Cartoons and Comics

This week, I looked at some different sites where users can create cartoons or comics in a pretty simple way! Kids love toonbooks and comics, so I knew it would be a good skill to learn in order to reach students. While it is not something I have ever been a fan of even as a child, comics do present information in an easy-to-read and straight-to-the-point approach. I used three different sites to create the comics and have posted a few examples below.

After creating a budget proposal in one of my other classes, I chose to create a comic that went with that. My proposal suggested getting iPads for students to check out and take home since the school where I work is very low-income and resources are scarce for students outside of school. If the proposal were approved, I would print this comic to display in the library or post it to social media to advertise the new option for checking out the iPads. This comic was created using www.toondoo.com and was very simple to design. I like how easy this website was to navigate, but the characters and themes took a little while to load. I found a place to save the comic, but it did not have the option for saving it straight to your computer. I eventually just took a snippet of the comic so that it could be copied into this blog post.

When looking at the ways that educators can use cartoons or comics in their classroom or library (Zimmerman, 2016), I loved the idea of using comics for students who are learning English as a second language. I thought that one option would be to print out a comic with blank speech bubbles for students to practice writing conversations between characters. At first, I was really excited about using www.MakeBeliefsComix.com but felt really limited with the options. I was instantly excited about using their animated characters but then realized it was only a couple which had this capability. The backgrounds were really limited and most were in black-and-white. I preferred the speech bubbles on ToonDoo because they allowed for adjusting the speech bubble's size whereas this website did not. The comic was much easier to save, but I preferred ToonDoo after using both.

The last toon site that I used was called Pixton. It was instantly engaging because it offered a quick tutorial after logging in for the first time. The user-friendly format made this site very appealing to educators because it even had the option for creating comics for lessons plans or for student use. Pixton was my favorite site to use by far. I enjoyed being able to move the arms, adjust facial expressions, and even change the skin tones of my cartoons! The options were very open-ended and cartoons were fun to create. For saving the comic, there were many options to post to social media, save as an embed link, and share via email. When I tried to download the comic as a picture, it required a premium account. It would be simple to use the snipping tool or a screenshot if needed. I used the embed link to post the comic below.

TooDoo:
www.toondoo.com

Pixton:
www.pixton.com

Make Belief Comix:
www.makebeliefcomix.com

Using Comics in Education:
http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/How-to-Play/Educators/