Rip Mix Feed

• What motivated you to explore the appliction(s) you used?

I originally was going to use Pixton to create a comic because I have used it before.  As I went to login under the educational license that I had originally signed up for, I realized my 30 day trial had expired.  I was then prompted to pay.  So, I decided to try ToonDoo.

• What have you attempted to achieve in your project?

I attempted to re-create a conversation I had with a student a few weeks ago.  I wanted to show some students an example of some of my former student’s artwork.  The only picture I could find was one that was on my Instagram account. I showed them the picture briefly on my smartphone, and next thing I know it they were all trying to follow me on Instagram.  What a mistake! I was amazed at how they were able to remember my Instagram name even though they had only seen it for a matter of seconds.

I overheard some of them talking about how many followers they had on their accounts.  Many of their numbers were in the hundreds.  Clearly they weren’t close friends or even acquaintances with most of these people,  but they all seemed to give social value to those students who had more followers.

• What are the particular affordances (for knowledge mobilization, learning, etc) of the form of production you’ve selected in relation to previous forms of production we’ve considered in this course?

It is fairly easy to use and gives you many options to choose from.  I think it would be a great activity to use with my students as a way to show their understanding of a particular topic that we had discussed in class.  The first activity that came to mind was making a political cartoon.  Rob Ford is a topic that I think the students could have some fun with.

• What are the potential drawbacks?

Some of the drawbacks are that there are certain features that you don’t have access to on the free version. But, for the most part it seems like it would be a valuable tool to use with my students.

Mike