Digital Literacies Through Canva: A Tool for Critical and Creative Thinking

[andrea_lunsford]

Kim Haimes-Korn is a Professor of English and Digital Writing at Kennesaw State University. She also trains graduate student teachers in composition theory and pedagogy. Kim’s teaching philosophy encourages dynamic learning and critical digital literacies and focuses on students’ powers to create their own knowledge through language and various “acts of composition.” She is a regular contributor to this Multimodal Monday academic blog since 2014. She likes to have fun every day, return to nature when things get too crazy, and think deeply about way too many things. She loves teaching. It has helped her understand the value of amazing relationships and boundless creativity. You can reach Kim at khaimesk@kennesaw.edu or visit her website: Acts of Composition

Why is digital literacy important for teachers and students? In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, digital literacy is a range of essential skills that help us navigate the digital world where we spend a significant amount of time.  Our students are continually immersed in online situations, making digital literacies an integral part of our teaching and learning.  They must learn how to communicate, critically analyze online content, and creatively use digital platforms in meaningful ways.

In their article, Digital Writing Across the Curriculum (2010), Hague and Payton define eight components of digital literacy: creativity, critical thinking and evaluation, cultural and social understanding, collaboration, finding and selecting information, effective communication, e-safety, and functional skills.” Even though students are engaged in these digital practices, we can expand our teaching to include practices in these skills along with the analysis of the cultural and ethical implications of digital literacy. 

Components of Digital Literacy (Hague & Payton, 2010, p19)I try to incorporate all of these practices into my curriculum design and have recently focused on functional skills. I always say, “I don’t teach tools; I teach digital intuition.” The reason I say this is 1) Tools change, 2) I like to give options for platforms and tool choices rather than prescribing a particular one, and 3) Digital intuition is a critical literacy skill that students only develop through “mucking through” and figuring it out on their own. It also teaches them research and reading skills as they independently seek out solutions and solve their own problems through articles, forums, and documentation. While I feel strongly about this approach, there are exceptions to this stance when we find tools that are so versatile and offer many possibilities that they open up possibilities rather than limit them. Recently, I have directly integrated some tools into my assignments and deliverables and found that they have the potential to create collaborative discussion spaces for problem-solving and extending students’ digital intuition.

Canva, a conceptual and visual design platform, is perfect for multimodal composing and enhancing a range of digital literacy skills. With its low learning curve and user-friendly interface, Canva requires minimal additional classroom instruction and is a vital resource for content creation. Canva’s mission is to “empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere.” Using visualization tools is also a marketable skill that students can take into professional contexts. This platform easily integrates with composition pedagogy throughout the writing process, from invention to drafting to delivery. And it’s free.

Applications of Canva in the Classroom  

Brainstorming and Invention

While Canva is often thought of as a tool for creating polished content, it also offers embedded components that help students with brainstorming, drafting, and collaboration. I introduce it to create storyboards, concept and mind maps, and planning documents (proposals).  The whiteboard tool encourages real-time collaboration and visual brainstorming techniques.

We can encourage Design Thinking as a problem-solving framework.  “Unlike other brainstorming methods⁠, design thinking uses empathetic observation to focus on human-centered needs first before diving into ideation.”

Data Visualization

Research is an important skill that we teach our students.  Data visualization brings research to life as students take their research data and create infographics, charts, and graphs, giving them visual ways to represent their work.  Canva provides an abundance of templates for students to create impactful visual arguments that transcend traditional text-only documents.

Microcontent

Our students interact with microcontent regularly as they surf the internet and participate in social media. Canva offers many possibilities for students to create microcontent for academic, personal, and professional purposes. Through community engagement and service-learning projects, I have students create content such as memes, reels/videos, posters, flyers, promotions, and newsletters for professional organizations. I teach students about the ethical use of images, but Canva offers thousands of copyright-free images that students can use in their work. Additionally, digital storytelling and comic strips provide creative avenues for expression.

Presentations

Canva provides a variety of templates for creating engaging presentations, such as pitch decks, proposals, and presentations.  Students can present research, collaborative projects, marketing plans, and media kits, among others.  Check out (and share with students) their beginners guide to Creating Engaging Presentations.  Students can also present their work and learning through digital portfolio templates to showcase their work.

Educator Resources

Canva has also done a good job of providing resources for teachers and students.  They have resources specifically for educators to create lesson plans, presentations, and pedagogical tools (see 10 Ways to Take Your Lessons to the Next Level with Canva). Teachers can create interactive polls and surveys to evaluate student engagement and learning. You will find an expansive educator community that shares pedagogical perspectives, classroom practices, and samples such as book covers, literary quote books, and narrative maps.

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Although this post focuses on Canva, many other tools are available for students to explore. However, Canva’s versatility makes it particularly effective for practicing a wide range of digital literacy skills within a single platform. For more ideas, The NCTE Definition of Literacy in A Digital World offers a specific breakdown of digital literacy skills and ways to apply them in the classroom. To this list, we also need to add strategies and ethical components of AI.  As students move into professional contexts, they will adapt and expand these skills with more advanced options and new rhetorical contexts. As the definition of digital literacy continues to expand, teachers play a crucial role in helping students navigate new technologies, create meaningful content, and engage thoughtfully in the digital world.