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Hi, my name is Grace Nedza and throughout this semester, I've been working with the digital tool
Venngage. So Venngage is a tool kind of online to make charts, infographics, graphs, presentations,
banners. Basically, you can make anything you can make like Instagram story stuff or basically anything.
And so there is a free option in which you can use or you can subscribe to a premium plan where you get
some extra things and just kind of like the bigger experience. And definitely it is as place where you can
express your creativity through technology and kind of make some of your visions come true because,
like, you can basically create anything you want, however you want.

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So some highlights of Venngage, I noticed while working with it is it's very easy to use. The learning
curve is very small, like they have a tutorial which kind of takes you through each tool. And it is very easy
to navigate, very user friendly. They also have pre-designed templates, which I thought was one of the
best parts about it because it does like I'm a student and I'm always looking for things to kind of save me
time. And when they already have a whole color scheme and like text boxes mapped out like that saves
you a lot of time and it already looks professional because professionals created that template.

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And another part that I really like about Venngage is it definitely improves organization because like I
said, they have pre mapped out things. You kind of have a nice flow going in, like one of the examples I'll
show you a little later. Like, it's kind of a flow chart which made me like thinking like help me keep steps
in place. Also, a great aspect they have that I found was they have an online chat with a representative
that you can talk to or like those emails that you can talk to professionals about just to kind of help you
out. You can even ask them, do you think this looks good? Like there's a lot of room for help But I feel
like if you don't even need to use it that much because it is so easy to use. But some challenges that I
found while using Venngage is some templates and like additions to like your design that you want to
add are not available for the free plan. So you can only like put a certain amount of pictures into yours
with the free, which is kind of difficult sometimes, but you can, like, work around it.

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Another challenge was that I only allowed you to create five designs so you can only make five things
and then you'll have to start deleting other your old ones to make new ones, which kind of is not the
best, because like, if you want to keep everything that you have done, it's just hard. And I thought the
biggest challenge of it was you cannot share or export your files with just the premium plan Like you
can't download them as a PDF or anything, which is kind of a challenge. Like you can click a preview and
like get the full design. So like, if you would just screen sharing, like you could definitely share away, but
you can't, like, export it, which I thought was the biggest challenge I like, especially if educators want to
use it and like print it out for their classroom, that would be something that they would run into. That
would be a big inconvenience. So here we have like my own personal use of Venngage, like some of the
things I do with it. So no one on the far left was for my math class and like, it was kind of a lot of steps
and like, you have to remember it. So I made this on during the chapter, like you told me, study for my
tests, which I thought, like this is the one that kind of helped me organize because it has a flow and like
it made me remember. And then another semester checklist I love, like making like checklists and
keeping me kind of organized.

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So I thought this was a great tool because, like, it was fun to make and also like, well, making it I was
kind of like running through everything in my mind, and kind of reminding myself of what I did and like,
helped me get more organized, which is definitely a plus for me because I like to stay organized. And
then the next one on the top corner, that was for my TI: religions of the world. And it was kind of just
broken down. it's going to help me study for my final because those are like the main five religions we
learned. And so I just kind of some facts and like the main areas we focused on. So it's broken down
nicely. In another aspect I really like about it is that it compares everything like right next to each other
and keeps everything in one place.

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So some possible educational uses of Venngage I thought could be like posters for classrooms, just like
fun design aspects presentations for lectures, paper checklist for students. Kind of like the one I just
showed you that I did visual aids and projects like I actually know some people who used it in school and
they used it as a project and it was a group project. I thought it was like a really great dynamic. And they
told me it was great experience. It's like they had so much creativity and could just kind of do whatever
they wanted with it.

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So I think that's would be a great thing. Like, give your students. And I thought Venngage aligned with
my professional identity and like my beliefs pretty well, because there is so much flexibility that students
kind of see what they want to do. Is there more of a visual there that you put more pictures in, But if
they look reading and like seeing the words, they can add more text. So I thought there is definitely a
great aspect where it allows for students to kind of have their own path and kind of choose what works
best for them, which I think is really important that each student kind of like finds something that's good
for them and how to learn and how they can make their learning experience more about them and kind
of like more. Specific to their learning style. And then I thought another great way that it connects to me
is it encourages students to use their creativity in a fun way.

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I think learning definitely should be fun for the students and definitely should be kind of engaging and
like not just sitting there reading a hundred words over and over again. Like, I think this is a great way
for you to learn. First thing is to learn while doing it, because I feel like almost. With Venngage you are
learning everything twice because you're looking first. You have to like look at your notes and see what
you want to put in there. And then when you're putting it in and typing it like that's kind of ingraining
into your brain, too. And then, like, when you're looking at it after your finished product, like, I feel like
there's so much learning and like kind of like repetition that it definitely does help. And it is a fun way. It
is fun to pick colors and fonts and everything. So I definitely think it adds and will create a great
environment for like classroom settings.

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So overall, I would give Venngage a three point five out of five stars. I think it is very versatile and then
it's a great tool that can do so many different things. So you can kind of just like depend on one tool
instead of like five, for example. I definitely like the creativity part that they do have predesigned
templates, but also like you can mix and match and like make your own, too. So I definitely like that part,
too.

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But the reason I probably give it like a one point five took away one point five stars is that it is hard to
export. Like if I wanted to share those with people, I can really only give them the link to look at it. I can't
export it, create a PDF and then like go and print it out. I can't. It was just hard and I feel like it would be
hard for teachers to do it too. I definitely think that's something that would make the premium
subscription like definitely more appealing. It's the whole export. But overall, I would definitely
recommend for people, just anyone, students, teachers. But I definitely think everyone should definitely
give it a try and see how it works for them, because I feel like it definitely helped me. And yeah, so
definitely go check out that gauge if you've never seen it and let me know what you think. And I hope
you liked hearing about what I had to say about it. Thanks so much for listening.