Experienced teacher and tech visionary Dan Roberts has just come up with another practical ICT ideas to use in the classroom. This week he’s discovered a tool which allows you to create charts and diagrams to share online.

If you want to draw a flow chart or other special diagram then Gliffy is a great tool for you. I used it this week in my lessons as an optional piece of homework. The SWOT diagram below was created by one of my students to review where they were with their learning before our end-of-unit test.

Gliffy allows you to create five diagrams for free per month, if you want more then you’ll have to stump up for a monthly subscription ($4.95 per user). Alternatively, if you don’t want to save your diagrams but just export them, then you can do many more for free.

Once the diagram has been created you can then share it using the web address generated so that students and teachers can access the graphics anywhere.

How to use Gliffy in the classroom

1. Get students to create their own Gliffys as a homework task and then the whole class can look at each other’s answers and leave comments about them.

2. In class, why not collaboratively create a Venn diagram and then share the web address so all students have access to it, they can then save it or print it out to put in their books.

3. Students can create online flowcharts together whilst at home; so maybe set a homework task for a pair of students to work together on.

4. Get students to use the floor plan design template to design their own classroom, or their own bedroom as a learning space. This is a creative homework idea which will get students thinking about the best conditions for learning.

If you have a go at using this site then please leave a comment telling us a little bit more about how you used it and what the impact on learning was in your classroom.