197: Highly Recommended: Canva

This week on "Highly Recommended," I'm sharing my absolute favorite tool on the internet, which just so happens to be free for educators - CANVA!   So here's what Canva does - it give you (and your students) the ability to do the kinds of things that only designers used to be able to do. Once upon a time, you needed to spend fifty hours learning Photoshop to layer colors and images, get rid of backgrounds, match image colors to font colors, and so many other small strategies that made a visual project look professional.  And now you don't. You can design handouts, flashcards, games,  models, web graphics, and classroom newsletters in a flash using Canva templates. And your students can get results they'll feel proud of as they create podcast covers, illustrated quotations, graphic novels, children's books, infographics, social media posts, and more.  Canva design has a lot in common with Powerpoint and Slides, they've kept the menus relatively simple so you can create without feeling overwhelmed. The best way to learn how to use it is to go in and experiment, and then if there's something you can't figure out how to do, you just Google your question "How to remove a background in Canva," etc. Soooooo many people are using it now that you'll quickly find answers to your questions, as a million or so other people are asking the same ones.  Summer is a perfect time to register for a free account and start experimenting.  Visit Canva for Education here!    Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram.  Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the 'gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!