Thoughts on teaching, technology, learning and life in an era of change.
 
Mark Pearson and Comic Life
September 24th, 2007

This evening I received a pleasant surprise in my In Box. Mark Pearson of plasq software had written an email asking if plasq, creators of Comic Life, could link to my Comic Life workshop page. They were also after examples and ideas for a future education site focused upon the software. I have promised to supply the Plasq team with some ideas.

Comic Life is an excellent software application. This is not a paid advertisement I should add. What can Comic Life allow you to do? Comic Life allows you to drag and drop your digital photographs, scanned photographs, drawings and even still video captures into a comic book page template. You can drag word and thought balloons on to the template and create as many comic book pages as you wish. There are a diverse range of page templates and styles to draw from in the creation of your project. You can publish to the web, create images and even produce a movie. It exports to iWeb as well.

Personally and professionally, the thing that strikes me about Comic Life is the fact that students can bring inanimate objects, such as a brick, to life. They can give feelings and thoughts to objects as diverse as light bulbs and bullets. This can be a medium for very powerful messages within a framework that is seamless. Comic Life as a tool does not get in the way of the message. Students, and teachers, can begin to express the message rapidly. This software empowers students. Many other software tools are clunky whether they be web development, video or graphic applications. Comic Life is not clunky.

I like to get to know a tool, such as Comic Life, well and then I explore the specific knowledge, skills and attitudinal outcomes of various teaching disciplines to see how the tool can be appropriately matched to specific outcomes. Different tools match different outcomes. Comic Life lends itself to many applications across many teaching and learning disciplines.

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