Cartoons and Comics SHSU Assignment for LSSL 5391

 Cartoons and Comics

Cartoons and Comics are  such a fun and innovative way of teaching. Students already love to draw and create some sort of cartoon figures. I believe our students would be ready to integrate technology and the skills they have and create their own comics for any specific lesson whether it be in a library setting or in their own classroom. Teaching students these different applications is going to allow them to venture into their imagination. 

1. MakeBeliefsComix http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/

This website was the hardest comic maker that I experienced. It took me a while to look at the different templates and to actually create one. I had to keep adding, deleting, or changing up some aspects of it so it could work. I feel it was not so user friendly. It did have a lot of pre-made writing prompts in a comic form that writing teachers could use. It also had many other examples that could be used. I didn’t like that I could not easily just add text to the boxes. Also, the character selection was not so nice and you could not customize your character like in the other comic creator sites. To me, there was not a lot of variety to create a good comic. You are able to save, print, or email the comic once you are logged into your account. Maybe students would navigate this site better and like the different colorful aspects of it, but I personally wouldn’t use it to teach teachers or students about comics. 

2. Fotojet https://www.fotojet.com/features/misc/photo-comic.html

Fotojet was my second favorite website to create comics. It did not have a big variety, but it did have pre made templates that allow you to click and upload either your personal photos or photos from the web. It also allows you to add clipart images and text to the photos. The layouts that are provided allow users to choose templates that you must insert about 2--3 photos to some and  others that allow for about 7 photos . Students would be able to use this site to create their own comics. The saving/ downloading part of it was my favorite. It was very easy to just download the photo and it saves and opens up fast as a PNG to your computer. That is a great aspect of this site. 

3. Pixton https://edu.pixton.com/educators

Pixton was my favorite application to create a comic. Creating an account was not hard at all. I absolutely loved the ease of it and how many resources there were. I first clicked on create and it allowed me to create a comic maker, avatar maker, classrooms, staff photos, and content packs. It also had a tab of resources with lesson ideas and so much interactive content to use. I clicked “create” to create one from scratch. The different features were background, characters, objects, words, faces, and so much more. It looks so high-tech and colorful. It was so fun and easy to edit and I had no trouble. Everything moved with ease and I was not having a hard time at all to create a comic. I also feel being able to create your own avatar to your liking is my favorite part about this. Students would love this application and they will be able to use it with so much ease. Unfortunately, you aren’t able to save or download the comic, but you can just use the snipping tool to crop out the comic picture! Can’t wait to use this with my students soon. 

Pixton would be my top choice to create a comic, it is just an amazing application!

Conclusion:

I plan  to create some google slides with videos and examples on how teachers can create these comics. I will also input some examples of different ways these comics can be incorporated in all subjects. This can be used for all grade levels and teachers can then teach students how to use the applications in their lessons.