This week I have been researching Comic Creator websites because I want create a comic with my class, but our school does not have Macs, so I couldn't use Comic Life. I finally found this great site called Pixton, which is free and very easy to use to create comics.
I think this is an amazing Web 2.0 tool because students can either use pre-made comics that they just fill in or they can create their own comics from scratch. Even the customizable comics are super easy to use and you can still choose from hundreds of characters, backgrounds, props, colors etc to really help create your own, professional looking comic. What is also really cool is that if your school likes this site, they can subscribe to it and then your students can share their comics with each other and then comment on each other’s comics.
I am planning on using this site for a project my students are doing on King Arthur. I am going to give them each one literary device and one component from the King Arthur Unit we have been discussing, and then the students must create their version of the legend, including both of their assigned elements. So for example, one student might get “similes” and “jousting”, so somewhere in their comic they must have a simile and an example of jousting. I think this is a great way to update the King Arthur Unit they were doing last year, where all they did was research their elements online and they create a journal where they discussed their elements. I am in love with Pixton and have been playing with it all weekend. I hate to say it, but Comic Life might have some serious competition. It is funny, I have been previewing Pixton with the librarian at our school, and she said she was worried because the comics can take so long to make and she was worried the students would want to do that much work. So, I agreed that it took a long time to sort of figure Pixton out, but that I had so much fun doing it, and she said “Ya, it was so fun, I didn’t even care it took me hours to finish!” This is the exact response I am hoping I will get from my students.
References
Pixton Comic Inc. (2008-2009). Pixton: No drawing necessary. Retrieved on November 15, 2009 from http://pixton.com/
You should share this with Chuck Mills. He found a free comic tool as well - Comic Strip Creator. I would love to hear how this went with your students!
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