Comics

I will start off by saying that I am not much of a reader of comics so this task was a challenge for me. The students at my school are big fans of graphic novels so the idea of allowing students to create a comic is very appealing. On makebeliefscomix.com (http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/How-to-Play/Educators/) the ideas for incorporating comics into the classroom is full of great ideas but are more of an ongoing project that students would need several days to complete. Students coming into the library would only have a limited amount of time to work on a task like this. It took me over an hour to complete mine! For library application purposes, it could be a project GT students complete for their yearly project. I also can imagine it being an activity that middle school students would enjoy doing as a technology library lesson. An understanding of story elements and summarization can be demonstrated through the creation of a comic strip.

My first attempt at a comic was on toondoo.com and I will say that I found it very easy to use. There are many options for customization and it was fun to play around with the characters, positions, emotions, backgrounds, etc. After doing a search in my school library today for books to put in a presidential election display, I ran across a book with a humorous title. I decided to include that book in my comic. (It may be hard to see, the book is called The Election Day Disaster)

Next I visited makebeliefcomix.com and appreciated the simple start up without the need for creating an account. After all the custom features on toondoo, I found the options available on makebeliefcomix.com to be a little disappointing. The lack of options could prove beneficial in a classroom environment because students wouldn't spend hours perusing all the features. There simply aren't that many options to look through. My feelings for the options however are summed up in the comic itself.

After several attempts to open Pixton, I finally was forced to give up. My computer's malware wouldn't allow me to open the site so I searched for another option and stumbled upon the delightful Storyboard That. The options available for customization are outstanding. I was able to start right away with no registration and it was incredibly simple to use. I can see this being a website I would recommend to teachers. Perhaps calling it a storyboard instead of a comic might open their eyes to the possibilities of teaching characters, setting, problem, solution, etc. Here's what I was able to produce in just about 10 minutes.

I was impressed with the ability to change everything. I was even able to adjust the lighting in the windows in the first library scene. There are hundreds of characters to choose from, I just selected the same one each time and changed the colors of her clothes, hair, skin, eyes, etc. to show the customization. Storyboard That was a fun find!

Comics would be a fun edition to makerspace. We have students who have ongoing physical projects, this could be ongoing as well, just online. I can foresee it would appeal to students who are incredibly creative, but might not be able to show it in conventional ways.