As we move into the world of competency-based education and one-to-one devices, students (and teachers) are finding themselves creating visual projects such as presentations, videos, and websites. Clubs and organizations are creating posters and social media posts to advertise events. Good design is important for all of these situations, but teachers do not always have the time or expertise to be focusing on design concepts or complex software. What if there was a tool that provided countless professionally designed templates, high quality photos and graphics, and thousands of fonts...all for free?
You're in luck. Canva is a tool that can help anyone look like a professional designer in mere minutes. You simply start with one of their nearly 500,000 templates and then customize it to fit your needs and style:
Within each template, anything can be changed, from colors and fonts to images and design elements to the full layout and even the size. Designs can be shared in a ton of different ways. Whether you want to download the file to your computer, post it to social media, send it to your Drive, share a link, text or email it to a friend, or even record yourself presenting it...you can do it directly from the Canva window. They even have a printing service, so you could get your designs printed on t-shirts, stickers, calendars, and more (although that part does cost money!)
Did I mention that Canva is also collaborative just like Google Drive? The possibilities are nearly endless. Think about your own subject and look at the menu below...how could your students demonstrate their competence using some of these templates?
Signing Up
Let's get back to the "Free" part. Canva DOES have a "Pro" version, but if you are a teacher...you get that for free! In Londonderry, we have a District account (also free), so all you need to do is sign in with your district Google account, and you will be added to the Londonderry School District Team. Students can do the same thing and it gives them the Pro version free as well. You can even access it from our Google App Launcher (the Waffle). That's it - no hoops to jump through. Just start exploring and designing!
If your district does not have a team set up, that's okay...you can still sign up with your school email address and select that you are a teacher. It will guide you through verifying your information and you will be set up! I would recommend reaching out to your district IT department and having them sign up for the district account. For us, the process took less than 24 hours.
Try it Out
500,000 templates is a lot. If you are new, where do you even think about starting? Let me provide a suggestion - we are about to begin a new semester, which is a perfect time for updating Google Classroom with a brand new custom header! Take a look at these templates - pick one you like and add your class information. Fun fact...you can also use these templates to create headers for Google Forms! Here's the one I created for our Lunch & Learn sign up form:
Learning Canva
Canva is really easy to use and explore, but if you need some additional support, they also have "Canva Design School" which features tutorials and courses from beginner to pro. And of course, Londonderry HS teachers can sign up for one-on-one training.
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