Skip to main content

Cartoons and Comics

Let's look at cartoons and how they can be used in the library with students. I tried three different cartoon generating tools.

First, I created a little comic about reserving library books using ToonDoo.

ToonDo was fairly easy to use, but inserting text and changing the size was a little tricky. Saving was really easy. There was quite a bit of variety, but the quality of the pictures and backgrounds wasn't fantastic.

My second comic was created using Pixton.

What I liked about Pixton was that the graphic choices were really vibrant. The backgrounds were more fun than at ToonDoo. I made a cute little easy comic of a library joke. It was easy to save, but difficult to place the characters where I wanted.

Lastly, I used MakeBeliefsComix to make a 3rd comic strip.

I think MakeBeliefsComix was my favorite generator. I found the creation process to be the most intuitive using this tool.

I would use comics with my classes in several way. Many of the generators had ways to make longer comics, including graphic novels. I could use that with older grades at the end of a research project. They can make a graphic novel about their topic. In addition, comics are a fun way to communicate with students. QR codes that link to comics about library procedures can be posted around the library and can function as information stations when a student needs help and the librarian isn't readily available. I will also use comics as a fun way to interact with the parents and students on instagram, facebook and twitter.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bloom's Taxonomy for a Digital Age

Bloom's Taxonomy. One of the things we are constantly hearing in our school is the push for increased rigor in our classroom, as a result of the STAAR tests and others like it becoming more rigorous. We are told to push for higher order thinking and questioning from our students. One of the tools we use to look at how we can increase rigor is Bloom's Taxonomy. But some things about Bloom's don't translate exactly when we are talking about the digital age and the classroom or library. For example, remembering is the lowest piece of the triangle for Bloom's, but remembering looks different when you have instant access to a powerful computer that can use essentially limitless online resources to find answers. I've mentioned to my husband just how much more this and future generations will know about the world around them simply because they no longer have to remember everything they're interested in knowing. If I pass a historical marker for a place I haven...
7 comments
Read more

Podcasting

I'm pretty lucky when it comes to podcasting. My husband, the Chainmail Ninja, is a hobbyist podcaster and professional book narrator so we have quite a recording setup in our home office. He worked in radio for 10+ years so he does the production side of things as well as the recording. I've tossed around the idea of contributing on his podcasts, which are mostly about geek culture and hobbies, but haven't had time to put this plan in action. But for today's blog post, I went ahead and made some time to create a podcast using our equipment. There are three main steps to creating a podcast. First, is the planning stage. Some podcasters prepare using various methods. Some research their topics, but don't do any other prep and speak mostly off the cuff. Many podcasters create a notes page to make sure they hit all the points they want to. Others create detailed scripts for their podcasts. The second step is recording the podcast. This can be done using the inter...
4 comments
Read more

Bloggin' It Up.

I'm a huge blog reader. I love learning and reading about others' perspectives and I find blogs to be a great way to be entertained or educated. When you follow a lot of blogs like I do, you are going to need a feed reader, or you're going to spend a lot of time checking for new blog posts that aren't up yet, or missing great reads because you stop checking. Back in the day, I used Google's RSS feed reader, which I loved. But Google did away with it, so it was off to shop for a new one. I now use Feedreader, which you can find here . It's simple. It's been around for a long time and it gets high ratings from other users. I'm not that picky as long as interfaces are generally intuitive, and Feedreader is a simple, barebones, feed reader that works. Now, when I started out reading blogs, it was an extension of reading Live Journals. I'm not sure how many of you remember LJ and it's darker cousin, Dead Journal. I had accounts at both and wrote the...
6 comments
Read more