the images, really make
sure that their text makessense, especially from an ESL
lens.
Like we did peer editing andthat was the first time in a
long time, if ever, that thesekids actually bought into peer
editing.
So it was a good learning
Rachel (38:52):
opportunity.
I love those projects.
I love walking around thehallway and taking a look at all
the different ones.
They were great.
Yeah, they, I was so impressed.
So hopefully that gives you someideas and different ways that
you can use Canva with yourstudents, not only for yourself
as an educator, but also gettingyour students creating with this
(39:13):
tool, because this tool isabsolutely amazing and it's
very, very user-friendly,especially for the beginner.
With graphic design,
Katie (39:21):
and if you use Canva and you want to share maybe an
assignment that you do or adifferent way that you use it
that we haven't mentioned, we'dlove to hear from you.
So feel free to check out ourFlipgrid and leave a response
there at edu.
gals.com/flipgrid.
Or if you have a comment on ourwebsite@edugals.com
Rachel (39:38):
and we'll be sure to include all the links and
resources that we have talkedabout today in our show notes.
You can access our shownotes@edugs.com slash 32.
That's edu G a ls.com/
32.
Katie (39:54):
And if you like what you heard today, make sure you share
it with a colleague or a friend.
We'd love to help out andsupport more
Rachel (39:59):
educators.
And if you haven't yet, makesure you subscribe to our
podcast on your favoritepodcasting app.
Thanks
Katie (40:06):
for listening and see you next week.
Thanks for listening to thisepisode of our edu Gals podcast.
Show notes for this episode areavailable@edugals.com.
That's E D U G A L s.com.
(40:28):
We'd also love to hear yourfeedback, so leave us a message
on our website and
Rachel (40:32):
if you enjoyed what you heard, please subscribe and
consider leaving a rating orreview on your favorite podcast
app.
Until next time, keep beingawesome and try something new.
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