Pixton Comics
I attended a Pro D on Pixton Comics and was very impressed by the strong presentation and the 360 rotational capabilities for characters that this program offered in the elementary setting.
Pros
- Students create their own Avatar to identify with.
- As open ended as the teacher wished for the class to create comics.
- Ability to scaffold learning with an option to set assignments that are self designed or drawn from a bank.
- A framework of characters and settings allowed for quicker completion for students to see results.
- Choice of expressions and 3D movement created a huge level of student engagement.
- Ability to use text or not made it more accessible to those with specific learning needs.
- An option for using rubrics as a means to assess.
- All cartoons get approved by the teacher before they get published, with the ability to return them to the student with comments or edits.
- Within the student gallery the rest of the class can enjoy the work of the group with the ability to comment on each other’s work.
- All comments have to get teacher approval before they get published.
- Students can message you too if they have questions or concerns.
- Students can log in outside of school if they have access.
- Students loved this program!
Cons
- The site costs money and requires a license.
- There is a time commitment on the teacher to manage the site so that publishing gets done.
- There is a limit to characters and backgrounds.
I have used Pixton for the past two years and trust that is an option for the next school year. One of my students knew how much I enjoyed Yoga and he gifted me his cartoon design:
Petra,
I took a peek at this last week, and love the use of course terminology in your cartoon!
I wish there was a free trial with this program, as it would be neat to ‘play’. It would be a great way to show learning of a concept, and get at higher level thinking.
Thanks for sharing!
Doni
You should email Clive, the owner and explain you were at UBC with me- I am sure he would give you a trial time to explore the potential.
Thanks for your interest.
Petra
Great presentation, Petra. I think there is a very powerful literacy component to using graphic and texts together. In the beginning, students can become frustrated with drawing, especially when their drawings do not look like photographs. When you remove that aspect of graphic difficulty, it opens up the possibility for engaging with pictures and words. Later, as a developmental piece, students can try drawing their own elements, maybe even within the structure of an existing graphic – ie. they draw themselves into the architecture of the cartoon. Or better yet, take a photography of their classroom and then draw themselves as an overlay onto the photo. Many possibilities for text and image to generate language use.