What is Canva for Education? 5 Ideas to Get Students Creating

What is Canva for education you ask?

In the companies own words “An amazingly simple graphic design tool, now Free for students and teachers.

Canva turns students into creators not just consumers
Students will be able to create graphics that show learning, , infographics of ideas from class, collaborate on projects and much more.

• 75 million+ premium stock photos, videos and graphics free-to-use
• 420,000+ templates
• 3,000+ fonts
• Publish assignments and activities for your students
• Access your content from Google Drive, Dropbox and Folders
• Bring your designs to life with Bitmoji, Giphy and YouTube
• Share your designs to Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams and Remind.

First Step: Sign up for Canva for Education 

This one step will help change your students into digital creators!

Canva is very easy to use. A teacher simply signs up with their school email account and submits something to prove they are in fact a teacher.  Then once approved, teachers can begin to invite  students to their class easily through Google Classroom or by email if using a different LMS.

Then you can add assignments and see all student creations in one place instead of clicking on each assignment in Google Classroom!

5 Ideas to Get Your Started with Canva for Education

1. Think-Pic-Share

I like to think of the things I ask students to do on Canva as a “Think – Pic – Share.”

Think – First, ask students to think about what they learned and find a way to summarize it. Being succinct and articulate is a very important 21st century skill and NOT one students do very well on their own. Teaching the art of concise writing –  that is still able to catch the readers attention – is not easy.  Learning how to do this is extremely valuable in today’s 140 character world.

Pic – Next, find a picture (at this point teach about creative commons) that is a good graphical summarization of what was learned. This is also a skill students don’t do well on their own. They want to choose crazy pictures that are not pleasing to the eye, or pictures that are not simple enough for a textual overlay.

Share – In my opinion, this is the most important step. Gone are the days where students turn in work that it is only seen by the teacher, graded and then returned. When students share their creations on something like a Padlet  or Flipgrid – the extended learning begins to take place. Once they are done and have shared their work…they look to see what others have turned in.  Students will compare their designs with the other students and  begin thinking about their thinking – or better yet thinking about their learning. It is a step we can not devalue – because it helps with metacognition and deeper understanding.

2. Use Canva for Education for Quick Reflections

Canva can be used as a quick reflection tool. What about a six word summary about what was just learned. I use it to teach thinking strategies like this one…an idea I garnered fromMaking Thinking Visible by Ron Ritchhart, You can use any of the thinking routines from this book and have them ready to go inside your assignments area - students can then quickly pick one they wish to use to unpack their thinking. 

3. Use Canva for Education for The Great Hook

Get kids excited about an upcoming unit – I like to use Canva to send out some kind of clue or hook using the Remind app or on Google Classroom. Sending out secret messages really helps to get the excitement going before a unit even begins.

4. Use Canva for Education for Collaborative Designing

Students can share a Canva with another student – and together they can work to make it better. It might be smart to make each Canva go through one other “student editors” or “Co-creators” eyes before being published.

5.Use Canva for Education for Six Word Summaries

Have students create six word summaries for chapters and ideas. Here students choose six words to summarize a person, event or idea. More on this strategy in The Google Infused Classroom.

No matter how you use it, Canva can be a great way to get kids thinking, using their voice and sharing their work!