Comics for learning
April 25th, 2005 | by Tim Wilson |The success of Frank Miller’s Sin City in theaters has brought the comic book genre into the spotlight. As a former Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and Daredevil fan I was quite intrigued when I heard about Comic Life on the MAKE:DIYcast podcast this morning. Comic Life is a Mac OS X application that takes photos from iPhoto and lets you drag and drop your way to a comic book. Check out the Comic Life gallery for some examples.
This software has such amazing potential with kids. Can you imagine how geared up students would be to use this? Heck, I had a blast creating my first comic. (I created it very quickly. Please forgive the rampant silliness.) Who wouldn’t be motivated to do a writing project this way? Given that iPhoto can be used to manage any kind of image and not just digital photos, my brain is racing to think of uses for this software. Here’s the first off-the-top-of-the-head list:
- Science students create lab reports combining digital photos of an experiment with hand drawn or computer generated graphics explaining what’s going on. They could include their data analysis right in the “comic.”
- History students find some period costumes and re-enact a historically significant event.
- Students use Comic Life to create a storyboard of a video project including some sample dialog and key visual elements.
- Combine digital images and hand-drawn graphics in the same panel to send characters back in time or create giant ladybugs that can crush cars.
- Students create a comic book that explains their family history and combines old and new photos.
This software would be a great addition to the student laptops in our one-to-one computing project. The cost is very reasonable (especially for site licenses) and the potential is huge. This is easily the most fun I’ve had with a piece of software in a long time. If you’re reading this and think of a good project idea, post it in the comments. Let’s see if we can get a good list going.
3 Responses to “Comics for learning”
By Gordon Shupe on Apr 27, 2005 | Reply
Hey Tim,
I am enjoying your blog-kudos!
This software does look like a lot of fun - and I can see ton’s of places we can use it. Visual inventory of common items that language teachers use for immersion language skills, tests (such as geography, science lab glassware, lab equipment), visual instructions for the steps on an art project or Vocational Technology, Pictures of Earth Science events, order and label, oh my!!!
I really like your idea of storyboarding video projects!
gs
By Tim Wilson on Apr 27, 2005 | Reply
I showed the app to a bunch of teachers last night. Many of them got just as excited about it as I have been. I talked to one of the developers via Skype yesterday and was encouraging him to promote the educational uses of Comic Life more. He mentioned that he was going to create a part of their Web site to promote sharing of lesson ideas, etc. I think we will hear a lot more buzz about this app in the coming weeks and months.