When I was choosing which tool to use I had a difficult time. “Oh how should I tell my digital story. Let me count the 50 ways”. Initially I was going to try a timeline in which I told my life story and then in turn was going to get my students to create. But I changed my mind and decided to try something that relates to my LMS course: a fractured fairy tale. If I had time I would add a third module (which I might do after this course) in which I would get my students to explore alternate ways to tell their fractured fairy tale story that they wrote in module 2.

Once I choose this idea, I explored several tools. First I tried xtranormal. I was intrigued by this program as I have seen many samples of it in my other courses and wanted to try it myself. However, I found I was restricted by needing to “buy” more XP points in order to make the one I wanted. Onto the next tool.

Then I tried animoto, but only 30 seconds was free. Not long enough.
So instead of animating my story, maybe I’ll try the cartoon route. I have used toonlet before, but I wanted more than 3-4 panels, which lead me to Pixton. I think this site is amazing (and I will be sharing it with many colleagues). I was able to sign up through Facebook, but could use an email also. Also it was free. Not restricting free like xtranormal or animoto but almost completely free. It was highly customizable (everything from facial expressions to clothing colours to how big the hips were). It also made me change my story a bit. I needed to add more dialogue and change text. I even included a panel with no text at all. I think this would get students to explore many ways to tell a story. Also I think you could use this when trying to teach dialogue. Also, I ended up breaking up my story into 3 parts, but I also had to be concise in order to not have it too long (to make full comic book it costs money, but a page at a time is free).


This site allows for so much creativity and expression. You can also be very collaborative and sharing on social networking sites (like facebook, twitter, etc or in email). You can even embed it using a variety of formats.
I will definitely use this site again and was more than pleased on my outcome. (Maybe I should be a Pixton promoter because I think I have talked to everyone I know about this site!) I wish I had more time to add this to module 3 of my Elements of Story unit.


My comic is available on my digital story page .

Posted: 07|13|11 at 2:44 pm. Filed under: Uncategorized.
Comment | Trackback