Comics and Cartoons

This comic was created using makebeliefscomix.com and for the first-time user it was very easy to use and navigate.  When it came to saving that was a bit more difficult.  On this site, users can only print or email final copies of their comics.  To save for future editing this site recommends that your computer have a graphic program to be able to edit later. There was enough variety to make the comics interesting and creative.  I feel that students would be able to pick up the skills necessary to create something great on this site.

This comic was created at toondoo.com, I found this site easy to navigate as well. For this site, you need to create an account and the user can save and edit their comics. Toondoo allows its users to make books and comics.  The save options were a bit trickier, the user must download the finished toondoo and there is no share or embed options.  The comic maker was simple to create and use.  Students would definitely be able to use this comic maker. It had many options for layouts, character, settings, and props.

This comic was created at pixton.com.  The comics were easy to create at this site too.  This site had better options for saving created comics.  This site allows the user to download, print and save it to the site to edit at later date.  Pixton comics can be embedded into blogs or another media which is very user friendly.  I don’t feel that students would have difficulty using this comic maker either.  Pixton has many layouts to choose from.  You can make comic strips, story boards, character maps, mind maps, timelines and it allows you to create a photo story. 

Suggestions for using comics and cartoons in the classroom or library:

•        Character Building
•        Vocabulary
•        Writing Autobiographies
•        Collaboration between students for projects
•        Creative writing
•        Comic Diaries
•        Classroom theme tie-ins
•        Create instruction manuals
•        Research
•        Converting Stories
•        Reflection Tool

For me I would choose Pixton as my comic maker because I liked the layout options for educational use.  It seems to me to offer more variety in the creating department for example, the character maps for character studies and timelines for chronological order.

Resources:

S. Hendy, Elearning Educator, Art and Multimedia Teacher at Education Queensland Follow. (2009, October 13). Tap Into The World Of Comics. Retrieved March 31, 2017, from https://www.slideshare.net/shend5/tap-into-the-world-of-comics

How to Play with MakeBeliefsComix.com. (n.d.). Retrieved April 01, 2017, from http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/How-to-Play/Educators/