Comics in education:
The potency of the picture story is not a matter of modern theory but of anciently established truth. Before man thought in words, he felt in pictures… It’s too bad for us “literary” enthusiasts, but it’s the truth nevertheless, pictures tell any story more effectively than words. (Sones, 1944, p. 239)
Comics as an educational tool has held the attention of teachers and academia for quite some time now. Coming from a tool to provide a non-animated entertainment to an age where movies are being based on such hit series, comics is a serious multi-million dollar business now. And, all the adulation is well deserved, comics fulfill the inherent ability of humans to visualize something in a better fashion and retain it for a longer period of time.
In Hutchinson’s (1949) experiment with a curriculum built around Puck – the Comic Weekly, 74% of teachers surveyed found comics “helpful for motivation” (p. 244), while 79% claimed comics “increased individual participation” (p. 244). One teacher even complained that comic books made “learning too easy” (Hutchinson, 1949, p. 244). When DC Comics, Thorndike, and Downes introduced their Superman language arts workbook to classrooms, they reported “unusual interest” (Sones, 1944, p.233) among the students, which “presented the annoying difficulty of causing the youngsters to complete a whole week’s task in one evening” (Sones, 1944, p. 233).
Here’s a snippet:
The source:
http://www.toondoo.com/View.toon?param=4
Tags: academia, comics, DC Comics, Downes, education, Hutchinson's motivation, literary, movies, superman language, teachers, Thorndike, tools, toondoo, visualize, youngsters
Hi Pictualize,
Interactive web comics are a great way to inspire and motivate students to learn. If you’re interested in creating comics online, we invite you to check out Pixton.com.
You can design every aspect of your character, and articulate it into any pose you want. All you have to do is click-and-drag to change or reposition any part of it – the creative and artistic possibilities are endless!
Share with others, post to blog with our widget or remix comics to add your own twist. Read comics in over 40 languages, with our automatic translation by Google. Our language filtering system helps make Pixton a fun for all. Sign-up is free!
We welcome you to try it and tell us what you think.
thanks,
Clive
Creator of Pixton – Interactive Web Comics/a>
Hi Clive
Pixton seems a fabulous idea, something which we have been imagining too!
It would be our pleasure to check out your service and we would love to keep in touch with you. Perhaps, work together at some point of time!
Thanks for putting in the effort to communicate.
Warm regards,
The Pictualize Team
Hi there,
You really have a cool idea going, and I am thrice-thrilled even more to see that you guys are from India!
We are from India too. We started off about two years ago, at our company in Chennai.
I have seen similar offerings from CommonCraft and XPlane, but I am sure you have some secret sauce all ready to wow your audience.
ToonDoo has always been looking forward to working together with other innovators, and bringing collaborative solutions to the teacher community. We would love to hear from you on what you think we can do together!
Do write to us at toondude@toondoo.com .
Rajendran.
ToonDude from http://www.jambav.com
And, oh yeah, like Clive above says, Pixton is good too, but we’d suggest you give both a fair try and decide for yourselves!