http://creately.com/
Creately.com is an online diagramming application that allows you to create, collaborate, and store visual aids online without downloads that are usually limited by district computing. Creately is an excellent tool to assist the visual learner. The basic free subscription allows a user to create three private diagrams and almost limitless public diagrams within 10MB. The user can choose from a variety of diagram types such as education k-12, Business graphics, and databases. Once a type of diagram is chosen, a user then chooses a template ranging from blank to cycle to compare and contrast. Creately allows users to track revisions as well as comment on other collaborator’s editions.
As an educator I can use creately in many ways. One way would be to assist in the comprehension of a concept by creating a visual aide. This is very common in most subject areas already. Another way would be to create a collaborative diagram that was a basic subject or topic and then invite my students to add and edit the diagram to adapt to their understanding. This could be a great insight to the student’s understanding of complex topics in science. Another way that this application could be used would be as a group project to review a subject area. Students could work together to create a diagram. I could track their efforts and give them feedback throughout their design using the comments tool. The comments tool would allow me to provide suggestions throughout the process as well as when formulating the final grading process to explain their grade. As an educator I could also use the revisions information to view the content and edits made by each student to ensure that grading is relative to the student’s abilities and effort in completing the assignment.
I could also use this tool to differentiate instruction. Creately allows the user to “filter” the details displayed. For higher-level students I could use less detail in my display and expect them to make critical thinking connections to add to my diagram or I could create a rubric for individual assignments that would level the filters based on the student’s ability. Concept maps are usually helpful to students when understanding the “big picture” but can be very difficult for students to create. I think that using creately will help to motivate students and to scaffold instruction to assist them in learning this critical thinking task.
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