Visual Literacy

CanvasDropr provides a virtually infinite online canvas on which you and your friends / contacts can easily add, position, resize and rotate photos and video clips at will.

CanvasDropr can be used to brainstorm around visual collections, to select and organize images, and to prepare visual portfolios or tours to share with others or to be published online. 

From the official site: "The center of the CanvasDropr idea is to work and collaborate on a so-called "Canvas".

The canvas can be shared by an unlimited amount of people, and changes made in the canvas are updated real-time in every user’s canvas.

Users can easily drag and drop new images directly from their desktop onto the canvas."

CanvasDrops allows you to text chat in real-time with other "collaborators" you have invited as well as to set permissions for what "public" users can edit or modify on a "public canvas.

It is possible to place photos and video clips coming from Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Picasa or to import one simply by providing its URL. 

The final canvas can be shared on FB or Twitter, downloaded as an "image" or a .zip file containing all of its images and can also be "embedded" on any site or blog.

The service is free to use.

Check this video: http://vimeo.com/31591478 ;

Find out more: http://www.canvasdropr.com/ ;

or you can try it immediately with no need for signup if you alrady have a Twitter or facebook account: http://www.canvasdropr.com/Signup.aspx ;

In media studies we often look at the creation of print and digital advertisements. Traditionally, students learn many of the foundational principles for creating a layout through a lecture or text book reading, and then eventually create their own.

What if we started with creativity rather than principles?

Let’s be honest, we don’t like to read big pieces of text. Text-heavy graphs are rather difficult for understanding, especially when dealing with numbers and statistics. That is why illustrations and flowcharts are often used for such kind of information.

An infographic, or a visual representation of study or data, like anything else, can be done right or wrong. How to create a successful infographic? A good idea and a good design.

Stop by the link for more on what defines an infographic, what contributes to its popularity, as well as the various types of infographics and references for tutorials and best practices.

Additional topics covered include: