Hey guys! I'm extremely sorry for not updating in a really long
time. I have been busy studying in the first half of 2020 and I just finished
Grade 11 a few months ago. With my main focus on academics, I didn’t find any
interesting topics to write for my blog, thus the lack of updates. Now that I
am on a short holiday from academics, I have time to join some interesting
online events.
One of the online events that I joined was an online infographic design
course brought by Tante Greysia Susilo, a design lecturer at Pradita University.
I don't know whether she has been planning to open this course for some time or
did she open this course because of something that happened in instagram.
There were mean comments from ignorant people about homeschoolers
in an IG’s post and comment section. There were a lot of different kinds
of negative comments, belittling homeschoolers’ mentality, lifestyle, and
social life. What annoyed me was the fact that they were all untrue and it was
posted publicly on social media. A lot of people could get the wrong image
about us! This made me momentarily thought about arguing with them online with
my homeschooler friends. Luckily, I knocked some common sense into myself just
in time. The decision to argue was a foolish impulse and it would definitely
make things worse.
However, we felt all pent up. My friends and I, were at loss for what to do. We definitely
couldn't leave this alone. Luckily for us, we got an advice from Tante Grey
that the medicine to ignorance is education. By educating,we not only help them
understand, but also channel our negative energy into something positive!
One of the ways of educating others is through infographics. Thus,
Tante Grey offered to teach us to make infographics. Our final project
would be making infographics which debunk misconceptions about homeschooler.
The online course took place in zoomland and lasted around 2
months. We met once a week, with a total of 18 homeschool teenage participants.
We were taught the basics of making a clear and interesting infographic: from
collecting ideas to clustering information. After every meeting, the students
were given a task to finish. Those who have finished the task would have their
results discussed in the next meeting. There weren't any strict deadlines, but
we were expected to finish them at a certain time, otherwise we would be left
behind!
First, Tante Grey taught us
the basics. There were a lot of simple details that could be easily overlooked
when making infographics, such as data placing. We often forget that we should
place our data according to how people usually read, which is from left to
right and up to down. Instead, we tend to put our data in areas where we think
they might look nice. Another thing about infographics is that there shouldn’t
be too many words. It should be quick and easy to read.
Then we were given our first task! Tante Grey started by creating a
mindmap with “Critiques Homeschoolers receive from the public” as the main
theme. The participants were asked to continue it with all the critiques we
know. Next,we were asked to pick a specific critique to focus on and make a
mind map of the solutions. We were advised to pick the critique that we receive
the most, as we would have more to say about it. I picked the topic of socialization.
It took me half of the day to create the mindmap, as I used google
drawings in google doc. I’m not familiar with it, so it took me a while to get
used to it. In addition to that, I made my mindmap with a lot of pictures.
These are proofs that I socialize with a lot of kids my age. As the pictures
are scattered in many different electronic files, it also took a long time to
find them. I was pretty happy that I advanced to the next step without much
critiques.
Once our mindmaps are done, the next task is to cluster or group all the data we made in the mindmap. Sometimes the topic is too broad and we had to narrow it down or choose a specific aspect of it to write about. While clustering, we also had to design our infographic. These two must be done at the same time to decide which data are the most important and choose the appropriate positions to put them on the infographic. I didn’t have any idea of how I should cluster all my data, so Tante Grey lent me a hand. She first asked me to divide my data into several categories, such as my academic and non-academic activities, my variety of activities or the frequency of my socialization. I originally chose to focus on analyzing the latter.
She then gave me examples of how I could divide my frequencies
into more categories, such as once a week, once a month, and once a year. She
also gave me a format of how my categories would look like in the infographic.
Once I have categorized all my data, all I had to do was put them
together. I used Canva, a free programme specifically for graphic design. I experienced
some difficulty while making the infographic.
First of all, I rarely make infographics and had little experience
in using programmes like Canva. Thus, I had some difficulty getting around.
Next, I couldn’t fit all the pictures using my format. Therefore, I decided to
change the format. I think I did a pretty good job at it, but Tante Grey said that I had to review my data placement again. I
told her my problem with the pictures, which she replied with an infographic of
her own XD. She used the same format with the same amount of pictures, thus
proving that it’s possible. Following the examples of the placement of her picture, I finally managed to finish my
infographic.
Next we had to ask for feedback. We had to show our infographic to
2 kinds of people: those that are familiar with homeschool and those who aren’t. I chose my parents for the first and my ex-school friends for the second. When asking for feedback, I had to
first tell them the message I wanted to send through this infographic. Next, I
had to ask if they received the message. Unfortunately, one of the reviewers
didn’t get it, but instead she thought I was telling about the variety of
activities I did for my socialization.
When I talked about this with Tante Grey, she agreed with my
reviewer’s point of view that my infographic seemed to lean towards the
variation more. She then showed me an infographic made by one of my coursemates, Vyel. I saw how his infographic
leans more to the frequency of socialization with the bar graph he put in his
infographic. Seeing the difference I decided to just change my title from
“Frequency of socialization” to “Variation of Activities for Socialization”
When most of us had finished our infographics, they are posted in
the instagram of my teen group @Teenspower.squad. As the infographics are
posted on social media, we hope that more people will be able to understand more
about homeschoolers. I think this infographic is also really useful when facing
ignorant people --- all we have to do is share these infographics as a reply to
their negative comments. As a person who isn't really into graphic design, I
found this course overall interesting. When I first started the course, I
thought that making an infographic is only about gathering information and
designing an aesthetically interesting charts. I never gave thought as what
made them enjoyable to read and look at. Through this course, I learned that there is more than just
pasting information on a template.
These are the end projects of mine and some others!
